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

[SkyAJK]

Same here. Never an issue for me either. Like you, I also start my days-old chicks on shredded paper litter and have never had a problem.

My cardboards are wine/beers boxes, might be my chickens like the taste of alcohol

I hate it so much whenever I heard the sound of pecking at the cardboard. My Japanese bantam is loving the taste of cardboard so much.

 

[gtaus]

I disagree w/ the statements about shredding & shredded paper/cardboard not being dusty. The dust on the shredder in pics is after 30 minutes of shredding. It is dusty when I dump the bin into the bags or that blue trash can next to the shredder above. It can be dusty when used in brooder cages & coops, pens & runs. BUT it IS less dusty then using wood shavings or sawdust. I've used both wood shavings, straw, hay & sawdust in horse stalls since 1974 & different products w/ chickens since 2011.

I'm the one always saying paper shreds are almost dust free. I suppose you are correct; there is some dust with shredded paper and cardboard. However, I am comparing shredded paper products to wood chips, straw, leaves and grass clippings which I had used before and are much, much, more dusty than shredded paper.

And let's not forget that a lot of dust in the chicken coop is from chicken dander, feathers, and feed if inside the coop. Nothing to do with litter at all.

 

[gtaus]

I used to shred papers.. used to, it is hard work for me because it is on top of my other works. This might has something to do with me being older and trying to reduce extra work.

That's why I use a cordless power cutter and shred my paper daily, as I get it. I avoid hard work if I can.

I used to compost bin shred papers, but when I took out the compost, it did not disintegrated, it was this thick stuff that was not easily break out. I must be doing something wrong for certain as every gardening show that I watched had great compost outcome with shred papers.

I use all my shredded paper as dry deep bedding litter in my chicken coop. Twice a year I clean it out and dump the coop litter into the open chicken run where it is exposed to the natural weather. The chickens scratch and peck the chicken run litter all the time looking for tasty bugs and juicy worms to eat. The shredded paper breaks down into useable compost in a few months.

I have used compost bins as well, but unless you are willing to periodically turn the piles, the composting process can take a long time. My chickens break down the chicken run litter (paper shreds, grass clipping, leaves, wood chips, etc...) much faster with little to no work by me. Composting chickens are the best way to make homemade organic compost!

 

[fat brown hen]

I used to shred papers.. used to, it is hard work for me because it is on top of my other works. This might has something to do with me being older and trying to reduce extra work.

I used to compost bin shred papers, but when I took out the compost, it did not disintegrated, it was this thick stuff that was not easily break out. I must be doing something wrong for certain as every gardening show that I watched had great compost outcome with shred papers.

Need to add nitrogen (eg chicken poop) and oxygen (aerate the pile), and moisture, so that the microbes can reproduce and break things down. I have the same problem, because I live in a dry climate.

 

[SkyAJK]

Need to add nitrogen (eg chicken poop) and oxygen (aerate the pile), and moisture, so that the microbes can reproduce and break things down. I have the same problem, because I live in a dry climate.

aerate the pile is hard. I got 3 compost bins that still composting and they are almost 2 years old. I am just over it.

 

[fat brown hen]

aerate the pile is hard.

that's the easy part. Just throw a chicken on top of the pile

 

[gtaus]

What is the value of homemade Chicken Run Compost?

I love reading the comments on composting. It's one of my favorite topics as I make all kinds of homegrown chicken run compost, using my soiled shredded paper chicken coop litter along with leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, and just about anything else organic I can find.

Need to add nitrogen (eg chicken poop) and oxygen (aerate the pile), and moisture, so that the microbes can reproduce and break things down. I have the same problem, because I live in a dry climate.

Yep, you need to add enough water to get it to that magic wrung out sponge consistency for good composting action. My paper shreds in the coop really don't compost much at all until I toss the soiled bedding outside in the chicken run.

aerate the pile is hard. I got 3 compost bins that still composting and they are almost 2 years old. I am just over it.

Unless you are willing to work your compost bins, it will take a very long time for nature to break down a bin full of compostable material. If you add manures, or other greens in the mix, it will help.

I have a 5 bin pallet wood compost bin setup that I used only as a fill and forget system. I would maybe only fill up one bin per summer and then next year fill the next one up. By the time I filled the fifth compost bin, it was 5 years for the first bin to breakdown. That worked for me for many years. But then I got chickens.

Now I dump just about everything organic from my 3 acres wooded yard and lawn into the chicken run. The composting chickens do all the work in scratching and pecking in the litter, breaking it down into smaller bits and pieces, speeding up the composting process. No need for me to turn the chicken run litter when the chickens themselves are constantly working the material.

I would encourage you to reconsider how to make compost. It's my most valuable by product from having chickens, worth more to me than the eggs I get. I'll provide an example just a bit later. I think you will be amazed at how much your chicken run compost is worth.

that's the easy part. Just throw a chicken on top of the pile

Yep. Let the chickens be chickens and do all that work for you.

I decided to really invest in making compost with my chickens. I built a cement mixer compost sifter to reduce my work. Here is a picture of my setup...

For years, I used the typical wood frame with hardware cloth on top of a wheelbarrow. But I'm getting older, and I wanted to step up my gardening in my retirement years. It takes me about 15 minutes to sift out a full 7 cubic foot black wagon full chicken run compost. It would take me hours to do that manually, and frankly, I'm not up to that task anymore.

So far, this year, I have sifted out 70 cubic feet of compost from my chicken run. That's less than 10% of my available run compost. My chicken run compost is 100% organic - no bits of glass, metal or plastic in my compost like the commercial store-bought bags of compost have in them.

But how much is all that homemade chicken run compost worth? I used to buy my bags of compost at the big box stores, so I just took some current prices from cheapest to most expensive compost options at my local stores.

