When utilized effectively, pine shavings also can help decrease odors and dampness buildup, reducing the risk of respiratory issues in your flock.
We’ve never ever utilized sand during the chicken coop, so have zero particular expertise with it. We’ll Permit you to make up your individual brain, but for just a little investigate, in this article’s two posts which can help you choose.
Conversely, hardwoods like oak and maple are commonly thought of safer for your personal flock, but They might not offer the identical degree of pest Regulate.
When I had pine in my coop, a few of my hens even insisted on dust bathing in it. They just couldn’t support by themselves. It doesn’t subject that they experienced fantastic dust bathing places appropriate outside the house the coop.
The only real greater litter resource is sand, which will get a one hundred% on its ‘litter scorecard.’ For additional on sand while in the coop, consider my report, Utilizing sand for chicken coop bedding.
On this page, I’ve summarized the findings of most of the main academic scientific studies in regards to the toxicity of pine shavings, including:
The bedding products the workforce procured have been the exact resources the institutions ended up using to rear the rodents that they utilised for their biomedical analysis.
After i to start with bought chickens, I applied pine shavings for an entire calendar year (I had no clue they were being harmful). My coop is very very well ventilated, considerably more so than typical, but I nevertheless experienced dust everywhere
I rake & scoop the operate each several days, insert a couple luggage occasionally and completely alter out the sand yearly during the Spring. Could it be precisely the same While using the pellets or do you fully switch much more normally? Also, do you intend to employ lime?
Outdated practices die tricky—it’s a indicating for any purpose. When methods are ingrained inside of a lifestyle or establishment, like applying pine shavings for bedding, it can be very hard to change People techniques, even after they have been confirmed to generally be hazardous.
a fantasy—it’s backed up by extremely robust evidence. But because cedar toxicity continues to be typically accepted for a minimum of many years, this obtaining wasn’t genuinely that surprising to me. (See my post on Why you must under no circumstances use cedar as part of your coop For more info).
Jun 6, 2024 A note around the pellet bedding. I employed it for fifty percent a dozen pullets, I had been feeding them pelleted foods. Undesirable plan. The very little morons couldn't explain to the pelleted bedding from pellet foods and stuffed their crops with it.
To maintain your coop dry, make sure very good air flow by setting up Home windows or vents that make it possible for contemporary air to flow into.
On the other hand, there are a few factors I ought to Allow you to learn about pelletized bedding. It involves no more Check Here perform, but a different variety. Simply because You must rake the pellets on just about every week or two (probably 3 In case you are genuinely chaotic or have a small flock), it involves about twenty minutes of care every single so usually. On the other hand, this could help save you The 2 several hours of cleansing that includes flakes.