Deep litter method in Arizona (Zone 9)… not working?

[RennaeHanson]

I'm glad to see so many people using shred material in their coops, I do too and I always wondered if this was a good thing.

 

[gtaus]

I use a mix of shredded paper, leaves, and pine shavings depending on what I have to hand.

Although I now primarily use shredded paper and cardboards, I am all for using whatever free litter resources a person can get. I have not paid for coop litter in the 5 years I have had my laying hens.

The first couple of years I used free wood chips that I got from the local county landfill. The wood chips were great for use in the chicken run after all the grass was torn up and eaten down to bare dirt, and I also used it as coop litter.

I also used dried grass and leaves as coop litter, mixing it with wood chips as well. It all works.

For the past 2 years, I have moved to paper and cardboard shreds. It just works better for me as the shreds are almost dust free and compost much faster than wood chips.

But yeah, I advocate using whatever free litter resources a person can get and mixing them all together is perfectly fine.

I use pine shavings in the nest boxes and empty them out in the floor when they start to look a bit tired or if someone decides they are going to sleep in the nest boxes for some reason.

I don't use paper shreds in my nest boxes. I found that some of the thin paper shreds would stick to freshly laid, wet, eggs. Depending on the paper shred, sometimes it would almost be like glued on to the shell. Not a major problem, but had to spend extra time cleaning the egg shells.

For a number of years, I used pine shavings in the nest box because it is very rare to have any shavings stick to the eggs.

Recently, however, I have been shredding cardboard separately just for use in the nest boxes. The shredded cardboard does not stick to the eggs. It's about the same as using pine shavings, but I don't have to pay for shredded cardboard. I just shred all our Amazon and QVC shipping boxes and I have more than enough for the nest boxes with extra left over to toss into the coop litter.

I also clean out a dirty nest box by dumping the used nest bedding onto the coop floor. Twice a year, the coop litter gets swept out and I start over with new dry deep bedding.

I'm glad to see so many people using shred material in their coops, I do too and I always wondered if this was a good thing.

Yes, many people are using free shredded paper and cardboard for coop litter. Again, I would love to hear your experience with using paper shreds as coop litter. If you get a chance, please visit the thread Using Shredded Paper for Coop Litter - As Good As Wood Chips? and add your experience to the conversation. If nothing else, you will get confirmation from many of us that prefer to use paper shreds as coop litter.