Then I compared that to how much money I have saved using my homemade chicken run compost. Here is what that looks like...

Chicken run compost is very valuable!

I don't expect many people are willing to invest in a cement mixer compost sifter setup like I have. It cost me about $250.00, which was a lot of money for me to invest in a project when I did not know if I was going to do much gardening. But it was the best decision I ever made. My current garden is now about 3X bigger than pre-sifter investment.

How long did that $250.00 investment take for me to break even?

Check this out...

Of course, it's not only all the money I saved on NOT buying commercial compost at the big box stores, but I grow lots of good food for us to eat fresh from the garden. Dear Wife does all the grocery shopping, but I suspect food is not cheap these days, so our raised bed gardens save us a lot of money in what food we grow.

FWIW, my chicken coop paper shreds take about 2 months to break down into usable compost out in the chicken run where the chickens are constantly turning the litter when they scratch and peck everything looking for tasty bugs and juicy worms to eat. That's a pretty fast turnaround for very little effort on my part. The chickens do almost all the work.

 

[gtaus]

Finding the Limits of my Shredder and Power Cutter

I have mentioned that I really like my power cutters that I have bought at Harbor Freight and Menards. The power cutter allows me to easily cut up almost all of the cardboard we get at the house. It's just so much better than using a heavy duty manual scissors. If you have old hands like me, and your hands cramp up if you have to cut through cardboard, then you will really like a power cutter.

Here is a picture of the least expensive power cutter I have found, sold by Menards, and works great. I got my Menard's power cutter on sale for less than $10.00, but even at full retail price, I don't think you can find better value elsewhere.

4-Volt Cordless Power Cutter​

There are lots of other brands of power cutters, but most of them are the exact 4v design with standardized cutting wheels. My guess is that they are all made in the same factory somewhere in China and just have a few, mostly cosmetic, modifications for each brand name. At any rate, my $10 power cutter from Menards works just as good as my $40 power cutter from Harbor Freight.

I use my power cutters for cutting up cardboard that we get from cereal boxes, shipping boxes from Amazon and QVC, cardboard boxes from items we buy at the store, etc... That cardboard makes great coop litter and nest box litter. For me, it's worth cutting up the cardboard and shredding it in my 9 sheet paper shredder at home. I have not had to haul any cardboard to the recycle center for about 4 years.

Today, I think I found the practical limit to how much the power cutter can cut through. I bought a new BBQ grill this past week and the shipping box that it came in was extra thick cardboard. Double the thickness of the normal shipping boxes we normally get. My power cutter was able to cut through that double thick cardboard, but it was not easy.

I ended up using my razor blade utility knife to cut that double thick cardboard and that worked better. I cut that cardboard into that 1-2 inch wide strips for my shredder and fed it down the credit card slot in the center of my machine. The cardboard was so thick that I had to force the strips into the slot until the teeth could grab ahold of the cardboard. So, I found the limits of my shredder as well as that double thick cardboard was actually a bit too thick for the paper slot on my shredder.

If your home shredder cannot shred a good 9 sheets or more, I would not suggest even trying to shred this type of double thick cardboard. It's just not worth breaking your home shredder. It's the limit of my shredder, for sure, but when cut into narrow strips, my shredder will chew through it.

There is even heavier cardboard than the double thick box I got with my new BBQ grill. If I ever get any triple thick cardboard, it's going to get tossed into the burn barrel or sent to the recycle center. It won't fit through the paper slot in my shredders, so it's just not an option.

Here is a nice chart of the types of cardboard that you might get at home. As I said, I found my limit is the double-wall board.

 

[Finnie]

I ended up using my razor blade utility knife to cut that double thick cardboard

Thank you for this post! I bought the power cutter from Menards based on your recommendation but I have not gotten it out of the package yet. Today when I read that you used your utility knife, it reminded me that I had been using my utility knife to cut some cardboard for lining my canning shelves. And the utility knife didn’t work so great. And then I remembered that I’ve got that silly power cutter sitting unused in its package which I’m sure will work much better. (This is not super thick cardboard.) I am going to go right now and get that power cutter out and place it near my canning shelves so that I will remember to use it next time!

 

[gtaus]

Thank you for this post! I bought the power cutter from Menards based on your recommendation but I have not gotten it out of the package yet. Today when I read that you used your utility knife, it reminded me that I had been using my utility knife to cut some cardboard for lining my canning shelves. And the utility knife didn’t work so great. And then I remembered that I’ve got that silly power cutter sitting unused in its package which I’m sure will work much better. (This is not super thick cardboard.) I am going to go right now and get that power cutter out and place it near my canning shelves so that I will remember to use it next time!

I use my power cutters all the time, not just for cutting cardboard to shred for coop litter. But, yeah, take out that power cutter and charge it up for use. It's one of those tools that the more you use it, the more things you will use it for. Well, that was the case for me.

I have many razor blade utility knifes as well. They work great, but they are definitely less safe. I keep the power cutters inside the house, and the utility knives are out in the garage and I treat them as a tool that can easily cut myself.

I just watched a YouTube video on using hooked cutting blades on a multitool for cutting heavy cardboard. I have a couple of multitools, but I have never seen a hooked cutting blade. I'm going to have to look and see if I can find one of those at a store to add to my multitool accessory kits. Looks like another option that might not cost a lot of money (assuming you have a multitool) and it's probably safer than the utility knife.

Not too bad a price if it can cut through that double- and triple-wall cardboard. Of course, the multitools I have cost around $100.00, so I'm not going to suggest buying a multitool and hooked blades just to make some FREE paper shreds out of cardboard.

But I do recommend the much less expensive power cutters if you want to cut up your cardboard shipping boxes and shred them. The power cutters are so useful for many other jobs around the house. I know I got my money's worth out of my power cutters.