# Bedding



## ChickenFarmerAdam (Jun 24, 2014)

What type of bedding should I use? I was reading on the internet and it said that pine shavings have fumes along with hay

What type now?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Use pine shavings. I don't know what sites you were reading but pine shavings are very safe and clean to use with our birds. Even my newly hatched chicks started off on pine shavings.

Hay is frowned on because it can mold once it gets wet and can cause respiratory problems for our birds. Have you ever heard the term "farmers lung?" That was a fungal infection of the lungs that many farmers contracted working with moldy hay. Our birds are also susceptible to it. 

Hay also does not keep the birds' feet as clean as shavings and is not as absorbent.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I need to toss in here, use kiln dried shavings.

A friend was losing chicks right and left and could not figure out what was going on. Until she hit on the shavings. She was using the same bulk shavings she was getting for her horse and finally figured there were nasties in the untreated shavings that was killing her peeps.

When she switched to kiln dried the losses stopped.


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Been using pine shavings since the day I got chickens and that was 4 1/2 years ago. Won't use anything else. Besides, makes for great mulch around my shrubs and in my gardens in the spring and summer; heat in the wood boiler in the fall and winter.


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## powderhogg01 (Jun 4, 2013)

inside the coop or brooder its clean packaged pine shavings. in the run I use everything.. chainsaw chips, leaf litter, hay, straw alph alpha, if its compostable and natural it ends up in the run. they either eat it or dont.. either way it becomes dirt sooner or later.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I used straw in the run. Makes some of the prettiest dirt and the chickens do all of the work. No turning and maintaining a compost pile.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I'm trying peat moss as a recommendation. I must say, you can not beat it for dryness. I can sift through it with a kitty litter scoop and it doesn't hold the moisture like my sawdust does.the mix of peat, sawdust, and shavings in the coop is making something that looks absolutely gorgeous for the garden next year. 
I will say this bough, it's messy. The birds love it and they've done more dust bathing in the last week than they have all month, but they're all sooty now and it really sticks to your feet if they're at all wet. Not a problem when wearing rubbers but when you walk through the freshly hosed down run and into the coop in flip flops you come out looking like you've been slopping through a coal mine. Maybe it's a sign I should stop wearing flip flops to the coops LOL


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## matt_kas (Mar 11, 2013)

Fiere said:


> I'm trying peat moss as a recommendation. I must say, you can not beat it for dryness. I can sift through it with a kitty litter scoop and it doesn't hold the moisture like my sawdust does.the mix of peat, sawdust, and shavings in the coop is making something that looks absolutely gorgeous for the garden next year.
> I will say this bough, it's messy. The birds love it and they've done more dust bathing in the last week than they have all month, but they're all sooty now and it really sticks to your feet if they're at all wet. Not a problem when wearing rubbers but when you walk through the freshly hosed down run and into the coop in flip flops you come out looking like you've been slopping through a coal mine. Maybe it's a sign I should stop wearing flip flops to the coops LOL


I'm guilty of the same thing! Flip flops In the coop and run

Matt
partridge rock bantam breeder
Www.poultryrocks.com


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

Lol, hardly ever have anything but my flops on in the coop!


Jim


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## rob (Jun 20, 2012)

i use wood shavings for mine, they seem to love it.


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