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

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I really like my safety goggles when I work in dusty conditions, and, like I said, when I am concerned about tiny parts of metal brush wheels flying off and hitting me in the eyes. The trick is to find a pair that don't fog up. But they do provide more protection than safety glasses or even safety glasses with side pieces.



Just thinking about any dust accumulation on the glasses and then you are taking them on and off with dust on them already. Probably not a big deal in normal times, but recovery from surgery I would attempt to clean the glasses between use.



My father never took safety as a major concern. He was lucky to never have been seriously injured.

I was taught safety first before we were allowed to use any of the shop tools in school. I really continued my "good habits" of using protective equipment in real life. I have glasses, goggles, and shields to protect the eyes; ear plugs and headphones to protect my hearing, gloves for the hands, boots for the feet, and work vests and other clothing as need to protect my body. It's pretty much second nature for me.



:thumbsup That's a good use for the empty feedbags.

I have a couple stacks of empty feedbags and am always looking for a second life for them. We used to be able to take them to the feed mill and have them refilled. The laws changed and now you have to buy a new bag each time, and I think they charge $1.50 per bag. I can see them not being able to reuse bags at the mill when selling feed off the floor, but if someone brings in their own empty, used, feedbags for a refill, I don't see what harm that cause. Anyway, I now have a couple of stacks of empty feedbags in storage ready to be used for something.
We buy briquettes of compresses sawdust for the wood burner and asked if we could have the plastic sacks refilled. The reply was apologetic, but that the sacks once used could no longer fit to the machine that fills them.
Last winter I filled some of them with empty plastic milk containers and fastened the tops to make insulation panels. I stuck these wherever I thought they might help! In Spring they were repuporsed into moveable barriers to control where the chickens went.
I also used some of the bags for weatherproofing the run. It has a sort of funny gable shape and the end and I'd planned to leave the ends open for ventilation. However, the winter wind often blew the rain inside and the damp draught was unpleasant anyway. I just made holes at either end of the bags, threaded string through the holes, and tied them onto the run wherever I wanted to block the wind. It wasn't really a pretty sight but it worked.
 
We buy briquettes of compresses sawdust for the wood burner and asked if we could have the plastic sacks refilled. The reply was apologetic, but that the sacks once used could no longer fit to the machine that fills them.

:old I don't know. It seems the older I get, the less I want to buy things that are use once and throw away. Somewhere along the line I decided to attempt to reduce the amount of garbage I send to the landfill.

Turning my waste paper into paper shreds for coop litter, then composting it for the garden, to grow people food, makes me feel much better than thinking about the stacks of paper I used to send to the landfill. I seriously doubt much, if any, of our local waste paper at the landfill ever gets recycled for a second life. At least, at home, I know all that waste paper is recycled back into productive uses for my chickens and garden beds.

Good for you on finding second lives for your feed bags.

FWIW, one of the things I use my empty feed bags for is in the workshop. I will cut open the paper feedbags and spread them out on my workbenches and use that as a temporary barrier when I glue up boards. If any glue falls down on the feedbag, that's exactly what it is there for and prevents globs of glue on my workbench top.

Also, with those same feed bags cut up and laid flat, they make great barriers to place things on that I need to paint. Overspray on the old feedbag is much better than on the floor or workbench.

Also use some feedbags when I'm working on something oily and messy. Better to trash out the feedbag then my benchtops.

Once the feedbags are soiled enough, I use them to start a fire in my fire ring when I burn out stumps in the yard. But usually, I get a number of uses out of the feedbags before they end up in the burn ring. Anyway, in the end, burned up in my fire pit is better than clogging up a landfill for years and years.
 
:old I don't know. It seems the older I get, the less I want to buy things that are use once and throw away. Somewhere along the line I decided to attempt to reduce the amount of garbage I send to the landfill.
I've seen paper feed bags and plastic ones.

The paper ones can be used like any other paper-- shreds for chicken bedding, laid flat on the ground for a weed-suppressing mulch, burned to start a fire, etc.

I feel that the plastic ones have less ways to be useful, although I have seen that some people cut & sew them into reusable grocery bags, and I have seen some people use them instead of tarps for blocking wind or rain (depending on the size and shape of what needs protecting.)

FWIW, one of the things I use my empty feed bags for is in the workshop. I will cut open the paper feedbags and spread them out on my workbenches and use that as a temporary barrier when I glue up boards. If any glue falls down on the feedbag, that's exactly what it is there for and prevents globs of glue on my workbench top.

Also, with those same feed bags cut up and laid flat, they make great barriers to place things on that I need to paint. Overspray on the old feedbag is much better than on the floor or workbench.

