Down with wood shavings!
Kristine says our chickens hate wood shavings as bedding in their nest boxes.
She went out to collect eggs today and didn't find any eggs in the nest boxes, but she found 11 eggs on the floor under the roosts. Ick!
So, ok, I need to get rid of the wood shavings. Sigh...
And the boxes looked so nice.
I read up on lots of different kinds of bedding that people use in nest boxes.
Straw! Our hens like straw! It is easy to handle. I like it too because it looks good and the hens like to snuggle down in it and make a nice warm nest.
Hay: I wouldn't want to use hay because it is supposed to spread chicken lice and not last very long?
Newspaper: People shred up newspaper and use that for nest box material. I bet the ink could make your light chickens spotty. LOL
Plastic Mats: I've read about people using plastic mats in nest boxes. Sounds neat because you can just shake them and hose them off and dry them and they are ready to use again. But my hens are too picky.
Wood Shavings: I like the shavings. They smell good. But the chickens don't like them and Kristine said the fumes from the shavings can be bad for livestock to breathe. Now she tells me! Oh, well, I can use it out in the pen.
Leaves: I have used leaves in the chicken pen, but not in the nest boxes. The chickens are out in the leaves all day, so I suppose I could try putting dry leaves in the nest boxes especially if I cleaned out the boxes and put in new leaves every day or so.
I read that some people use different shredded mixtures of straw, hay, shavings, newspaper or leaves. Interesting. I suppose people use what they can.
Since we have so many leaves around here, this year when the leaves are well dried I'm going to bag some to use in the winter. At least I can use them as cover in the chicken pen. I'll see how that works.
Peek at the Past
The door is staying put!
[0 eggs]
All the eggs were poo eggs. Ick!
~:>
Smiles