Wood chips with cedar

[legojenn]

Hi:

I am writing for a friend. We live on the edge of a fairly large city and we're struggling to find wood chips for her coops. I'm baffled that this is a challenge considering how many sawmills that exist, especially on the Quebec side of the river. I found a local furniture-maker of offered free wood chips, but could not guarantee no cedar. Would say 5% cedar be harmful? One coop is 6x4x4 and the other is 4x4x4. The faeces is frozen to the floor. We need to cover it for the birds' sake. A little cedar must be better for them than a gross floor. We are getting a few days above 0 this week, hopefully we can pull out some of the mess if it thaws.

 

[Abriana]

The fumes from ceder is what is harmful to chickens. I don't think that a little would be harmful. Using ceder as your primary bedding would be a problem however. I don't think that 5% is going to be an issue.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have cedar in my wood chip pile (unavoidable around here), probably like 1/4 to 1/3 of my chips are cedar, but I let it sit and age for 6 months before I started using it, so it lost a lot of aroma, so I feel fine using it in a well ventilated coop. Note that there's different types of cedar, some more aromatic than others. Not sure if your furniture maker can tell you what type of cedar they have. Eastern white cedar I believe is the most aromatic.

Obviously you're looking to use the chips immediately, so I'd say give them a sniff and if the chips smell "cedar-y" I would not use them.

 

[sourland]

I've always been leery of cedar ever since I nearly killed a litter of beagle pups with cedar shavings. Some cedar products contain high levels of volatiles.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

I would avoid cedar at all costs! Not worth the risk!

 

[aart]

I'd avoid cedar too.
No farm stores near you that sell pine shavings?