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

[Sally PB]

Update:

I had a small bag's worth of shredded paper, a mix of paper and cardboard. I put it in the nesting box.

They ate it. Harrumph.

It doesn't seem to have caused any harm, though, thank goodness.

 

[gtaus]

They ate it. Harrumph.

Maybe because it was the first time they saw shredded paper? IDK, I have never seen any of my chickens eat shredded paper, but then I dump it in by a 13 gallon sized kitchen garbage bag at a time. Unless I was there to watch them eat some paper, I would never know. At any rate, I don't think it will harm the chcikens and they would learn it's not tasty food, you would think.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I mix shredded paper in, but I do not like that the chickens track it out into the run and it finds its way into the yard. I think it is ok in small amounts for me, I also buy bales of hay and the occasional bag of wood chips.

 

[gtaus]

I mix shredded paper in, but I do not like that the chickens track it out into the run and it finds its way into the yard. I think it is ok in small amounts for me, I also buy bales of hay and the occasional bag of wood chips.

Well, I don't much like the unnatural look of shredded paper in my chicken run either. When I dump paper shreds into the run, I cover them with grass clippings or leaves, both to cover the looks of the colored paper and also to prevent them from blowing into the yard. The first time I did not cover the shreds, some of them blew onto the lawn. Not a big deal for me as I just mowed them up with my riding mower and collected the shreds in my grass clippings bags.

Also, I live in northern Minnesota, and my chickens don't go outside in the snowy run until spring. So, the paper shreds stay inside the coop. Also, I built my coop with the idea of having deep litter inside the coop. My litter base walls are 12 inches high to the bottom of the pop door. In the summertime, it would be difficult for shreds to blow out of the coop. I think both those factors make paper shreds for me a more viable option.

 

[Sally PB]

I just saw one pullet eating it, so IDK if others did or not. Shredded paper sure does add carbon bulk to the compost when I have a big load of chicken poop, though, so it has uses for me.

 

[gtaus]

I just saw one pullet eating it, so IDK if others did or not. Shredded paper sure does add carbon bulk to the compost when I have a big load of chicken poop, though, so it has uses for me.

Really, I cannot imagine any chicken eating very many paper shreds. Maybe picking up a piece or two to see what it is. But I have never seen any of my full grown hens give any interest in eating shreds. They know where their feed and water is and that I keep it available 24/7 for them.

But yeah, if shreds don't work directly as litter for the chickens, you can still use it in the compost bin as a carbon source. A better use for all the junk paper than sending it to the recycle center or landfill. Like I said, paper products used to make up the bulk of our garbage bags years ago. Now I shred most of our paper and cardboard, and that alone cuts dramatically in the number of garbage bags we generate over a year.

I was watching a YouTube video the other night, and the guy was talking/complaining about how long wood chips take to compost. Well, they do take a long time to break down and that is why I think they make such great dry deep litter inside the chicken coop. Wet paper shreds break down in almost no time - compared to wood chips - and should compost in weeks when I throw the shreds out into the chicken run compost system and let the rain sped up the composting. So far, the dry paper shreds are doing great as litter in my coop.

 

[Sally PB]

So far, the dry paper shreds are doing great as litter in my coop.

I might give it a try next spring, when I have some grass clippings or something to mix in with. Then I'll sit and watch to see if any of the birds actually does search it out and eat it.

 

[NatJ]

Update:

I had a small bag's worth of shredded paper, a mix of paper and cardboard. I put it in the nesting box.

They ate it. Harrumph.

It doesn't seem to have caused any harm, though, thank goodness.

Is it all gone from the nestbox, or just some missing?
Could they have thrown it on the floor, and mixed it into whatever else is there?

 

[TropicalBabies]

So glad to see a thread like this. Love what you are doing.
I have been using shredded paper for some years now- office/mail etc- for my nest boxes. I put 2" down then top w/ grass or alfalfa. The girls will adjust accordingly. I change their bedding often as I find fresh boxes keep the interest up and squabbles down. I usually have up and comings needing a safe place to lay so have a few areas with boxes. The frequently changed and free to me nesting materials then make it to my compost w/spills in and around coop and run. It just blends in to my woodchips and deep litter of coop and run or disappears in the garden or yard.
I have not done cardboard but think it brilliant and will add that to my stores. I'm wondering, with so many awesome shredders if you separate paper products and cardboard? If so, cardboard in your coop sounds lovely especially mixed w/ wood chips. Nice ratio.

Thanks for sharing your clever and easy idea and tips and keep us posted. Sounds pretty groovy.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I guess we both have about the same amount of garbage after using everything we can for recycle/reuse/repurposing at home. But I have a 30 mile round trip to haul my garbage to the dump. So maybe I am also thinking about all the gas money, time, and effort it costs me to load up stuff that I might be able to reuse at home.



When I was a young kid my grandparents had a wood cook stove at our lake cabin that grandma used to cook our food. It also was our heater/furnance. Back in the day, we did not have electricity at our lake cabin. So I learned how to chop wood and haul out ashes. Although I appreciate the convenience of modern electricity and my electric/gas furnance, I do miss the smell of grandma starting a wood fire early in the morning before the rest of us got out of bed.



I have never used ashes for the garden. I heard that the ashes can be good, but my father did all the burning when I was growing up and he would dump all kinds of gas and old motor oil from changing the oil on our cars. So, I never figured those ashes would be good for our garden. Now, I chip up most or our wood and the heavier branches and tree trunks get thrown into a new hügelkultur raised garden bed. I do almost no burning anymore.

Well, that and our laws have changed for open burning. Now you need to pay for a burn permit and there are lots of times in the summer where any open burning is not permitted at all if the conditions are too dry. It's a small inconvenience to purchase a burning permit, but the fine for burning without a permit would really hurt. Even worse, if a fire gets out of control and you don't have that permit in hand, guess who pays for both the fine and all the costs of the fire department coming out to your property?

I had a neighbor lady who used to burn open fires in their wooded/tall grass backyard adjacent to mine. She was burning a big pile of wood, without a permit, during a no burning allowed period, and the fire jumped into the dry tall grass and got out of control. She ended up calling the fire department on herself, but the fire was working its way through her backyard towards my house, so I would have been forced to call the fire department if she had not done so first. Anyway, that was the last fire she ever had out there. Taught me a good lesson, too.

I think I am better off using the wood to make wood chips, anyway. I use them in the chicken coop, the chicken run, in the compost bins, in the garden as mulch, in the pathways to block out weeds, etc... So, lots of uses for junk wood as wood chips rather than just burning them up in a pile. Having said that, chipping up wood takes a lot of time and effort and burning a pile of wood takes almost no effort.

Better to put the carbon back into the ground than up in the air. Super cool way to lower our emissions. Lots of great utube out on it.

Been a recycler/reuser/repurposer/composter for decades and I tell ya, it never gets old. Reading your thread and hearing all of the positive and forward responses and great ideas makes my toes wiggle. basically a great share.