Wood chips for bedding?

[Shadrach]

I would avoid hay if at all possible.
While the article and the term for the mite is "straw" it is in fact more of a problem in hay than it is in correctly harvested and stored straw. It's one of the reasons hay makes some people itchy while clean straw doesn't.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/straw-itch-mite.75561/

 

[Ascholten]

Ive been using it for over 2 years now and have not had any problems with it and it works well for me. I get the compressed blocks from tsc that you just scrape off and scatter on the floor. I leave an inch or three in there at all times, at least I try to. IF it's too deep, that invites them to start digging thru themand spewing them all places you did NOT want them.

It holds the poop, you can scoop it right off, I actually use tongs to grab it and throw in a bucket, it holds the smell down, and will soak up fluids pretty well Ive seen, In the morning there's a turd pile and the chips under are a bit moist, just all one grab and it's gone and shuffle the rest of the chips around and the bedding is whole again. It also I believe holds down any smells too, As long as it is not standing in water you dont have any problems. I had one issue of coop flooding, and the wood kept it down and I just scooped it out and put new down and all was well.

I have not seen any problems with spilinters, it's soft enough really and shaved, it has a well.. woody smell. sometimes the finer shavings work better in some instances.

Ok im rambling trying of other things to tell you but... in closing.
used it for 2 years, works pretty good for me.

Aaron

 

[Auntiejessi3]

A tip: maybe avoid hay in a coop, i beileve it adds humidity and may mold. Or we personally anyway dont use it. (random but i thought i should say it sense some people are using it where we live. Im not sure if its for everybody, but thats what ive heard and we dislike using it)

I use hay in the nest boxes, but that's it. I tried to switch to shavings and my ladies refused to lay in the nest boxes (eggs everywhere, lol) so they won, and I went back to hay

 

[gimmie birdies]

Not a fan of wood chips, I don't care what kind. I have seen chicks eat them at feed stores, and I know a lady that lost 6, 6 week old chicks because they were not raised on chips then the chips were introduced at 6 weeks of age.

 

[Jazzyfresh]

Ok, got the pictures.

My air vents are in the ceiling* and the roof is open in the front**

*

**

I have a window, but am leaving it shut in the winter

 

[Jazzyfresh]

BTW thank you for all the feedback! I'm using wood chips right now, but I put a thin carpet of hay (I'm pretty sure its hay) on top.

I know a lady that lost 6, 6 week old chicks because they were not raised on chips then the chips were introduced at 6 weeks of age.

My chicks where raised in wood shavings and never had any problems with transferring to wood chips

 

[aart]

My air vents are in the ceiling* and the roof is open in the front

I would pull that ceiling right down to fully utilize the open "roof"(soffit).
Is there soffit in the back too?
Pics outside all around would be good, looks like there is nor overhang on the sides of coop?

 

[3KillerBs]

I would pull that ceiling right down to fully utilize the open "roof"(soffit).
Is there soffit in the back too?
Pics outside all around would be good, looks like there is nor overhang on the sides of coop?

Yes, this is excellent advice.

Those little holes are not adequate fresh air for birds' delicate respiratory system.

 

[Choo-Choo]

Let me preface this with disclaimers: We live in "high desert" of north-central Arizona (State Motto: "....but it's a DRY heat....") My wife started initially with pine shavings from the farm-implement supply company for the first year or so, but later experimented with something else:

DRIED COFFEE GROUNDS.
Somewhere (probably here?) my wife heard about the idea, and tried a batch in one of our two coops, in the trays/beds under the perches.
The concept is that it works like kitty litter, but since chickens don't urinate, it just lets the poop dry out, so you can sift it just like a cat's litter box--something we couldn't do with pine shavings. The grounds compost along with the poop, and I've never seen a chicken eat at the grounds (it's supposedly harmless, they just try it once and never again or something).
You can buy big 50-lb. bags of dried-out, compressed grounds at some feed stores, but if you're thrifty and strike up a relationship with a coffeehouse, you can conveniently take their coffee grounds daily, often bagged in a giant filter bag over the course of a day. A drive-through coffee stand is a third of a mile from our place, and I make a nearly-daily pick-up, place the bag on a rack to dry in the sun, and now that winter is upon us I'm experimenting with using my large propane-fired smoker as a drier. I manage 2-3 five-gallon buckets a week, on average. When we do a full clean-out and replacement, the grounds and poop go to a huge compost pile along with some grass, shredded weeds, the chicken poop, an occasional dusting of lime to neutralize the acid, etc. (I've also started light dustings of powdered/granular agricultural lime with a grass seeder through the runs and coops every few weeks to help keep odors down.) It's only become compost after weekly waterings and turnings; before it had been ignored by the in-laws and turned into fossilized poop/grass. Now with the coffee added, it's a rich festering compost pile.
For their kindness in letting me "steal their trash," the coffee stand gets rewarded with a LOT of daily purchases from my wife's co-workers nearby, and fresh eggs once in a while for the workers there. (In spring I'm competing with people mixing potting soil, so....)

We still use shavings as part of the nesting material in the nestboxes, bottomed out by "fake grass" mats and carpet samples.

As for the runs, we have the extreme luxury of having the ten-acre plot covered by 25 large truckloads of mixed mulch, dumped with our permission by the county (for whom the one brother-in-law works) when the county ended up with so much mulch it had to truck and dump it at any ranch willing to take it. So we have plenty of mixed-wood mulch, aged 1-2 years, to make life a little softer than the rock-hard dirt parched by drought that otherwise would be at the bottom of the runs. We have to toss larger chunks to the woodpile, but I've never seen any ill effects to the chickens' feet. But we leave enough dirt exposed for the chickens to dig their baths as well. And the free-rangers who make it to the outlying mulch love digging for bugs and worms and the like.

UPDATE with care notes: If you do not dry the coffee THOROUGHLY and/or if moisture gets into the grounds, the grounds can develop mold (green, in our case) and need to be changed out. The biggest culprit in our grounds is the occasional clump of damp, pressed espresso powder, which if not broken up and spread stays wet and will act like a "mold seed" to start mold growing. The mold manifests itself as large clumps of grounds stuck together like damp cat litter.

 

[Jazzyfresh]

Is there soffit in the back too?

No, just in the front. The ceiling is the only thing (besides the rafters) between the hens and anything that might try and get in through the roof. Also, I don't want the hens roosting on the rafters because there are nails sticking out of the wood. I doubt they would, but the ceiling is working as a extra precaution.

Those little holes are not adequate fresh air for birds' delicate respiratory system.

The hens don't seem to be having any problems, and I do leave the window open in the day, (in the summer I'll leave it a crack open at night). But if I do start to notice anything, bringing the ceiling down seems like a good idea.