Where do you buy your litter?

[coffeehead11]

Where do you buy your litter for a deep litter coop? Knowing how much they like to go, they could blow through several of those $5 walmart bags a week without a lot of effort.

 

[jenjscott]

I get mine from a feed store, they are bigger bags than the walmart bedding, but smaller shavings. I am looking for a bulk supplier.

 

[B'villechicken]

Feed Store or Tractor Supply.

 

[cubalaya]

petco

 

[PeeperKeeper]

I get mine from Bagdad Roller Mill. They supply to the horse farms in the area and it has to be a good grade. One bag will do a 12X12 stall nicely. Sometimes its smal shavings and sometimes a little larger. Personally, I like the smaller shavings....easier to clean.

 

[bigredfeather]

I get mine from my local lumberyard. They have a shop where they plane a good amount of wood. The best part is that it is free for the taking. All I have to do is scoop it into garbage bags. I buy a box of 20 garbage bags for $5 bucks, and I get close to $100 worth of wood chips when they are all filled. I get free bedding and they get rid of something they would have to pay to dispose of.

If you have a local lumberyard with a mill, check and see if they have it available.

 

[chickenshagg]

Farmers COOP. Big bags at a low price!

 

[Tonopah Pati]

I buy Compressed bales from the Feed Stores. $9.00 a bale. There is a post on CL Arizona. for 10 lb. bags. $10.00 for his. West Phx.

I will check and see if I can find a co-op around me.

 

[PandoraTaylor]

$ 20 for a compressed Bale @ the Feed Store.

I tried the free Lumber Mill stuff it was not very good, to much moisture in it.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Feedstores are generally the least-expensive, as it is being sold in big bags for livestock bedding not small bags for gerbils

I pay about $5 a bale, which is, what, something like 3 cu. ft and expands when released from the wrapper.

If you are using deep bedding but removing it all every week or two, then yes, it gets expensive, but that is not necessarily the best management approach... there are a lot of other ways of doing it, most of which use less bedding, and honestly the traditional deep-litter method (where you just let it all accumulate, possibly picking out the worst spots from time to time, and stirring it and adding new bedding on top, until a problem develops or springtime arrives) uses just about the LEAST amount of bedding

One thing that will greatly decrease your bedding use is to make droppings boards under the roost, and scrape 'em daily. Or you can do a droppings-pit arrangement that gets cleaned less frequently but that will not improve air quality in the coop and some ways you do it can end up using more bedding than a daily-cleaned board.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat