Some (long) notes on chook bedding
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:36 pm
Over the last couple of years, I have been experimenting with different types of bedding for my chooks so I thought I’d share that experience with anybody who can be bothered to read all this.
Just to explain, I have one flock of hens in a converted shed with a concrete floor. They have access to an outside run. I then have some bantams and ex-bats in outside runs with smaller, wooden boxes for nesting/sleeping. The main purposes of the bedding are to provide scratching on the concrete floor, comfortable bases for the nest boxes and something to keep them from drowning in mud outside. The outside boxes also need something to keep the floors dry.
A general piece of advice, whatever you use, douse it with louse powder when you put it down and don’t bother to spread it around. Leave it in a pile in the middle of the floor and the birds will take great delight in arranging it as they want it.
The first thing I tried was shredded paper. Straight cut shredding is worse than useless. It doesn’t absorb any moisture or smell, it clogs up the compost heap afterwards and gets strewn around the garden by the wind. Worst of all it gets wound around their legs, like wading in spaghetti! Cross cut shredding is marginally better if mixed with grass clippings as it prevents the grass from clogging up and they help each other to break down.
I tried using grass clippings on the concrete floor with some success. Green clippings are fine in summer as they scratch it about allowing it to dry. It also provides great “entertainment value” keeping them quiet for days (useful if you have a cockerel). I also experimented last year with drying some for use in the winter as hay which worked really well. Wet or dry it masks chicken odours really well.
Moss raked from the lawn was also a big success. Raked on a dry day it provides lovely soft, warm bedding and all three houses currently have this on the floor. Again it provides much entertainment value and masks smell well. It seems to stay reasonably dry outside and the bantams currently have it on the floor of their run. Dry leaves in the autumn were also very good and lasted for ages on the concrete floor before being added to the compost heap.
Hedge prunings are fantastic in the outside runs. The entertainment value is phenomenal (as evidenced by a great deal of hopping and wing flapping and cries of “ooh come and look at this” when it’s delivered). It also helps to keep their feet out of the mud and, after a few weeks, the woody sticks that are left can be put on the bonfire. Lonicera hedging is their absolute favourite.
Bought wood shavings (only buy specific chook bedding so that it excludes dust and harmful cedar) is great for absorbing moisture (used all winter in the outside boxes) but is relatively expensive. It has the advantage that used shavings can be recycled directly onto the garden as mulch. Bought straw is cheaper and they seem to quite like it for the nesting boxes.
Do add your observations as well as I'd love to hear other ideas.
Cheers
Zoe
Just to explain, I have one flock of hens in a converted shed with a concrete floor. They have access to an outside run. I then have some bantams and ex-bats in outside runs with smaller, wooden boxes for nesting/sleeping. The main purposes of the bedding are to provide scratching on the concrete floor, comfortable bases for the nest boxes and something to keep them from drowning in mud outside. The outside boxes also need something to keep the floors dry.
A general piece of advice, whatever you use, douse it with louse powder when you put it down and don’t bother to spread it around. Leave it in a pile in the middle of the floor and the birds will take great delight in arranging it as they want it.
The first thing I tried was shredded paper. Straight cut shredding is worse than useless. It doesn’t absorb any moisture or smell, it clogs up the compost heap afterwards and gets strewn around the garden by the wind. Worst of all it gets wound around their legs, like wading in spaghetti! Cross cut shredding is marginally better if mixed with grass clippings as it prevents the grass from clogging up and they help each other to break down.
I tried using grass clippings on the concrete floor with some success. Green clippings are fine in summer as they scratch it about allowing it to dry. It also provides great “entertainment value” keeping them quiet for days (useful if you have a cockerel). I also experimented last year with drying some for use in the winter as hay which worked really well. Wet or dry it masks chicken odours really well.
Moss raked from the lawn was also a big success. Raked on a dry day it provides lovely soft, warm bedding and all three houses currently have this on the floor. Again it provides much entertainment value and masks smell well. It seems to stay reasonably dry outside and the bantams currently have it on the floor of their run. Dry leaves in the autumn were also very good and lasted for ages on the concrete floor before being added to the compost heap.
Hedge prunings are fantastic in the outside runs. The entertainment value is phenomenal (as evidenced by a great deal of hopping and wing flapping and cries of “ooh come and look at this” when it’s delivered). It also helps to keep their feet out of the mud and, after a few weeks, the woody sticks that are left can be put on the bonfire. Lonicera hedging is their absolute favourite.
Bought wood shavings (only buy specific chook bedding so that it excludes dust and harmful cedar) is great for absorbing moisture (used all winter in the outside boxes) but is relatively expensive. It has the advantage that used shavings can be recycled directly onto the garden as mulch. Bought straw is cheaper and they seem to quite like it for the nesting boxes.
Do add your observations as well as I'd love to hear other ideas.
Cheers
Zoe
Yet another reason not to replace them when they go to the great duckpond in the sky.
And even more of a motive to make sure I finally cut the grass this weekend. Sounds like the girls will love it 
