Wood pellets as bedding

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

LOVE the wood pellets as bedding. Just started using wood pellets as bedding in my new homemade banty brooder yesterday and must say it is GREAT.

It smells good, dries out the poo in minutes, and doesn't get kicked up in the food or water.

I've used puppy pads, peat moss, and shavings but really liking the wood pellets.

My banties are 2 1/2 weeks old, so pecked at the pellets but didn't eat any. I sprinkled a little baby scratch over the pellets to give them something to scratch.

 

[love4mychick]

well i also have tryed every thing but pellets because i have heard that if the chicks like missis a meal it will start to eat the bedding and that is soupposed to be poisins

but if you are saying it works that well i might give it a try

 

[moonflowers]

I have been using the wood pellets since I got mine (put paper towels on top for about a week) and I also love them. I just put my 6 week olds out last night and I put pellets in the coop as well bc they worked so well in the brooder.

 

[walkswithdog]

Pellets work well for chicks. Suck for poults who need better footing at least the first couple weeks. After that it's okay. I like pellets.

Some chicks will eat anything and die. They've choked/clogged on all manner of things, shavings or pellets or string or other stuff. Some are just too stupid to live.

 

[carey34]

Just started the pellets and stall dry the other day and let me say the smell in my house is 100X better and I have noticed my allergies are a bit better too, guess the pine was aggrivating it.

ps love the brooder.

 

[sloallie10]

what do wood pellets look like? can you get them anywhere?

 

[eponagirl]

I too am a big fan of the pellets!

It keeps everything really dry and the smell is VERY minimal. I sprinkle stall dry in there occaisonally too, especially the older chicks brooder (smellier cecal poops)
The chicks don't seem awkward on it, they run around and scratch in the corners, looking for the food they flung everywhere out of their feeder.

You can get pellets at Tractor Supply, Agway, or probably any garden/farm supply. Wood pellets for wood stoves can be used as long as it is 100% Pine Pellets with nothing added to it.

I have used the Tractor supply stuff (Equine bedding) and something called Woody Pet. I prefer the Woody Pet because the pine smell is not as overwhelming as the TS stuff. Either works the same, just my personal preference. Woody Pet is sold at farm stores, Agway, etc.

You just put approx 2 inch layer of the pellets on the brooder floor (or a few inches in the coop) and that's all...for horses they say to water it a little (watering it down breaks it into fluffy pieces that are easier to sift through if you are cleaning horse stalls and makes it softer)
, but for chickens it works better if you don't water it down at all...it is more absorbent. It is fine on their feet, mine have no trouble at all with it.

JMHO- If more people tried it, using shavings would probably become a thing of the past! It's that good!

Here is a picture of the woody pet in brooder:

 

[crtrlovr]

can the paper pulp cage litter for birds & small animals be used for chicks in the brooder?

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Crtrlovr -
I suppose you could use it. It would be like the shavings. What I noticed about that paper product when I used to mix it with the wood pellets for my Holland Lop bunny to soften the cage a little, was the paper product seemed to stay wet longer. The pellets obsorb everything and don't stay wet.

 

[mediazeal]

Pellets, pellets, pellets
I love the pellets I got at the feed store that are for bedding (not fireplace) so they are not poison.
it's all I have used til today.

Today I moved the 3 week old chicks to a new bigger brooder.
I had a new bag of pellets but could see it was not going to be enough so I used pine shavings that I have for the coop....
Oy, am I sorry.

Immediately dusty and the chicks dug down in it and kicked up the shavings all over food and water, buried their roost, started trying to eat the shavings... no likey...

I put a layer of pellets on top and things got better. I'll get more at the feed store this week.
MUCH MUCH better
there has been minimal dust and smell with 12 chicks in the house for 3 weeks.