What About Fig And Pluot Tree Bedding Chips

[Stan]

I have heard of using cedar chips for chicken bedding. I have a large Fig Tree and three Pluot (Hybrid Plum and Apricot) Trees. I just finished trimming them and decided to use my Chipper/Shredder to make the trimming into potential bedding chips. I am sun drying the chips currently and I would like some feed back on if anyone on the forum has any experience that might help me decide to use the chips as bedding chips in my coop....

 

[patandchickens]

Nonresinous woods (basically, hardwoods - which includes figs and pluots) need to be used a bit more carefully because they are a bit more prone to mold, but they *can* be used as long as you are attentive.

Chippings won't be absorbant the way shavings would be, but certainly they will intercept poo and keep it from sticking to the floor, so if you have a free source I suppose it is not an unreasonable thing to do.

If you care a lot about bedding performance, you might be better off using pine shavings (which is what most people use) for bedding, or whatever has previously been your bedding of choice, and just dumping the wood chippings into the chickens' run for the chickens to poke around in. With the continual addition of chicken poo they will gradually compost down out there -- you can, at some point, remove them for use in the garden, or let them stay there in the run IF your run is not at all inclined to mud or dampness or flies or smell. If you have any of those issues with your run, I would suggest removing any woodchips before they start to get too broken-down and add to the problem.

Wood chippings make excellent garden mulch, btw, if you end up with more than the coop can use.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[chookchick]

Well how Martha Stewart! "I use only plum and fig trimmings for the bedding, you can taste it slightly in the egg yolk". I've used all kinds of wood chips and shavings for bedding, as long as they don't have a strong smell (some need aging). Or as Pat says, put them in the run for the chooks to dig around in.