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

[gtaus]

Have you read my article yet? I tried to go into not just what separates Deep Bedding from Deep Litter, but what conditions make Deep Bedding possible or set you up for failure.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

Nice article. From the start, it mentions that the article is written for a small coop, about 4X4 foot. My coop is 6X12 foot, so a lot bigger, but still many things apply. Chicken density is key in any coop setup. I had 10 chickens in my coop, so almost 8 square feet per bird.

Also, in my coop, the only place I see chicken poo in the winter is directly below the roosting bar. There the poo will freeze and pile up. The rest of the coop is basically poo free, at least you can't see any. I cover the frozen poo under the roosting bar in the winter maybe twice a month with fresh paper shreds, and that seems to have worked out well for me this winter. We have had a few days of above freezing weather, and the chickens have leveled out the frozen poo pile under the roosting bar and now you can't even see the pile of poo anymore. The dry bedding absorbs the poo and I still have no smell in the coop.

In the past, I have gone inside the coop and turned over the bedding. Lately, I just throw some chicken scratch in any area that I think needs some attention and the chickens will do all the work of turning over the bedding instead of me. Works better for me and the chickens love to scratch and peck for the treats.

And, like I stated, my coop was designed to have deep bedding (12 inches) from the start so I don't have any blocked doors or such to worry about. For my twice annual cleanout, I have a drop down panel in the back of the coop so I can just shovel or broom out the old bedding into a wheelbarrow or garden cart. Makes everything very easy.

 

[3KillerBs]

A large part of my enjoyment of having a backyard flock is that my setup does not require me to be a slave to caring for the chickens.

Can I get an AMEN?

They're supposed to be a source of joy, not labor.

Nice article. From the start, it mentions that the article is written for a small coop, about 4X4 foot. My coop is 6X12 foot, so a lot bigger, but still many things apply.

Yes. I found it easy to find information about making a Deep Bedding system work in a larger coop -- including commercial-sized setups. So I wrote the article targeted for a small, backyard coop.

The principles do scale.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Thank you both for the wealth of information!

 

[gtaus]

Can I get an AMEN?
They're [chickens] supposed to be a source of joy, not labor.

Amen, to that.

 

[Iluveggers]

I always lay down sheets of paper towels in the brooder for the first few days, while the chicks are learning where to get their food and water. After that, I take out the paper towels and I have used wood chips in the brooder. I have never used paper shreds in a brooder, so I really don't know how it would work. Chickens are not very smart, but at least the adult chickens know the difference between paper shreds and "real" food. I think chicks would know the difference, too, but I really don't know.

I use puppy pads to observe poo first week or so, then switch to shavings. Probably will stick to that until they are 4 weeks & move outside before using paper shreds! Baby chicks will probably try to eat everything lol.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

An acquaintance of mine caught her fully grown chickens eating the fiberglass insulation in her green house the other day. So I think that's a fairly good indication that chickens don't always know what they shouldn't eat.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

An acquaintance of mine caught her fully grown chickens eating the fiberglass insulation in her green house the other day. So I think that's a fairly good indication that chickens don't always know what they shouldn't eat.

Chickens are good at determining which natural things they can eat. Things like insulation and other man-made materials, not so much.

 

[gtaus]

An acquaintance of mine caught her fully grown chickens eating the fiberglass insulation in her green house the other day. So I think that's a fairly good indication that chickens don't always know what they shouldn't eat.

I'm not saying my chickens are super smart, but they seem to know the difference between paper shreds and actual food. I have never seen them eating paper shreds. When I throw chicken scratch on top of the paper shreds, they eat the chicken scratch and not the paper.

I don't know how much chickens can taste or smell things, either. But I would think paper shreds would not taste very good. Paper shreds surely don't have much of a smell. Also, from what I understand about chickens, they have a very short digestive track and things going in are going back out in 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the stuff they eat. I tend not to worry about stuff they find to eat as they forge for food.

 

[gtaus]

Chickens are good at determining which natural things they can eat. Things like insulation and other man-made materials, not so much.

I think most animals are that way. Dogs will lap up antifreeze and poison themselves because the antifreeze is sweet to them. How many McBurgers do we eat that cannot be composted naturally in nature? My chickens most probably eat much better than I do.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

I'm not saying my chickens are super smart, but they seem to know the difference between paper shreds and actual food. I have never seen them eating paper shreds. When I throw chicken scratch on top of the paper shreds, they eat the chicken scratch and not the paper.

I don't know how much chickens can taste or smell things, either. But I would think paper shreds would not taste very good. Paper shreds surely don't have much of a smell. Also, from what I understand about chickens, they have a very short digestive track and things going in are going back out in 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the stuff they eat. I tend not to worry about stuff they find to eat as they forge for

Luckily, eating the occasional bit of paper, should it happen, is probably not going to harm them much.
And while eating insulation is definitely NOT good for chickens, the chickens in question have thrived for many years and this was a fluke occurrence. I didn't mean to imply all chickens will eat all the things they shouldn't all the time. Just a little humorous interlude.