What is the least dusty bedding in cold climate?

[gtaus]

I wish the local chippers were so generous here.. everybody here are so greedy as they charge for everything.. if they can sell you a rotten apple they would!

When I was first driving around looking for some free wood chips, I came upon a wood products business that had piles and piles of wood chips sitting out in their backyard. I went in and asked if I could fill up my trailer with chips from their "dump" pile, and was I could for only $60 a load! Well, forget that. Later that day I found my way out to our local county landfill and they told me that they charge the arborists for a dumping fee of the wood chips, but I could come and take as many loads of chips I wanted for free.

 

[gtaus]

For example I wanted to buy a ton of mulch from the local landscaper and he wanted to charge me $20 delivery ... I was 5 mins away! And they're pretty dishonest.. I once ordered 2 tons and I'm pretty sure they only trucked a ton. Another time I ordered top soil and they trucked in sand!

Top soil can vary in quality depending on where they get it from. I bought a load of top soil from a landscaping company that turned out to be poor quality soil, and that was the last load I bought from that source. It was topsoil, but just not very good topsoil.

I went to a local garden center where they sell black Red River topsoil for twice the price per load, but is infinitely better soil for the garden beds. I was able to examine the soil at the garden center before buying so I knew what I was getting. Live and learn.

 

[ChookieG]

Top soil can vary in quality depending on where they get it from. I bought a load of top soil from a landscaping company that turned out to be poor quality soil, and that was the last load I bought from that source. It was topsoil, but just not very good topsoil.

I went to a local garden center where they sell black Red River topsoil for twice the price per load, but is infinitely better soil for the garden beds. I was able to examine the soil at the garden center before buying so I knew what I was getting. Live and learn.

I know I just regretted not inspecting the quality first before they dumped it into our yard..I just trusted them.. that supposedly yellow sandy "top soil" is still sitting in between layers of quality composted that I made on site after 7 years!!

 

[ChookieG]

When I was first driving around looking for some free wood chips, I came upon a wood products business that had piles and piles of wood chips sitting out in their backyard. I went in and asked if I could fill up my trailer with chips from their "dump" pile, and was I could for only $60 a load! Well, forget that. Later that day I found my way out to our local county landfill and they told me that they charge the arborists for a dumping fee of the wood chips, but I could come and take as many loads of chips I wanted for free.

Yeap that's right... the Landfill here charges for dumping most items including wood (exceptions are things like car batteries, paints, old engine oil and some other stuff).. and the worst part? They also charge you for taking that rubbish out of their premises...

 

[gtaus]

Yeap that's right... the Landfill here charges for dumping most items including wood (exceptions are things like car batteries, paints, old engine oil and some other stuff).. and the worst part? They also charge you for taking that rubbish out of their premises...

At least we can load up our wood chips for free from the county landfill. They only charge to dump debris.

Last year I was out at the landfill and noticed that someone had thrown out some metal scaffolding. It looked like it was still in good shape, so I loaded it into my trailer. The guy at the landfill was not very happy that I was scavenging the metal pile. I offered to pay for the metal because I know they only get pennies on the pound, but he just let me take it but not to do it again. So I took the scaffolding and have it set up in my garage. I use it as an extra work bench and shelving.

Personally, I think we throw away too much stuff that we no longer need. I believe we should develop systems to reuse such items instead of having them dumped as garbage and shipped off to some third world country. If someone throws out a $200 perfectly good set of scaffolding because they are done with their project, then I don't see what harm is done if someone else wants to salvage that set from the landfill and use it. Well, at least we can load up our wood chips for free. That's a start.

 

[ChookieG]

Personally, I think we throw away too much stuff that we no longer need. I believe we should develop systems to reuse such items instead of having them dumped as garbage and shipped off to some third world country. If someone throws out a $200 perfectly good set of scaffolding because they are done with their project, then I don't see what harm is done if someone else wants to salvage that set from the landfill and use it. Well, at least we can load up our wood chips for free. That's a start.

Good on ya @gtaus, I'm 100% in agreement with you. I salvaged a few bricks that were thrown out into the landfill.. these were discarded most likely from a home renovation/demolition project... most of the bricks were perfectly intact.. the motar just had to be removed. The sad thing was these beautiful red bricks were vintage and at least 100 years old - these were solid stuff with no deep core holes, having been produced at a local brickworks that was closed down in the mid 1900s. Unfortunately I could only take what I could carry as I didn't have the proper tools, transport or muscles to haul the heavy bricks.

I always try to up-cycle my furniture or items. I hate having to discard anything into the tip (landfill). It's absolutely polluting and it often encourages unnecessary and excessive consumerism if it was so easy to throw out good stuff and decide to just keep buying new ones.

Apologies for hijacking this thread. Just wanted to say my two cents worth.

 

[gtaus]

I always try to up-cycle my furniture or items. I hate having to discard anything into the tip (landfill). It's absolutely polluting and it often encourages unnecessary and excessive consumerism if it was so easy to throw out good stuff and decide to just keep buying new ones.

Apologies for hijacking this thread. Just wanted to say my two cents worth.

Yep, maybe a bit off topic on my part, but still somewhat related. Wood chips are considered debris where I live and you have to pay to dump them at the landfill. Fortunately, if you want to load up a trailer full of wood chips and take them away from the landfill, they will let us do that. Sometimes they get moldy bales of hay and such, and they will let you take that as well. Might be good for mulch or composting, I guess.

All the other material is off limits to take, which is a shame, because I know that some people throw out all kinds of good, reusable stuff, only because they are done with it. I would love to take home a pile of bricks, etc... from the landfill which I could use at home. But we can't. We are forced to go to the store and buy new, while all the time that stuff in the landfill is just polluting the environment and/or getting shipped off to third world countries.

Anyway, if a person can get free wood chips from a local landfill, that is a great option for consideration. Shredding paper, which I am doing this winter, also works great as a dust free bedding litter while at the same time reduces the waste piling up in our landfills.

 

[Randol]

Interesting. So if that is the main reason for the dust, I probably won’t see a difference with different bedding.
I will experiment and see.

I live on a farm so dust is a everyday thing for me and was never a thought to try to keep it out of the coop. I live in NC so winters here are not so bad. Wheat straw was just bailed here on the farm and is really dusty, hay not so bad. I have lots of pine trees so I use Pine straw for bedding, works good (its free) and hardly any dust.

 

[3KillerBs]

I use Pine straw for bedding, works good (its free) and hardly any dust.

Pine straw is the secret weapon bedding of the Steamy Southeast.

Free for the raking, relatively long-lasting, and always dries out quickly on top no matter how heavy the rain.

The con being that it's not particularly absorbent.