Wood Chipper to make "shavings"?

[GarlicEater]

We have a lot of pine and elm, some oak, we also have black walnut but we can keep that out, I'm wondering if it might make sense to get a wood chipper and use that to process some of the wood around here into chicken bedding? I guess I'll have to build a "drying house" to put it in, dry it out, then I might have all the bedding I'll ever need for the price of a little gasoline and and labor.

Heck you can EAT elm, and pine's pretty innocuous.

What do you guys/gals think of this idea?

 

[Cargo]

Joel Salatin from Polyface Farms uses wood chips from the woods on the farm for bedding and has for years.

 

[patandchickens]

It depends on the wood chipper but none that I have yet to see will make anything like "shavings". They will produce something more like mulch, basically non-absorbant, and some of them produce more like hogfuel i.e. largely sticks and spikes and splits of fairly large size. At the very least, you'd want to SEE exactly what a particular model produces, before buying.

Second, are these live or dead trees. If they are dead, merely drying them somewhere out of the rain for a while will suffice. But if they are live trees then they will mold QUITE BADLY if you pile the stuff, indoors or out. You either have to let them compost for six months or so then re-dry them out somewhere, or I suppose if you had a lumber drying kiln-type shed you could use that but realistically nobody does

Honestly, you will get mulch that you can use for the chicken run if you use mulch there, and you can put the finer stuff inside the coop *if* you go to considerable pains to dry it and keep it mold-free, BUT it will not be absorbant or easy to work with like shavings are.

So, you can try it but should be aware that it may turn out rather differently than you're imagining.

Also chippers that do a decent job are expensive, and you could buy a LOT of shavings (especially if you can find a good source for them by the dumpload) for that price.

Just some things to think about anyhow, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[RoeDylanda]

I used my father's chipper last fall and nothing that came out of there would be suitable-- the sizes varied by a lot, but not much was small enough to be absorbent. Also, I'd be concerned about mold spores-- even if you dry the chips, they can survive a long time at non-kiln temperatures. Sorry to be the voice of gloom! But I agree with Pat.

 

[WallTenters]

My mom has a chipper, she uses it on the limbs of her orchard trees. None of the chips are small enough to use for bedding, but she does put them down in the run and it really helps - they have very slippery soil and tons of rain over there, so it's impossible to control the mud or keep sand down (it just washes away). The chips are cheap for her, and a good help with not letting the run get so slippery.