Which is better pine shavings or straw?

[MsBentleyboy]

therealsilkiechick That seems handy. Wish I would have thought about raising mine enough to do that.

 

[therealsilkiechick]

i wasn't thinking that though when i built my breeder pens. it was for a few other reasons i did. the main one was to keep my whites clean. cuz the yard doesn't drain right and gets really muddy.

this is how nice they stay all year cuz of being off the ground. the other reason was for predator control. we have never had a predator attach since we moved them here into the above ground coops and runs. they r also 4 in 1 pens to seperate breeds or colors. the easy cleaning is just an added bonus we realized later,lol.
silkie

 

[Gloria]

Do you dump the straw/shavings right on the garden from the coop? Or do you let it sit for awhile first? Won't it burn my plants? Also, should I work it in the dirt?

Sorry so many questions, curious minds want to know. lol

 

[rughooker]

I have been using straw in my coop. Never heard of using construction sand. It would be alot cheaper than pine shavings too. I just acquired more babies, and I bet they would like walking inthe sand better than sharp straw. Two are blue silkie banties and thay can't be more than 3 or 4 days old. Theres a building supply place about 10 min. from me. Do you think I should try the construction sand? Thanks in advance!

rughooker

 

[dixygirl]

Well I finally stopped buying pine shavings because I got tired of shoveling the wet slop out. So I replaced it with sand inside the coop as well as outside. So far so good.

 

[Sylvie]

I use pine shavings but am going to try mixing in some ground leaves this fall; 75% shavings and 25% ground leaves. I don't see why it has to be 100% of anything. Of course I may be finding out the hard way.

 

[Jenski]

I use pine shavings in the coop, but in my modified version of the "deep litter method" I clean it out every day so it stays very dry. I have a small coop, though, and since I use a cat litter scoop and whisk broom I found hay/straw too hard to clean. You can't just pick up the piles without a bunch of hay!

I like shavings because I can easily tell when they are wet or dirty. Too hard to tell with hay.

I have also had some batches of hay that were very dusty/dirty, and I just never knew what I was going to get until I opened the bale. I didn't want my girls breathing too much funk in the coop.

 

[Weasleymum]

Where would one buy pine shavings, and what does it cost? I had just assumed that straw was the thing, but after reading this thread I guess to ass-u-me anything was dumb.

Wouldn't adding that much pine to the compost or garden make it too acidic? I want to use all of my chicken manure/litter in the vegetable garden, and I think I've got soil tthat's already a little too acid.

 

[Jashdon]

Yes, pine shavings and cedar shavings would increase the acidity of the soil. In the east and midwest that might not be a terrible thing, but here in the NW we have very acidic soils already. I use straw and compost it before it goes in the veggie garden.

 

[Sunny Chook Farm]

we use both, straw & pine shavings...