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

[NatJ]

Well, I can agree with that. I just don't understand what it had to do with intermittent electricity. Not a big deal. Understood the rest of your post, just that tiny bit left me confused.

I took it as referring to how much perishable food people should buy at one time.

It is more efficient for me to buy enough perishables to last for a week or two, because I can trust that my fridge & freezer will keep running, and then I don't have to spend time going to the store as often.

But if my electricity were unreliable, buying that much perishable food would be wasteful, because all that food would probably spoil the next time the power quit. It would be more efficient to go shopping more frequently, and have less on hand at any given time.

Of course, if someone has no electricity at all, the most sensible buying & storage patterns are different yet.

 

[gtaus]

I took it as referring to how much perishable food people should buy at one time.

It is more efficient for me to buy enough perishables to last for a week or two, because I can trust that my fridge & freezer will keep running, and then I don't have to spend time going to the store as often.

But if my electricity were unreliable, buying that much perishable food would be wasteful, because all that food would probably spoil the next time the power quit. It would be more efficient to go shopping more frequently, and have less on hand at any given time.

Of course, if someone has no electricity at all, the most sensible buying & storage patterns are different yet.

OK. That I understand. And it would make a big difference if the electricity was out for a few seconds, a few minutes, or hours/days. When I lived in Naples, Italy, we would have brown outs all the time and total black outs for hours far too often. And yes, we did not have weeks of food in the refrigerator or freezer for that very reason. We also had water shortages and had to store drinking water. That was a real pain. Maybe that's why I now live on a lake back here in the USA?

 

[gtaus]

Our chickens used to eat the shredded paper, years ago when we first started using it, but I haven't seen them eating it in recent years.

My chickens were already 2+ years old when I first started using the paper shreds. They never showed any interest in the paper as far as eating shreds. Maybe chickens get smarter as they get older.

 

[RoyalChick]

So many great postings about paper shreds, wood chips, and other topics peripherally related to the thread. Thanks to all.

Let me ask again.... Does anyone have a good way to shred newspaper? I find newspaper is really low quality and will jam up my shredders. I can only shed a small amount of newspaper and then have to follow it up with office paper or light cardboard to clean the cutters. Not a big problem, but it would nice if there was a way to shred a pile of newspapers and not have to worry about jamming up the rollers.

Like you I use shredded paper in my chicken coop. I don’t come across as much newspaper as I used to, but FWIW I don’t shred it. I use it to line the kitchen compost bin and by the time I tip it out it has got a bit damp and icky so it rots down fast.
Scrunched up sheets make good fire starters and I did put a few scrunched up sheets in the chicken coop and the got trampled and shredded by the chickens.
Obviously none of the above works for high volumes of newspaper but as I read the online versions I really only have a few to deal with.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thr cashier will just ask what is inside to ring you out.

I'm astonished. You must live in a VERY high trust area.

When I was a cashier I had to verify everything in the cart. The customer might *say* that it's 5 cucumbers and have 7 or 10 rolls and have 12.

Every cashier there has a story about an attempted theft. Mine is having lifted up some bags of pet food on the bottom of the cart and finding multiple packages of steak concealed underneath.

The look on the lady's face when I scanned them through was priceless.

Obviously none of the above works for high volumes of newspaper but as I read the online versions I really only have a few to deal with.

*nods* The last time I bought a newspaper was because we needed packing material for the kitchen dishes when we moved.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Late on the bread conversation, but it’s worth noting that in the US, there are two sections of the grocery store to buy “bread”…one the bakery and one the aisle with “sandwich loaves” (aka “sliced bread”).

Why is this? Because they’re too different products, with different ingredients. Bakery bread has about 4-5 ingredients and goes rock hard stale on a matter of days (croutons are a good use of them at that point).

Sandwich bread has more ingredients and will usually mold before they stale. This can sometimes be weeks after purchase.

There are pros and cons to both - sandwich bread has added sugar for example (of concern to diabetics and others watching their sugar intake).

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Ah, newspapers…I tell the youngins at work “when I was a kid, the internet was printed on dead trees”.

In the last 40 years, the makeup of “paper waste” in the US has changed dramatically, from newsprint dominant to cardboard dominant.

 

[gtaus]

Like you I use shredded paper in my chicken coop. I don’t come across as much newspaper as I used to, but FWIW I don’t shred it. I use it to line the kitchen compost bin and by the time I tip it out it has got a bit damp and icky so it rots down fast.
Scrunched up sheets make good fire starters and I did put a few scrunched up sheets in the chicken coop and the got trampled and shredded by the chickens.
Obviously none of the above works for high volumes of newspaper but as I read the online versions I really only have a few to deal with.

Like you, I don't prefer to use shredded newspaper because it jams my shredder. I do use newspaper in other applications, like for cleaning fish. Then the newspaper gets full of blood and guts and I just throw it into the pallet compost bin.

I really don't get that much newspaper, either, just the weekly local shopper with advertisements. I periodically ask if anyone has found a good way to shred the newspaper because I have not heard of one yet. My best solution is to shred some newpaper, and then alternative that with regular office paper or light cardboard to clean off the cutters.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

One trick with newspaper is to get it wet. It tears much easier when wet. In a 5 gallon bucket sitting for a bit, it may even just turn to mush and not need to be torn.

Obviously this will work as run compost material but not in the coop.

 

[SubArcticFowl]

I've on the shredded newspaper bandwagon for the last month or so and pretty happy. My shredded is only a 5 sheeter and newspaper works the best on it. Boxboard crawls, but works.