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Author Topic: Chicken bedding  (Read 6515 times)

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Chicken bedding
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2018, 08:11:38 am »
I use a blend of chopped rape and wheat straw for both the floor of the house and nest boxes. The hens love it. I used to use easibed which was fab too and only changed to the straw as it was cheaper.

Clarebelle

  • Joined Jan 2013
  • Orkney
Re: Chicken bedding
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2018, 08:47:01 am »
I really do appreciate the way you feel about the environment, but I really don't appreciate the way you feel as though you have a right to judge me. Feel free to add your two cents to any discussion on this forum but please stop directly targeting me and calling me out on my choices. I stand by my assertions and still feel as though I make the right choice for my situation. I've been able to provide suitable justifications which stand up as well as yours to scrutiny, whether you believe that to be true or not.

You obviously like to feel as though your extremely knowledgeable so I'll give you a bit more. Hay is not common in Orkney and is actually at such a premium that people would be shocked to learn I used it as bedding rather than valuable animal feed. Straw is also not easy to come by. As for it being non re-new able, again, I'll just give you a bit more information so your better informed next time you want to be insultingly judgemental; My land is basically sand, I have sand pits where I take my sand from, I then use this sand back on my land when i'm done with it. But even if it was direct from the beach, its not being taken from the planet, turned into something else, it's still sand.

I also work as a horticulturalist and know all about organic matter, what you are talking about within sand is not the same as what I am talking about in organic substrates. As for comparing clay with sand, I'm glad that gave you a laugh, but I didn't mean they were similar substances, however, if you had ever used sand in a chicken coop you would realise that the sand allows the poop to clump and be easily scooped up, as is the same with cat litter.

Now, if you don't mind I would really rather not have anymore direct insult from you. I'm sure you mean well, etc. etc. but, whether you like it or not, people are entitled to employ different practices and just because you think your right, doesn't make me wrong. I am happy with my choices and I feel they are informed.

Edited to say: I apologise for being partially responsible for lowering the tone of what should be an innocuous and informative thread. I shouldn't let myself get defensive because then you lose objectivity. I'm going to leave my previous posts up but I'll leave the subject from here on.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2018, 09:34:05 am by Clarebelle »

alang

  • Joined Nov 2017
  • Morayshire
Re: Chicken bedding
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2018, 11:32:22 am »
Whilst i don't want to flame this thread i would just like to point out that in order to get those wood shavings you claim to be more environmentally sustainable, i ask if you are taking the carbon footprint involved to get it to the stage that it is useable for your chickens? Forestry time, processing, miles to door costs?

Sand could be used over and over again as long as you clean it. I personally will be using sand and rubber chippings (wich can both be cleaned).
I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies. This is me!

Lingon

  • Joined Feb 2018
  • Uppsala, Sweden
  • The more I see of mankind, the more I prefer dogs.
Re: Chicken bedding
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2018, 12:58:02 pm »
Whilst i don't want to flame this thread i would just like to point out that in order to get those wood shavings you claim to be more environmentally sustainable, i ask if you are taking the carbon footprint involved to get it to the stage that it is useable for your chickens? Forestry time, processing, miles to door costs?

Sand could be used over and over again as long as you clean it. I personally will be using sand and rubber chippings (wich can both be cleaned).
Okay, let's bring this down a knotch.

Wood shavings is a biproduct, and we still need timber right? And timber traps coal, it doesn't release it into the atmosphere. When I compost the old bedding, the coal goes into the ground becoming soil.

Then let's look at your plan for the sand and rubber. In order for it to be clean, you need to heat it up and use water. How are you planning on doing that without energy? Remember that the energy used for making wood shavings is used for the timber, so you can't blame that on the shavings. And what about the water used? Is that something you have considered?

I really do appreciate the way you feel about the environment, but I really don't appreciate the way you feel as though you have a right to judge me. Feel free to add your two cents to any discussion on this forum but please stop directly targeting me and calling me out on my choices. I stand by my assertions and still feel as though I make the right choice for my situation. I've been able to provide suitable justifications which stand up as well as yours to scrutiny, whether you believe that to be true or not.

You obviously like to feel as though your extremely knowledgeable so I'll give you a bit more. Hay is not common in Orkney and is actually at such a premium that people would be shocked to learn I used it as bedding rather than valuable animal feed. Straw is also not easy to come by. As for it being non re-new able, again, I'll just give you a bit more information so your better informed next time you want to be insultingly judgemental; My land is basically sand, I have sand pits where I take my sand from, I then use this sand back on my land when i'm done with it. But even if it was direct from the beach, its not being taken from the planet, turned into something else, it's still sand.