Also use some feedbags when I'm working on something oily and messy. Better to trash out the feedbag then my benchtops.

Once the feedbags are soiled enough, I use them to start a fire in my fire ring when I burn out stumps in the yard. But usually, I get a number of uses out of the feedbags before they end up in the burn ring. Anyway, in the end, burned up in my fire pit is better than clogging up a landfill for years and years.
Those all sound like good ideas!
 
although I have seen that some people cut & sew them into reusable grocery bags,
I've made grocery bags out of chicken feed bags and a dog food bag too. Google will show you how, if you want to do it. They are nice and strong! And my chicken feed bag got me a nice compliment at the store today.

My other use for bags was to cut them into strips about 3x18". They're flags on the wire I strung above my garden fence, post to post, to make the fence taller so that deer wouldn't jump into the garden. Since I have a big garden and had 3 flags per wire between each post, and had 3 tiers of wire, I used a lot of bags.
 
laid flat on the ground for a weed-suppressing mulch,

Yeah, that's a good idea, although I have almost all raised garden beds now and don't use much of anything for weed suppressing anymore. In fact, with the raised garden beds I made these past 2 summers, I left enough room between them to mow the grass with my riding mower. Kind of like having grass between the raised beds - keeping everything looking green.
 
I've made grocery bags out of chicken feed bags and a dog food bag too. Google will show you how, if you want to do it. They are nice and strong! And my chicken feed bag got me a nice compliment at the store today.

I have seen some nice pics of feedbag totes. But, really, I don't carry any bags around with to the stores. Maybe it's a guy thing? There was some talk that our grocery stores were going to start charging for using their bags at the checkout, but that never happened. I think that would have encouraged people to bring their own bags. Perhaps under those circumstances I would not feel too out of place toting a chicken feedbag grocery bag. Kind of a conversation opener....
 
The paper ones can be used like any other paper-- shreds for chicken bedding,

I have considered that, but the feed bags are so nice and big that I don't want to shred them up for bedding. I have enough junk mail, newspapers, food boxes, etc... that I don't need more material for shreds. But I would shred up the feed bags before sending them to the landfill, that's for sure.
 
I have seen some nice pics of feedbag totes. But, really, I don't carry any bags around with to the stores. Maybe it's a guy thing? There was some talk that our grocery stores were going to start charging for using their bags at the checkout, but that never happened. I think that would have encouraged people to bring their own bags. Perhaps under those circumstances I would not feel too out of place toting a chicken feedbag grocery bag. Kind of a conversation opener....
Here, people here started taking their own bags when they introduced charges for bags, even though it's a tiny amount and goes to charity.
 
I've made grocery bags out of chicken feed bags and a dog food bag too. Google will show you how, if you want to do it. They are nice and strong! And my chicken feed bag got me a nice compliment at the store today.

My other use for bags was to cut them into strips about 3x18". They're flags on the wire I strung above my garden fence, post to post, to make the fence taller so that deer wouldn't jump into the garden. Since I have a big garden and had 3 flags per wire between each post, and had 3 tiers of wire, I used a lot of bags.
I'll mention the flag-fence idea to a friend who has a problem with keeping the peafowl in. They raised the top of the fence and would prefer not to have to clip the wings if they can avoid it.
I guess something similar might help keep pigeons off brassica plants?
 
Here, people here started taking their own bags when they introduced charges for bags, even though it's a tiny amount and goes to charity.

Until people have to pay for grocery bags at the checkout, I doubt many people would bother to bring their own bags. I don't go to WalMart but maybe once a month. I can tell you that I have yet to see anyone bring their own bag.

I do know that our local WalMart has a plastic bag recycling bin. Dear Wife saves up our plastic grocery bags, in a plastic grocery bag, and dumps it off at WalMart when the bag is full. What/How they recycle those bags, I don't know.

I use the big, over-sized, plastic checkout bags from Menards to line my kitchen-sized garbage trash bin next to my paper shredder. I fill those bags up with paper shreds and set them aside for use. About every 2 weeks, I empty them into the chicken coop to freshen up the paper shreds deep bedding. Then, I reuse those big plastic bags again, lining the trash can for another refill of paper shreds.

I am not anti-plastic, per se, but I try to use and reuse plastic products until they are ripped apart or broken beyond use. Then I toss them into the burning pit for stumps and burn the plastic up as I burn out stumps.

If given a choice, I will opt for brown paper bags, but there are very few places where you can even get paper bags. Paper bags shred up nicely and make excellent paper shreds for use in the coop. But, I can't even think of the last time I got a paper bag at one of our local stores.
 
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