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

[gtaus]

From my research I believe that we don't want the bin to heat up because that will kill the worms. For this reason I have not used chicken poop in mine.

I don't want to get too confused on this issue. But we use "heat" in different ways when referring to composting and manures.

When I had my worm bin, I think I put in too much food, which started to compost in the bin, generating physical heat from the composting process, and that can kill the worms if their bin is not big enough to escape the heat source. I think that was my downfall.

When we talk about chicken manure being hot, it is in reference to the high nitrogen content of chicken poo which can burn the roots of the plants where the nitrogen in the chicken poo pulls out the water from the roots in a chemical reaction, not by any physical heat process. That is why we typically let chicken poo compost for a number of months before using it out in the garden. I usually put my chicken run compost on the gardens in the fall, and just let it winter over until spring.

Having said that, I never use straight chicken poo for my composting. I always have lots of wood chips, or this winter, paper shreds, mixed in with the chicken poo. I think that is an important distinction because I know some chicken owners have poop boards under the roosts and clean up the poo into a bucket, which would be straight chicken manure. I don't do that at all. I don't use poop boards. My chicken poo drops down into the deep bedding below the roosting bar and gets mixed in with the litter.

Having said that, I did find this little tidbit on chicken manure and worms from Worm Composting With Manure.

Poultry Manure – Care is needed when using this source of manure. It is very high in nitrogen content which is why you won’t see farmers / gardeners use fresh untreated poultry manure to fertilize plants as it burns the roots. The high nitrogen content will also pose a problem with worms, therefore it needs to be pre-treated and given in small quantities to allow worms to adapt. Pre-treatment can include washing it down with water and pre-composting it with the latter being the best option. Mixing it with a carbon source such as newspaper will make it a better feed.

In any case, I think I would be better off using some of my already composted chicken run litter as bedding for worms if I build a new bin. Just need to find a good flow through worm bin design I can build maybe out of pallet wood.

 

[gtaus]

I found your picture very helpful.
I use shredded paper too but I use it mixed in with leaves as bedding.
Mostly I use the paper in the nesting boxes and then empty it out onto the floor of the coop and it makes its way out into the run and like the leaves just disappears into the dirt in the run.
I mainly use the plain brown packing paper so I can’t really tell the paper from the shredded leaves without looking closely.
So far so good.

Sounds like we have a similar flow process. My nest box material also gets thrown on to the coop bedding when I put fresh material in the nest boxes. The coop litter gets dumped out into the chicken run compost system when I clean out the coop. But I use all kinds of colorful shredded paper, as you can tell in the pictures, so I cover my paper sheds out in the run with a layer of compost. I don't much like the colorful looks of the shredded paper in the run, so I cover it. Sometimes I dig a shallow trench, or hole, fill it up with paper shreds, and then cover it again. In any case, I learned that if I don't cover the paper shreds with something they will blow all over my back yard.

Last winter I used wood chips as a base in the coop and threw in leaves throughout the winter. That worked just fine. I prefer the natural look of wood chips and leaves. However, nobody sees the paper shreds inside the coop, and when I dump the paper shreds into the chicken run, I will just cover them with my existing chicken run compost consisting of wood chips, leaves, and grass clippings. So, again, the chicken run will look natural on top. What I expect to happen is that the paper shreds will compost outside in the run much faster than my previous coop litter of wood chips and/or leaves.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

Some may think I'm cuckoo, but I think I'm just.... getting ready What's in this bag? A couple months of ripping apart the weekly newspapers that come to my doorstep, paper shredded from work, and flyers ripped up. Hoping to get enough to mix with my wood chips (leftover from woodturning) in the spring so I can do the deep litter method for the new coop. Excited!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I keep a lawn and leaf bag in my home office next to the shredder.

 

[RoyalChick]

Sounds like we have a similar flow process. My nest box material also gets thrown on to the coop bedding when I put fresh material in the nest boxes. The coop litter gets dumped out into the chicken run compost system when I clean out the coop. But I use all kinds of colorful shredded paper, as you can tell in the pictures, so I cover my paper sheds out in the run with a layer of compost. I don't much like the colorful looks of the shredded paper in the run, so I cover it. Sometimes I dig a shallow trench, or hole, fill it up with paper shreds, and then cover it again. In any case, I learned that if I don't cover the paper shreds with something they will blow all over my back yard.

Last winter I used wood chips as a base in the coop and threw in leaves throughout the winter. That worked just fine. I prefer the natural look of wood chips and leaves. However, nobody sees the paper shreds inside the coop, and when I dump the paper shreds into the chicken run, I will just cover them with my existing chicken run compost consisting of wood chips, leaves, and grass clippings. So, again, the chicken run will look natural on top. What I expect to happen is that the paper shreds will compost outside in the run much faster than my previous coop litter of wood chips and/or leaves.

So far I have only shredded brown paper so I can't really tell it from the oak leaves that make up the bulk of the bedding in my Chicken Palace. But, I will likely start using other paper just because I need to get rid of it - and when it has confidential information on it I prefer to shred it before disposing of it anyway. I agree with you - I am not that keen on loads of white shreds spreading themselves around the lawn.

 

[gtaus]

Hoping to get enough to mix with my wood chips (leftover from woodturning) in the spring so I can do the deep litter method for the new coop. Excited!

Looks good to me. You don't need 8 inches of deep bedding to start off in your coop. I started off this fall with maybe 2 inches of bedding and added paper shreds as I made them. I'm up to about 6 inches deep with less than half the winter remaining. You can start off with whatever you have and just continue to add to the bedding.

