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

[3KillerBs]

it's common to buy bread with no packaging from a bakery. you can just throw it in your bag or put it in a paper bag if you want. if you were worried you could just make sure you bring a clean cotton bag to bring it home in. I personally hate how much plastic there is on everything, and I've seen grocery in the USA, it's nuts you guys wrap nearly everything.

I can't imagine just throwing naked food into a bag with all the other groceries and the germs, etc.

I'm sorry, but no amount of traps, poison, etc. can completely eliminate roaches and rats from a warehouse. It's one thing to put fruits and vegetables in with your cans and boxes -- which are, at the very least, contaminated by the exhaust fumes from the forklift -- because you can wash them. It's another to put something that can't be washed in with dirty items.

More to the point, it's really only the baker that touches the bread. You, as the customer, just tell the baker that you want a loaf of bread behind the counter, and he hands it to you.

That must make things extremely expensive. I know what I get paid to cut meat and cheese for people. Labor is the most expensive part of the grocery operation.

maybe we could package our bread in paper bags with a bar code for scanning rather than in plastic bags.

Bakeries used paper bags when I was a kid. It's fine if you want to eat the bread today or tomorrow -- depending on how dry your house is. After 3 days it's getting pretty stale.

Customers, or employees? Either way, not good.

Well, we get rid of employees who won't follow food safely practices. But plenty of coughing, sneezing customers who handle all the produce and pick up a dozen containers to scrutinize the expiration dates before selecting one, etc.

 

[3KillerBs]

- as they decompose, wood chips can “lock up” nitrogen for a while to aid their decomposition.

This being one of the reasons you have to be careful with wood chip mulch on young plants.

 

[NatJ]

I'm sorry, but no amount of traps, poison, etc. can completely eliminate roaches and rats from a warehouse. It's one thing to put fruits and vegetables in with your cans and boxes -- which are, at the very least, contaminated by the exhaust fumes from the forklift -- because you can wash them. It's another to put something that can't be washed in with dirty items.

@littlecoopnextdoor said a BAKERY.
That sounds like the bread is baked in the bakery, and sold directly to the customers. No warehouse, no forklift.

I'm in the USA, and my local grocery stores (even Walmart) have a "bakery" section with some things that have no package at all. There are glass-fronted cases with doughnuts and cookies, and you grab your own with a tissue. (The store does provide boxes or bags to put your doughnuts in.) If it can work with doughnuts in the US, I don't see any reason it can't work with bread too. (I don't know if you would grab your own bread, or if the baker would be the only one allowed to touch the bread.)

Whether someone wants to put their bread in a bag with other things, or whether someone wants to use a dedicated clean bag of their own for the bread, is their decision. But if they are not getting sick from it, then whatever they are doing obviously DOES work for them.

 

[3KillerBs]

If it can work with doughnuts in the US, I don't see any reason it can't work with bread too.

We do sell individual rolls -- which are put into the plastic bags provided. Do you want a cashier opening your paper or cloth bag of rolls and taking them out to count them?

It's important to remember that before modern packaging and processing, food poisoning was a common, unremarkable occurrence -- as normal a life event as the common cold -- and people did die from it. My mother, who will be 83 in September, can remember this from her childhood and teens.

Now a handful of cases will make national news and trigger massive recalls.

Some things are certainly over-packaged -- often as a matter of theft deterrence by making a small item too large to easily slip into a pocket. But, IMO, people too readily demonize plastic and discount the advantages it provides, especially in the area of food safety.

 

[Sally PB]

I never had any problems with my chickens eating paper shreds. In any case, I don't think eating a few paper shreds is going to hurt the chicken. If she is filling her crop with paper shreds, then that must be one crazy old bird!

I might try again with the paper shreds. Maybe bury them a bit in the bedding that's out in the run.

She is a bit of an "odd duck," for a chicken, but she isn't old. Just turned one in June. I'm not sure WHAT she saw that looked appetizing in the paper shreds. I didn't have any bright colored paper in there.

