Warmest bedding?

[freerange4hens]

I have a smaller coop for only 4 hens, it is not heated and it's been getting in the lower double digits lately at night and soon single digits. I would like to know what bedding is best to use on the bottom of the coop to keep it the warmest? I have pine shavings in there now.

Thank you!

 

[bobelot]

straw is probably quite warm

 

[OkChickens]

I use shavings year around and they work great. Sometimes it gets really cold here or low single digits and my birds do fine. Straw does now dry out the poop which might cause bad smells.


Nate

 

[nwredrooster]

I would go with 6 to 8 inches of pine shavings anywhere you can pile it up. Its great insulation - good for five to ten degrees of additional warmth in coop. Also keeps coop dry which helps.

 

[freerange4hens]

Ok, maybe I will just go thicker on the shavings the. I do like how it dries up there droppings and easy to just sweep up.

Thanks!

 

[aggiemae]

During the summer we used just sand that we clean with a kitty litter scoop but it felt too cold in the coop so we added 5" of pine shavings in for winter and it raised the coop temperature about 8 degrees. It's been freezing here and one of out hens had a very hard molt is is practically bald but they seem to be doing just fine in the coop and out off the wind. I think hay would do the same (and for less money) but it seems to me that the poop would clump up and stuck to hay faster and be harder to clean up.

My hens pretty much jump off the roost and out the door as soon as I open the coop so don't scratch their poop into the shavings like some people say theirs do so I am cleaning the coop every second day and there is lots more waste that there was with just the sand but I figure that one bale of shavings will last just until the weather warms up. If they did scratch the poop would go down to the (volcanic) sand and dry out but I am not sure this happens if you only uses shavings.