Ground corn cobs?

[mrkep]

I was in TSC this morning and saw a bag of ground corn cobs that was in the horse supplies section. The claim was that it would absorb large amounts of moisture per cu. ft. Says it cuts down on clean out time. I thought it might be a good addition to the pine flakes in the coop. So has anyone here tried it? I use the DLM all winter, then a total clean out in spring, so anything that cuts down on moisture seems good.
waddaya think??
mrkep

 

[Fred's Hens]

Back in the day, that was the litter of choice. It was outstanding. Today, since more harvesting equipment shells the corn from the cob in the field, rather than "picking" the corn as in days gone by, there is far less corn cob available. Whenever I have seen ground corn cob for sale it has been priced much too high for me to use economically. Love the product. It is natural, highly absorbent and easily integrated back into the compost or directly into the soil.

 

[BrattishTaz]

I saw the corn cob bedding too. Do the chickens eat it? Could it cause crop impactions? I would want to use it in the brooder instead of shavings.

 

[Fred's Hens]

They'll pick through it, especially if a few broken bits of corn are still to be found. But, no. There's no issue with impaction. The chicken has been around a few thousand years and if they all were so stupid to commit suicide by crop impaction, well.... those strains would have died out long ago.

 

[BrattishTaz]

Fred's Hens :

They'll pick through it, especially if a few broken bits of corn are still to be found. But, no. There's no issue with impaction. The chicken has been around a few thousand years and if they all were so stupid to commit suicide by crop impaction, well.... those strains would have died out long ago.

I dunno. I have a couple of exceptionally stupid Orpingtons. The "twins" are named Stupid and Stoopid.

 

[kari_dawn]

Quote:
BLEH I used ground corn cob as bedding in my brooder, and it was awful. You know how babies like to kick everything around and dump their water and poo...

Anyway, I found the combination of wet corn cob, baby chick poo, and knocked over feeders very offensive on the nose, and not as easy to clean as I would like...yes, it is absorbant, but it stinks when it gets wet, and my babies kept kicking it into their water. It would clump up and swell, and the babies couldn't drink around the ground up pieces.

Maybe it works better as a bedding in a coop for adults, but in my experience, it is not something I would use again in my brooder. I will stick to sand or pine shavings...

 

[sourland]

Ground corn cob is excellent bedding, and I used it for years in my pigeon lofts. Much like Fred's Hens, it has become too expensive for me. I now use the pelleted wood horse bedding - it's OK at best.

 

[deannaj]

Interesting, maybe I will save my corn cobs next time, I read that corn is good to add to the chickens diet in the winter, that it is suppose to help keep them warm. So I have ground up a bunch of corn. The only thing that bothers me is if it will keep. I have no preservatives in it. All it is was the dried up corn from the garden. I dried it out and ground it up. I was planning on adding it to the layer feed this winter. Does anyone have any ideas?