She's my favorite, though, as she is the one most willing to jump up onto my lap for treats at chickie snack time. (Usually it's spinach leaves.) Others will eat a leaf I'm holding, but Stormy is the one who will get on my lap.

 

[TheGreatChickening]

For the past 2 years, I have been using wood chips as the base of my dry deep litter in my chicken coop. The wood chips work great and I highly recommend them for anyone considering the deep litter method. This year, however, I am trying a twist on the idea. After I did my fall cleaning of the coop, removing all my wood chips for a fresh base to carry me over the winter, I decided to use my shredded paper I had saved in some big bags. So far, I have so say, I am very pleased with my results.

First of all, I try to minimize garbage we haul to the landfill. I came across a used 12 sheet paper shredder at our local thrift store for $5.00. A new model of that brand costs about $80. I had smaller shredders at home, about 5-8 sheets, but thought that a 12 sheet shredder for $5.00 was a good deal and would allow me to shred more and heavier types of paper. Previously, I have been shredding most of our paper at home and throwing it in compost piles with greens. But now that I have chickens, I was wondering if I could use shredded paper in the coop as litter.

I find that normal office paper and most junk mail shreds up fine. But you have to be sure to remove any plastic windows and staples. I don't want my chickens eating that stuff, or eventually adding plastic or staples mixed into my garden as compost. I also shred all our light cardboard boxes, like cereal boxes, and find that mixing that light cardboard along with normal office paper makes a better litter mix. I can also shred normal box cardboard with my 12 sheet shredder, but I have to cut the heavy cardboard into strips and feed it down the "credit card" slot on the shredder. But my 12 sheet shredder eats up the normal cardboard boxes we get from Amazon shipments.

I also shred our old newspapers, but I find the quality of newspapers to be very low compared to the other papers. It comes out all stringy and wraps around the shredder rollers. It seems to mat down more easily than the other types of shredded paper. I would not recommend using only shredded newspaper, but it works OK in the mix with all the other types of shredded paper.

I have a normal sized 13 gallon kitchen waste basket that I fill up with shredded paper maybe every 2 weeks. This is just the right amount for me to dump on top of the older shredded paper in the coop. I just dump it in a pile and let the chickens spread it out. Seems to work good for me. I have sometimes dumped the pile underneath their roost, as that is mainly where all the chicken poo accumulates, but I don't know if that is necessary. My goal is to always let the chickens do most of the work. They seem to like it, and I don't mind less work to do for myself. Sometimes I'll throw some chicken scratch into an area that I want the chickens to turn over the litter. As they scratch and peck for the chicken scratch, they turn over and mix up the shredded paper. The heavier, soiled paper works it way down to the bottom leaving the fresher paper on top.

So far, for about 2 months, I have not been able to detect any smell in the coop. So, from that aspect, I think the shredded paper is working as good as my wood chips I used the past 2 years. We will see how well it holds up as our winter is just getting started. I probably won't really know if this was a success or not until next spring, when the poo thaws out....

Well, I wanted to post this thread as something to consider as coop litter for those who do not have access to free wood chips. One thing I know is that come spring, when I clean out the shredded paper and dump it into my chicken run composting system, is that the shredded paper will turn into compost much, much, faster than my wood chips. What a better way to get rid of all that junk mail and old bills than to shred them up, let the chickens poo on them, and then bury them in the garden to grow some good people food?

Would love to hear any comments, pro or con, on using shredded paper with your chickens. Also, would really like to hear if there is a better way to shred old newspapers. I really don't like the way the newspapers can muck up the rollers on my shredder. Thanks.

This is something I was considering. I have noted from using flat news paper initially in the brooder (wrong, I know) that it does get sticky. However, the mix of varying types must be helpful as litter. We receive a lot of items in the post that were easier for the sender to mail to us rather than just throw away themselves for some reason, and I have been seeking ways to use it responsibly. Glad you posted!

 

[NatJ]

We do sell individual rolls -- which are put into the plastic bags provided. Do you want a cashier opening your paper or cloth bag of rolls and taking them out to count them?

