Using Shredded Paper for Coop Litter - As Good As Wood Chips?

[LaFleche]

I got lucky a friend was moving and gave me a good deal on a John Deere 1025R with loader and backhoe. First snow of the season coming this week, I am ready!

I want one too!!

 

[Wolfie2]

"My husband works at a bank and periodically brings home huge bags of clean cross-shredded paper (no cellophane, no staples). We have used this exclusively as bedding in our walk-in 8x10 coop for 11 years with no issues."

Before retirement, The place I worked would produce about a 30 gallon sack of shreds per month through our departments shredder. I asked if I could have it and explained what I would do with it. Was told it contained "confidential material" and had to be incinerated as per company policy. Even though it was shredded into 1/4 inch pieces LOL!

 

[BReeder!]

I read just 2 pages of this thread, so sorry if this was already brought up. Certain inks/toners as well as adhesives present in/on some of the paper and cardboard may be risky if ingested repeatedly as there may be harmful chemicals/compounds that can build up in the chickens' bodies over time and build up in your garden soil and produce after you take the bedding to the garden as compost.

That said, I do think that with proper sourcing of materials this is a great idea. It repurposes all that paper waste and helps keep a lot of carbon and nitrogen in the soil - methane from composting is an environmental issue to think about though. I too compost though and use open bins, but burying the soiled bedding may help with methane containment/reduction and feed your garden still.

Now how you get that much paper regularly without paying for it, that's my struggle. I have junk mail and such, but the large majority of it is cardstock covered in plastic film or wax. Do you use this too? Plastic film sounds like nasty stuff, but I'm wondering if waxed paper products are as nasty and if they break down.

 

[avjudge]

I've had my chickens in their new winter quarters for a week or a bit more now, and so far so good with the shredded paper (mostly brown cardboard boxes). The coop (for 6 hens) is 3' x 12' at the back of an open bay - like a stall but no front - in our barn. (The rest of the bay has storage bins for open hay bales & bedding on the right, my workbench on the left.)

I put a 1x12 across the doorway as a sill and currently have about 4" of the shreds in there. The one thing about the shredded cardboard & paper, at least as my microcut shredder makes it, is that it's very light and fluffy. The chickens seem to love the ease of scratching - right down to the floor to find scratch or spilled food! - and it generally seems to get filled back in by other scratching so I don't have exposed floor. But it does get kicked out, right over the sill - not a lot at all (the hardware cloth overlapping the sill does seem to bounce much of it back in) so it's not a problem (after all, the area has spilled hay all over already from measuring it out to feed the horses and llamas), but if I end up adding much more bedding I might add another board to make the sill higher. The sill boards drop in a slot so I can have a flat floor in the doorway for cleaning.

I'm also using the same bedding in the stall. I never got a winter run built for the chickens, so for now (no snow yet) I set up their poultry netting outside the back door with their summer tractor/coop inside, and they run down the aisle in the morning to go out, back to the pictured coop in the evening. But when snow comes, I figure I'll use the stall as an indoor run, and I've already had them in there for a day and parts of some other days as we set things up, and know they love scratching in the paper bedding there. It's more fun than the coop because, besides 4x the room (12' box stall = 24sf per chicken), there's leftover hay, and bits of llama and horse manure that we missed in cleaning, so lots of stuff to dig for.

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

I don't know about chickens, but I have used shredded paper with my rabbits. It is not as absorbent as pet bedding and starts to smell quicker than wood chips, but it could definitely work for someone who cleans cages every day.

I may try the shredded paper next time I run out of wood chips and pellet bedding.

 

[avjudge]

I don't know about chickens, but I have used shredded paper with my rabbits. It is not as absorbent as pet bedding and starts to smell quicker than wood chips, but it could definitely work for someone who cleans cages every day.

Yes, I've used pelleted paper litter for my cats and hated it - it smelled the 2nd day.

But smells really aren't a problem in the barn (or pasture) until the spring thaw. Then, pee-yuooo! (Is there a wrinkled nose emoji?)

 

[gtaus]

I am only on page 3 but I wanted to jump in here with my experience. My husband works at a bank and periodically brings home huge bags of clean cross-shredded paper (no cellophane, no staples). We have used this exclusively as bedding in our walk-in 8x10 coop for 11 years with no issues. No cardboard. It does NOT mat! It does not stink or breed mites or lice. It lasts a very long time because it wicks moisture out of the poop and then itself dries out. When we do clean the coop, which is rarely, we use a horse "apple" rake to scoop up the paper. After it's removed, there remains dry, actually dehydrated poop on the floor to be swept up with a broom.

