Hen coop bedding isn’t only a luxurious. Enough clutter supplies a safe basis for chickens’ legs and ft, a comfortable touchdown for eggs, a approach to acquire droppings temporarily and the facility to simply blank your birds’ housing. Listed here are among the extra broadly used bedding fabrics—plus a couple of nontraditional ones—and the way very best to make use of them.
The Bedding Lineup
Conventional hen coop bedding fabrics and nontraditional ones have their professionals and cons, however your choices are manageable.
1. Straw and Hay
Solar-colored straw, with its candy, earthy scent and springy texture is what many new hen keepers achieve for to line their coop and nest packing containers.
2. Pine Shavings
A well-liked and prudent selection for clutter is pine shavings, discovered at many feed-supply retail outlets, big-box retail outlets or even pet-supply retail outlets. Pine shavings dry speedy, are reasonably priced and don’t destroy down temporarily, making them a super bedding subject matter. The gentle pine smell is inviting, despite the fact that it does fade over the years.
3. Cedar Shavings
Talking of a nice aroma (and that’s a unprecedented subject certainly the place chickens are involved!), an alternative choice to pine shavings is cedar shavings. There’s a lot debate as to the sturdy fragrant nature of cedar shavings and their results on chickens’ refined respiration methods, and it kind of feels the jury continues to be out. To play it protected, I like to recommend fending off using cedar shavings with very younger chicks confined to a brooder.
Then again, many hen keepers have used cedar shavings with good fortune of their coops with grownup flocks, as long as the birds produce other spaces to inhabit but even so the coop. In case you go for cedar shavings, they’re simple to search out at pet-supply retail outlets however are a bit costlier than pine; they do actually scent nice and paintings as a herbal insect-repellent.
4. Sand
Sand, when used as coop bedding, is a wonderful and really blank selection for individuals who have the time to commit to it. Whilst pricey first of all, in comparison to the choices indexed right here, sand as bedding within the coop want handiest get replaced a few times a 12 months if diligently wiped clean and contained.
Sand dries in no time and can also be became over with a rake to make use of the deep-litter manner (mentioned under) or scooped with a cat clutter scooper when utilized in small coops. Sand is the ground subject matter of selection for out of doors runs which can be uncovered to the weather continuously: It doesn’t destroy down, it dries speedy and it doubles as an excellent subject matter for dirt baths. Your chickens will like it, as mine do. You should definitely use builder’s sand (discovered at home-improvement retail outlets), as sandbox sand is simply too high quality and has a tendency to clump.
5. Grass Clippings
When you have sufficient, grass clippings are one viable coop bedding possibility, however they have got a couple of disadvantages. Clippings generally tend to retain moisture and destroy down temporarily. Additionally they dry, shrink and scent. In case you go for grass clippings within the coop, make sure they arrive from a backyard that hasn’t been sprayed with insecticides, fungicides, herbicides or different chemical substances. Chickens will select at the rest and the entirety of their coop–bedding is not any exception, particularly if there are insects in it!
6. Shredded Leaves
That is an possibility if the leaves are finely shredded so that they dry temporarily. Complete leaves take a very long time to damage down and are at risk of harboring moisture, sticking in combination and matting. Rainy leaves make a slippery floor that would result in splayed legs or bumblefoot, particularly in more youthful, rising birds.
7. Recycled Paper
A bunch of reclaimed and recycled artifical fabrics, equivalent to shredded newspaper or shredded place of job paper, are choices. Whilst they’re unfastened, use them with warning. Ink can also be poisonous to chickens, and place of job paper is closely processed and handled. Shiny paper—the sort present in magazines and fliers—additionally accommodates a considerable amount of ink and will create a disheveled and/or slippery floor.
For the Nest Field
For my part, pine or cedar shavings are the most efficient bedding fabrics for nest packing containers. They dry temporarily, be offering considerable padding for eggs, and scent contemporary and woodsy. In case you’re cautious of the use of cedar shavings within the coop, the nest field is a smart position to check out it out. Chickens are hardly in a nest field lengthy sufficient for any fragrant oils to disturb their respiration methods (until brooding, after all).
Combine in some overwhelmed, dried herbs, equivalent to mint, rosemary or lavender to stay positive pests at bay. This can be a not unusual apply to naturally combat pests, and maximum chickens don’t undergo any antagonistic results from fragrant oils of the herbs.
For the Coop
For the hen coop, it kind of feels pine and cedar shavings would win once more. (Once more, that is my article and my opinion!) For the entire causes discussed in the past, shavings are the perfect subject matter to line the coop. The use of the deep-litter manner guarantees that even the bedding doesn’t move to waste and doesn’t require an important funding in clutter to have a wholesome possibility on your flock.
For the Run
For an outside run, sand is the winner. Once more, it dries speedy, doesn’t destroy down, can also be simply became over to make use of the deep-litter manner, and your flock will like to dust-bathe in it. I’ve by no means changed the sand in my run; I’ve handiest added to it, because the dust-bathing chickens toss it out!
Going Deep
The deep-litter manner of coop cleansing comes to a bit preparation, well timed attendance and a few calculated laziness. The theory in the back of the deep-litter manner is modest: Start with a number of inches of bedding subject matter, and construct the bedding, lasagna-style. Upload a couple of extra inches of subject matter about as soon as per 30 days, give or take, relying at the dimension of your coop, the choice of birds you stay and what kind of time they spend of their coop.
Come with just a little of food-grade diatomaceous earth with each and every layer. Stay a rake at hand to show the bedding over periodically—in most cases, about as soon as per week. In case you start to see flies, pests or an way over manure, upload extra bedding and switch it extra regularly.
The deep-litter manner calls for not more bedding subject matter than every other manner, nevertheless it does gather over the years and has a tendency to trickle out because the birds come and move. Use a plywood board or one thing identical on the coop door to include the bedding.
The theory in the back of the deep-litter manner is to permit the older bedding and hen waste to damage down, slowly decomposing (and necessarily composting) within the coop whilst offering just a little of herbal heat. It’s additionally a marvelous manner designed to save lots of the hen keeper’s time, power and again. The deep-litter manner of coop repairs calls for a complete coop cleansing about every year, or even that can be extra widespread than is wanted. Use your eyes, nostril and just right judgment to resolve when you wish to have to switch the bedding and get started once more. A blank, cared-for coop will have to by no means emit scent.
Save Cash: Use a Shedding Board
Chickens make the vast majority of their waste all through the night time when roosting, so one of the best ways to be frugal concerning the bedding you buy and use on your coops is to put in and make use of a losing board or tray positioned below the roosts. The forums will catch the entire middle of the night waste, sparing your bedding of huge quantities of waste trafficked around the coop and can stay dry and (most commonly) blank.
Shedding forums additionally make switch of natural waste to composts simple and environment friendly. A board can successfully be used along with the deep-litter manner, and with each strategies mixed, would possibly save further prices in bedding than when you have been merely using one.
Until your birds are stored in wire-bottom hutches (one thing I don’t suggest), all coops want bedding. Have in mind, lining the coop with at ease, high quality clutter isn’t spoiling your birds; through offering them a comfortable basis and retaining it blank, you might be making sure the well being of your flock, their convenience and blank eggs. Your birds (and their uncracked eggs) will thanks!
This newsletter about hen coop bedding used to be written for Chickens mag. Click on right here to subscribe.