They never count mine in the bag or box anyway. They ask me (unless it is obviously just one.)

It's important to remember that before modern packaging and processing, food poisoning was a common, unremarkable occurrence -- as normal a life event as the common cold -- and people did die from it. My mother, who will be 83 in September, can remember this from her childhood and teens.

Now a handful of cases will make national news and trigger massive recalls.

Some things are certainly over-packaged -- often as a matter of theft deterrence by making a small item too large to easily slip into a pocket. But, IMO, people too readily demonize plastic and discount the advantages it provides, especially in the area of food safety.

I recognize that plastic has its good points. I do think it's used more than necessary, but I don't want to see all of it go away.

But bread is not likely to be a major source of food poisoning anyway, if the surface is dry and not visibly dirty. Germs just don't like to grow there, as compared with how well they do like to grow on nice moist things like meat or produce. (I'm not guaranteeing it's safe, just saying I'd trust unpackaged bread, without washing or cooking, a lot further than I'd trust unwashed produce or uncooked meat.)

So the idea of bread being sold with no plastic, in some circumstances, does not bother me. But it only works for some kinds of bread. The common pre-sliced, soft, moist bread definitely does need some kind of package.

 

[gtaus]

Well, papper is made out of wood pulp, so it's already partially broken down when you get it.

Yes, that is an advantage. I think we need more packaging and one use things that will compost in our lifetime.

 

[gtaus]

You can freeze bread.

I have done that. But if you don't eat the bread relatively soon, it dries out in the freezer. If I don't have room in the freezer, then I don't feel too bad giving the leftover bread to the chickens.

If you make toaster-sized slices before you freeze it,

I have a nice food slicer machine that I used to slice up my homemade bread. Works great. Fast than I can do by hand and much more consistent slices.

I've even had one family member that preferred to make sandwiches with frozen homemade bread when they were packing a lunch (it had to do with what temperature the sandwiches were when lunchtime arrived.)

That's a good idea for summer lunch boxes. Thanks.

 

[gtaus]

I can't imagine just throwing naked food into a bag with all the other groceries and the germs, etc.

Well, we just don't see it that way in the USA today. If you grew up in a community where bread was not put into a plastic bag, you would just think that was a normal way to buy your bread.

That must make things extremely expensive. I know what I get paid to cut meat and cheese for people. Labor is the most expensive part of the grocery operation.

When I lived in Europe, our bakeries were small corner mom and pop shops that provided our daily bread. And I do mean daily as they used no preservatives so you bought bread almost daily. Next day French bread was used for French toast - not so good for the dinner table. It was a different way of life where you just walked down to the corner bakery to get your daily bread. Not like here in the USA where I have to drive 15 miles into town to buy bread at WalMart.

IIRC, the French bread I would buy almost daily was less expensive than the bread cost us in the US. But, the bread did not last very long and you usually bought bread for the next meal.

Bakeries used paper bags when I was a kid. It's fine if you want to eat the bread today or tomorrow -- depending on how dry your house is. After 3 days it's getting pretty stale.

Is that a result of using paper bags, or is it that the bread contains little to no preservatives back then? My grandmother would bake fresh bread at home, and put it in a bread box - no bags, plastic or paper. The bread would go stale after a few days, but usually it was gone by then, so no big deal.

Well, we get rid of employees who won't follow food safely practices. But plenty of coughing, sneezing customers who handle all the produce and pick up a dozen containers to scrutinize the expiration dates before selecting one, etc.

Well, yes, I too look at the expiration dates on the bread I buy. That's because I don't know when the bread was made. When I lived in France, the small corner bakery was baking fresh bread all day long. I never heard of day old bread being sold in those stores. And only the baker handles the bread behind the counter until you buy it.

I don't know if times have changed in Europe with the small bakery shops on every corner, but I still have great memories of all the wonderful fresh bread I would buy when I lived in France and Italy. I certainly don't get that feeling from buying bread from WalMart or our other big box grocery stores.