I also work as a horticulturalist and know all about organic matter, what you are talking about within sand is not the same as what I am talking about in organic substrates. As for comparing clay with sand, I'm glad that gave you a laugh, but I didn't mean they were similar substances, however, if you had ever used sand in a chicken coop you would realise that the sand allows the poop to clump and be easily scooped up, as is the same with cat litter.

Now, if you don't mind I would really rather not have anymore direct insult from you. I'm sure you mean well, etc. etc. but, whether you like it or not, people are entitled to employ different practices and just because you think your right, doesn't make me wrong. I am happy with my choices and I feel they are informed.

Edited to say: I apologise for being partially responsible for lowering the tone of what should be an innocuous and informative thread. I shouldn't let myself get defensive because then you lose objectivity. I'm going to leave my previous posts up but I'll leave the subject from here on.
Hahahaha. You accuse me of judging you? Perhaps you should read what you youself write, I have not written a single thing about you as a person, you on the other hand have missbehaved from the start.

And by the way, I don't feel knowledgable, I am. That is something a person becomes when studying year after year after year at the university, geology for example.

And NOOOO grass as far as the eyes can see, just sand...right.


And by the way, facts are not insults, they are just facts.

alang

  • Joined Nov 2017
  • Morayshire
Re: Chicken bedding
« Reply #19 on: February 17, 2018, 01:40:31 pm »
Okay, let's bring this down a knotch.

Wood shavings is a biproduct, and we still need timber right? And timber traps coal, it doesn't release it into the atmosphere. When I compost the old bedding, the coal goes into the ground becoming soil.

Then let's look at your plan for the sand and rubber. In order for it to be clean, you need to heat it up and use water. How are you planning on doing that without energy? Remember that the energy used for making wood shavings is used for the timber, so you can't blame that on the shavings. And what about the water used? Is that something you have considered?

Firstly sorry if you perceived my comments as inflammatory. That was not my intention.

I mentioned the carbon footprint comment because it is something i am looking into alot as i am in the process of trying to start an as near as possible, carbon neutral fuelwood business. The energy used by industry to the finished article (sawdust/shavings) makes it far from carbon neutral.

The amount of sand i intend to use would be so miniscule in the grand scheme of things it is not worth talking about. You'd probably find more sand is blown to the UK from the sahara each each year than my usage. The rubber chippings are recycled from old road tyres so saved from the landfill or energy intensive remould process.

For cleaning the sand and rubber chippings i intend to have a solar panel/wind turbine heated water supply/tank.

As for composting. If it is done aerobically correct it releases waste heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the environment
« Last Edit: February 17, 2018, 01:43:55 pm by alang »
I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies. This is me!

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Chicken bedding
« Reply #20 on: February 17, 2018, 02:40:28 pm »
Folks, don't forget that the original question was "What type of bedding does everyone use for chickens?", and not even "What's the most environmentally friendly chicken bedding?". Although people on here tend to be more "Eco" than the general population IME, it's not necessarily the over-riding factor for many of us. (That's not a judgement, just a fact. I personally am acutely aware that if we wanted to be as eco as possible, we should actually sell our 200 year old farmhouse and smallholding and instead move to a small well insulated house within walking distance of both work and shops.)

Lingon, I'm glad you posted the original link about sand, but a better response afterwards would have been "If sand works for you then fair enough. Just be aware that others don't have as sustainable a source as there is on Orkney". Otherwise, we just get into a spiral of disagreement, which gets us nowhere. It is also a fact that most of us use non-renewable resources all of the time, whether that be petrol to go and collect layer's pellets, the embodied energy in the layer's pellets, or even perhaps the water that our hens drink (technically no more renewable than sand - just plentiful).

As for composting. If it is done aerobically correct it releases waste heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the environment

Yes, I was going to ask that - isn't composting basically the same chemical reaction as burning, only done slower?
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
    • Facebook
Re: Chicken bedding
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2018, 03:15:18 pm »
As a moderator I am going to ask that this thread returns strictly to the original topic .... of what do you use for chicken bedding..    Any eco or other arguments for not using something should be addressed elsewhere please.
Linda

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