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

[gtaus]

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.

OK, good point that I think I can add some personal experience.

Rabbits are not chickens. Rabbits will urinate and soak everything in that area. Add to that their rabbit pellets and now you have a stinky, smelly, mess. I always used wire floors in my rabbit cages so the urine and pellets would fall through to the ground and dry out there. The only rabbit bedding I ever used was straw in the nest boxes. If you use bedding for your rabbits, then I would suggest something highly absorbent and still I would be cleaning it out all the time.

Chickens are not rabbits. Chickens will poo but the urine is mixed in the poo and, generally, everything is much drier compared to rabbit urine. Deep bedding works for my chickens because the chicken poo basically is dry enough that it just works its way down the layers of the litter, and dries out and breaks down in the process. A bit of constant turning over of the litter material in the coop keeps everything more or less fresh. I can just keep adding thin layers of fresh litter all winter long and only have to clean out the coop in the spring.

At one time, I had more than 100 meat rabbits when I was growing up. I was constantly cleaning out the wet litter under the cages. But chickens with deep litter is a completely different experience for me. I only clean out my deep bedding in my coop twice a year, and in reality, I could get by with only cleaning it out maybe once a year or even longer. Since I am using the chicken poo for composting, I clean out the coop twice a year to build up more chicken compost for use in the gardens.

I think your best point is that if anything smells bad, then you have a problem. FWIW, I find chickens easier to care for than rabbits especially if you use some type of deep bedding or deep litter in your chicken setup.

 

[gtaus]

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!

I have not used straw for many years, and am doing much better without it for my chickens. I am lucky that I can get all the free wood chips I want at our local county landfill, but one still has to have a trailer and a vehicle to tow it. I know many people might not have a pickup or trailer, and maybe no access to free wood chips. I was already shredding up paper at home and dumping it in the pallet compost bins. Now I am using it first with the chickens which is even a better use of all that material I make for free at home. I have not found any "cons" using paper shreds, either.

 

[gtaus]

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.

Do you shred any paper yourself at home? Specifically, I am wondering if you have used newspaper shreds. I find my cross cut shredder has a difficult time shredding the newspaper because it comes out all stringy, and sometimes will wrap around the cutting spindles on the shredder. Normal paper, and light cardboard, shreds much better.

 

[gtaus]

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.

I contacted our local newpaper printers and they told me all their ink was soy based - so it was certified safe for composting. In fact, I think it is a law where I live that they have to use compostable inks so as not to dump toxic chemicals into our landfills. I don't know if colored magazines with shiny pages use a soy based ink. But I don't shred them. I think most of our junk mail is safe to compost as it appears to be low quality paper and ink - much like our newspaper ink.

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.

I shred all our junk mail, printer paper, light cardboard from food boxes, and newspapers. It takes me about 2 weeks to fill up a 13 gallon sized kitchen garbage bag of shreds, and then I dump it into the coop. You might have more paper shred material than you think. Also, shredded paper is fluffy and takes up more volume than a stack of unshredded paper.

I do not shred staples, plastic film paper, or wax paper materials. Those still get sent to the recycle center. But that is a very small amount of the material I get at home.

I will shred up all normal cardstock, but not if it is covered with a plastic film or wax. I have a 12 sheet cross shredder, and if I have heavier cardstock I feed it through the credit card slot on the shredder. Don't forget the paper rolls from the toilet paper in the bathroom, the empty paper rolls from kitchen paper towels, and this time of year, the paper rolls from Christmas wrapping all can be shredded - I use the credit card slot. I shred almost all our light cardboard food boxes (like cereal boxes, cake boxes, etc...). I don't get many shipping boxes, but when I do, I will cut the cardboard into strips and feed it through the credit card slot. OK, maybe not a great use of time, but if you only have a few boxes every once in a while, it's not a big deal. Just make sure you remove any plastic or nasty tape from the cardboard before shredding.

Seems to me that I read that Amazon is environmentally aware of all their packages and is using biodegradable tape on their boxes. If someone know more about that issue, I would love to hear if I can shred the tape on Amazon boxes as well. Thanks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do you shred any paper yourself at home? Specifically, I am wondering if you have used newspaper shreds. I find my cross cut shredder has a difficult time shredding the newspaper because it comes out all stringy, and sometimes will wrap around the cutting spindles on the shredder. Normal paper, and light cardboard, shreds much better.

