Best Type of Bedding For Your Chickens

Bedding is usually spread on the floor of the chicken coop, toabsorb moisture, droppings and odours. Alayer of bedding also acts as a soft surface for the chickens' feet and to keep the birds warm. A good layer of bedding should also be placed in the nesting boxes to provide comfort for the hen when she lays and to protect the eggs.Wood shavings, chips andbark , chopped straw and shredded paper all make effective chicken bedding and I will consider these in turn.

Wood shavings

Wood shavings (not sawdust) areone of the most popular bedding materials for chickens,as they arevery absorbent and easy to use. However unless you are lucky enough to know someone with a sawmill, these are becoming more and more expensive as the building industry struggles. Shavings are great for keeping odours down and reduce ammonia in the air from chicken droppings that can cause respiratory damage and eye problems. Shavings also provide insulation from the cold ground. In additionwhen doing your regular cleaning out of the chicken coop you simply need to turn the shavings with a fork exposing the dry bottom layer. You can then leave a full clean out until the nexttime, which makes this form of chicken beddingeconomical both in terms of time and money.

Shavings must not be derived from hardwoods as there are certain fungi and moulds in these thatcan cause problems. Similarly sawdust or dusty wood shavings should be avoided as the dust can cause respiratory problems.

But note that when rearing young chicks it is advisable not to use shavings as young birdsmay peck at the small shavings believing it to be food which will make them ill.

Wood Chips and Bark

Again this is not so easy to get cheaply now. These are not as absorbent as wood shavings and so need to be changed more frequently. The advantage of them is that they can be used for young birds as they are unlikely to mistake the larger pieces for food.

 

Straw is relatively cheap and easy to obtain and looks and smells lovely when first laid down. It is warm and provides excellentscratching material for yourchickens. They particularly like straw as they enjoy foraging for the grains of oats, barley andwheat depending on the type of straw you purchase. Wheat straw has the best drainagequalities out of all thedifferent available varieties.

When the straw gets a little soiled you can throw some graininto it. The chickens will then scratch around in the straw and this will turn it over andfreshen it up for another day. Straw can be rotted down for the garden or spread on the fields. Chicken manure isbetter than horse manure which is highly sought after by gardeners.

Hay should notbe used for bedding as it has poor drainage qualities and will too quickly getdamp whichcan cause fungal spores to grow that can cause aspergillosis. This disease is contracted by inhalation when there is a high spore count in the air which can happen in a relatively short period of time given the right conditions.

Shredded Paper

If you are lucky enough to have a source of shredded paper this makes an ideal bedding material for your chickens. I suggest you contactlocal businesses as they often have piles of papers which are often shredded nowadays for confidentiality purposes. Friends and relatives will also be able to help out and this is a great way of recycling. It will be a good idea for you to invest in a paper shredder if you don't already have one. This will soon pay for itself with the money you save from not having to buy bedding for your chickens. Paper is a good insulator and again will make a good winter choice. When raising young chicks paper is ideal as it will help keep the chicks warm. Paper will however have to be changed more frequently than other forms of bedding as it soils quickly, however it is cheap enough that this isn't a real problem.

You can dispose of the paper by burning it and use the potash from the burnt remains for your garden, which along with the chicken droppings should ensure that you have the most fertile soil in the neighbourhood.

Whatever type of bedding you choose always keep it asclean and as dry as possible as the happier and morecomfortable your chickens are the more eggs they will give you.