Appreciate you adding your 11 years experience with using paper shreds to this thread. As I stated, this is the first winter for me trying paper shreds as deep litter in my coop. So far, I am very happy with the results and that is why I posted this thread.

It is good to know that normal shredded paper does not mat down. I thought maybe my shredded paper did not mat down because I also add in light cardboard (from cereal boxes, etc...) into the shred mix. Since I am making my shredded paper at home, I'll just continue to also shred the light cardboard and use it in the coop instead of filling up the landfill.

A big advantage to the paper shreds, as you mentioned, is that it breaks down really fast when in a composting environment. As I tell everyone, I bought composting chickens and the eggs are just a bonus. My new raised bed gardens this past summer exploded in production with a good mix of my chicken run compost mixed in the top layers. I plan on doing that again this spring with some fresh chicken run compost.

You mentioned that paper shreds are clean and easy to transport. I would like to add that since I make my paper shreds at home, I don't need to transport anything other than walking out a 13 gallon bag full of paper shreds to the coop in the backyard about every 2 weeks. No massive storage requirements and worry about litter getting damp and moldy (like with straw or hay). Good point on the mites. I don't have that problem here where I live, but I imagine that might be a big factor for some people.

Please feel free to correct anything I may have said incorrectly, based on your experience, because my experience with using paper shreds is basically only about 2 months old. Not a long record compared to your 11 years of using shreds.

Finally, let me add, that I don't know why I did not come upon using paper shreds earlier. For years I thought I could only use straw. Then I got into wood chips which worked great for me. But realizing that not everybody has access to free wood chips, I thought about using my home paper shreds in the coop to not only save money, but save on the amount of material that gets sent to the landfill. It's just a win-win anyway you look at it.

 

[gtaus]

In our experience, dust is not an issue with shredded paper. It quickly works its way to the floor of the coop, where it remains buried until cleaning day, to be swept up. A mask is a good idea!

That is what I was thinking, too. My wood chips deep litter had no dust, but when I started cleaning out the coop in the spring, I kicked up a big dust cloud and had to use a mask. Sounds like I had better be prepared with a mask when I clean out the paper shreds.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

That is what I was thinking, too. My wood chips deep litter had no dust, but when I started cleaning out the coop in the spring, I kicked up a big dust cloud and had to use a mask. Sounds like I had better be prepared with a mask when I clean out the paper shreds.

Yes, the dried poop and dust does go to the bottom of the pile, where it's not a problem most of the time because it's covered by the paper. But when you take the paper out, you are left with that dried poop and some fine dust, which is very easy to dispose of, but you would be wise to mask and possibly goggle while sweeping it out.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Appreciate you adding your 11 years experience with using paper shreds to this thread. As I stated, this is the first winter for me trying paper shreds as deep litter in my coop. So far, I am very happy with the results and that is why I posted this thread.

It is good to know that normal shredded paper does not mat down. I thought maybe my shredded paper did not mat down because I also add in light cardboard (from cereal boxes, etc...) into the shred mix. Since I am making my shredded paper at home, I'll just continue to also shred the light cardboard and use it in the coop instead of filling up the landfill.

A big advantage to the paper shreds, as you mentioned, is that it breaks down really fast when in a composting environment. As I tell everyone, I bought composting chickens and the eggs are just a bonus. My new raised bed gardens this past summer exploded in production with a good mix of my chicken run compost mixed in the top layers. I plan on doing that again this spring with some fresh chicken run compost.

You mentioned that paper shreds are clean and easy to transport. I would like to add that since I make my paper shreds at home, I don't need to transport anything other than walking out a 13 gallon bag full of paper shreds to the coop in the backyard about every 2 weeks. No massive storage requirements and worry about litter getting damp and moldy (like with straw or hay). Good point on the mites. I don't have that problem here where I live, but I imagine that might be a big factor for some people.

Please feel free to correct anything I may have said incorrectly, based on your experience, because my experience with using paper shreds is basically only about 2 months old. Not a long record compared to your 11 years of using shreds.

Finally, let me add, that I don't know why I did not come upon using paper shreds earlier. For years I thought I could only use straw. Then I got into wood chips which worked great for me. But realizing that not everybody has access to free wood chips, I thought about using my home paper shreds in the coop to not only save money, but save on the amount of material that gets sent to the landfill. It's just a win-win anyway you look at it.

There are so many reasons I would never use straw. Wood chips are nice, but so expensive, and not handy if you don't have a truck, as we do not. Paper just solves all our problems! I'm glad you are discovering the advantages of using it. Frankly, we have not found any "cons" about using it!