Unless you enjoy ripping the paper by hand, I can tell you that using a paper shredder really saves my old hands from the effort. I was able to pick up a few used paper shredders from our local thrift store over a number of months, and that is how I shred my paper products. My 8 sheet shredder is strong enough to shred light cardboard boxes, like cereal boxes, so almost all my paper products at home get shredded.

Mixing the wood chips into the paper shreds is also a good idea. Use whatever you have. I have used wood chips, dry leaves, and dried grass clippings in the coop for a nice mixed bedding. This winter I am experimenting with straight paper shreds, but just about anything dry and organic mixed together should make good bedding.

Please post some pictures of your new coop when you get it set up. Everybody loves the pics and seeing people with new coops.

 

[gtaus]

I keep a lawn and leaf bag in my home office next to the shredder.

I did that for a period of time. If you have lots of paper shreds, those leaf bags are great. I switched over to a 13 gallon kitchen garbage can and now just line it with large plastic shopping checkout bags I get from Menards. It takes me about 2 weeks to fill a bag and then I just dump it into the coop when the bag is full.

 

[gtaus]

But, I will likely start using other paper just because I need to get rid of it - and when it has confidential information on it I prefer to shred it before disposing of it anyway. I agree with you - I am not that keen on loads of white shreds spreading

Exactly. I was shredding some old bills and stuff anyway. The more paper I can shred and use in the chicken coop as dry bedding is just all that more I don't have to haul out to the recycle center. Colored paper does not bother me inside the coop, but when I dump it out into the chicken run this spring, I will cover it up with the existing litter in the run. That prevents the paper shreds from blowing out into the yard, and ascetically, I prefer looking at natural wood chips, leaves, and grass clipping in the run - not colored paper shreds.

The first time I dumped paper shreds into the chicken run, I did not cover them. The next day the wind had blown paper shreds all over the lawn. For me, not a big deal, as I just "vac'd" up all the paper shreds using my riding lawn mower with grass collection bins. Since then, I just cover the paper shreds with some of the existing chicken run litter. Sometimes I will dig a shallow trench or hole, dump the shreds in, and then cover it back up.

Best thing is that the paper shreds will compost much faster than my wood chips. Just layer some nice grass clipping on top of them, wet it down with a sprinkler to speed up the process, and you will have chicken run compost in almost no time.

 

[gtaus]

UPDATE: Mid-March. We had a few days getting into the high 40F's so things are starting to thaw out and melt. A couple days ago, I started to notice the start of some smell in the coop. As expected, all that frozen poo underneath the roosting bar has started to thaw out. So, I dumped another bag of paper shreds on the mound of frozen poo under the roosting bar. It seems that not only did the paper cover the poo, but it also covered the smell, at least, for a while.

IIRC, when I was using wood chips, I had a similar situation when the weather started to warm up. All that concentrated, frozen poo under the roosting bar needed to be covered with another layer of wood chips about this time of year. In another few weeks, or so, I will either have to break up that mound of poo and either take it out of the coop, or mix it into the bedding litter.

For those of you who do not live in God's Frozen North country, you might be wondering why I just don't take it now. Well, for a couple of reasons. First of all, all that poo is frozen hard like concrete, so you really can't do anything with it until it thaws out. Secondly, as long as I am able to cover it with fresh litter, it blocks the smell. Third, the rest of the coop is just fine. The only build up of poo is under the roosting bar, and my coop is large enough that my chickens don't ever have to use that part of the floor.

I am really happy, so far, with the results of using paper shreds this winter. I have about another 4 weeks of "winter" to get through and it looks like I will be doing just fine with the paper shreds. Other than directly under the roosting bar, the paper shreds litter is really clean and still in very good shape. Come spring cleaning, I could easily just remove the litter under the roosting bar and keep all the other paper shreds litter in the coop, if I wanted.

The only "negative" thing I have discovered using paper shreds as compared to using wood chips is that when the chickens peck and scratch through the shreds, they sometimes throw some shreds into my metal chicken fount waterer. Every other day, it seems, I have to swish out the shreds of paper in the fount, which wastes a little water. Not a big deal for me, I now have to refill the 3 gallon waterer about every 8 days instead of every 10 days. Wood chips are heavier, and I did not have to clean out my waterer as much. It's a small thing, but I thought I would mention it.

 

[gtaus]

UPDATE: 7 APR 2022. Just a nice observation that I wanted to pass on to those of you interested in this thread. We had a few days of mid 40F's temp so things started to thaw out in the coop, and by stuff, I mean mainly the mound of chicken poo underneath the roosting bar. Frozen poo does not smell, but a mound of fresh thawing out poo might. So, last week, I threw on some fresh paper shreds on all that poo underneath the roosting bar.

Today, I had another bag full of paper shreds to dump out into the coop, and I expected to cover the mound of poo underneath the roosting bar again. To my surprise, there was no longer a mound of poo under the roosting bar. All the frozen poo seems to have automagically disappeared into the paper shreds and everything was down to level with the rest of the litter in the coop. Best yet - no smell!

We are the end of a 3 day April snow storm here, so I dont'know how much longer it will be before we actually get some spring time temps that stay, but I will try to update at least once more when I spring clean the coop litter out and dump it into the chicken run. Right now, I have about 8 inches of snow left in the run, so it might be at least a few weeks.

Bottom line, the paper shreds are performing much better than I had hoped.