We have not. We only have a small shredder designed to take a couple of sheets of paper at a time. I got it for household purposes and at the time it was my intention to shred envelopes and bank statements prior to burning. Very disappointed with it! Way too much work for the amount of paper I had to dispose of.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do you shred any paper yourself at home? Specifically, I am wondering if you have used newspaper shreds. I find my cross cut shredder has a difficult time shredding the newspaper because it comes out all stringy, and sometimes will wrap around the cutting spindles on the shredder. Normal paper, and light cardboard, shreds much better.

Our newspaper at this time goes to our local shredded workshop, where it is recycled. One or two years, when we were still gardening, we laid it down between rows and covered it with wood chips from a local post mill and grass clippings from mowing, and it did a great job of keeping the weeds down. It would have been great to have had some kind of manure to lay over it as well. But now that nice big garden is the chickens' big safe run. It might have enough chicken manure in it now to make a great garden, but .. well ... Chickens, lol.

 

[gtaus]

We have not. We only have a small shredder designed to take a couple of sheets of paper at a time. I got it for household purposes and at the time it was my intention to shred envelopes and bank statements prior to burning. Very disappointed with it! Way too much work for the amount of paper I had to dispose of.

OK. Can't seem to find anybody with a good solution to shredding newspaper.

FWIW, I bought a used 12 sheet shredder from our local thrift store for only $5.00. It works fine, but no idea how old it is or how long it will last. Actually, bought another 8 sheet shredder for $3.00 from them a few months ago. Since I am buying used equipment, I figure I better have a spare on hand in case my main shredder bites the dust.

There is a really big difference between the lower sheet count shredders and the 8, 10, 12+ shredders. Basically, you get what you pay for. I used to have a small 2-3 sheet shredder, and it was not very good. Thankfully, it finally broke and I was forced to replace it with something much better. Not too often that I am glad to have a tool break, but that small shredder was a bad purchase. I even had to fold a paper in half lengthwise to feed into the 5" wide slot. What a pain!

I bought a brand new highly rated 12 sheet shredder from Amazon this summer, thinking that it would be good for shredding cardboard, but it was no better than my used shredders, so I sent it back. I don't have an office, so my used shredders will probably last many years. Over that period of time, I might find another used shredder on sale at the thrift store...

Since I started shredding paper for use in the chicken coop, I have learned to shred my paper as I get it. That way I never have a big load of shredding to do at any one time. I keep my shredders next to my desk and all the envelopes and junk mail get shredded as I open them. I find it very little work for a lot of free paper shreds I can use out in the chicken coop.

I know you said you get bags full of already shredded paper from your husband's work. In my case, what I don't shred at home I have to haul to our landfill/recycling center (30 miles round trip), so I am more than happy to shred as much paper at home as I can. It's a lot less work for me to shred the paper at home than to haul all that stuff out to the landfill.

 

[gtaus]

One or two years, when we were still gardening, we laid it down between rows and covered it with wood chips from a local post mill and grass clippings from mowing, and it did a great job of keeping the weeds down.

Yes, newspaper and cardboard make a nice, biodegradable weed barrier between the rows/beds in the garden that lasts me all summer if I put down a good layer. I also cover the cardboard and/or newspaper with organic material like wood chips or grass clippings. I prefer to use wood chips on top of the paper, but since I got chickens, I use the wood chips in the coop/run first. So recently it's just been grass clippings on top of the paper. Everything breaks down and turns into soil over the summer.

It is great that so many people are finding uses for all those newspapers at home instead of just throwing them away at the landfill.

 

[3KillerBs]

It is great that so many people are finding uses for all those newspapers at home instead of just throwing them away at the landfill.

My Dad always used them as mulch in the garden.

I don't know anyone who actually buys hardcopy newspapers anymore.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My Dad always used them as mulch in the garden.

I don't know anyone who actually buys hardcopy newspapers anymore.

We still get ours delivered, partly bc we always have and partly bc it's habit and relaxing to sit at the table and read a real newspaper. Awkward to use a device and drink out of a coffee cup ...