Using Shredded Paper for Coop Litter - As Good As Wood Chips?

[Logar]

That's probably as much cardboard as I shred in an entire year! That is truly amazing!

One of the nice benefits to using shredded paper and cardboard is that you can shred it now, bag it up, and use it when you need it. It won't go "bad" on you or start to decompose or smell as long as you keep it dry.

In case you don't know, when you shred all that cardboard, it will take maybe 2X-3X more volume space. Normally, for me, that's a good thing for my coop litter. After you get your paper shredder and use it for a while, you will get a feel for how much more bulk you make when you shred paper and cardboard. I can hardly imagine how much shredded cardboard that pile would look like 2X-3X bigger then it is now!

Bonus Idea: Lots of people use shredded cardboard for worm bedding. Evidently, the worms love to eat the cardboard glue and cardboard shreds make an excellent medium to grow worms. If you are into using vermicompost or worms for fishing, that might be another option to use up some of that cardboard.

Having said that one winter I tried to have a worm bed in our second bathroom. I live in northern Minnesota, so I could not leave the worm bin out in the unheated garage. My inexperience doomed the project. I overfed the worms, the bin went rancid, and the worms either ran away or died in the mess I had created. It really, really, smelled bad and I had to dump everything outside. I don't know if there was a single live worm in that mess at the end.

Dear Wife freaked out when she saw worms crawling out of the bathroom! I don't blame her. I really messed up. Someday I would like to try again with a worm bin. I think I have learned what not to do and would be more successful a second time around.

For now, I'm content with all the black gold chicken run compost I make, outside, with the chickens doing almost all the work. All my shredded paper and cardboard coop litter gets dumped out into the chicken run for composting after I use it in the coop. There are lots of bugs and worms in that chicken run litter. Free food for the chickens when they dig down a few inches. In a way, I guess I do have a worm bed. It's just spread all out over the chicken run!

Anyways, I hope you post some pictures of your new shredder and how you are using the shredded paper and cardboard at your home. You might provide some inspiration to someone else to try it. Thanks.

Edit: I am curious to find out what kind of shredder you bought. I have a crosscut shredder, but I know there are micro cut shredders as well. Both types of shredders have their advantages. I am wondering if a micro cut shredder would reduce the volume of the shredder paper in comparison to a cross cut shredder?

The pile is still growing… and it isn’t even like I have a big coop. It is only a 6x4 coop and can hold around 4 inches of bedding .

I got the Amazon basics 12 sheet shredder. I believe it is a cross cut. I actually have a 14 sheet micro shredder but I broke our last one so not allowed to use it for cardboard lol. I may be able to sneak in 1 piece to compare it with the cross cut one.

 

[Sally PB]

May have gone a bit over board.

Now I really want to see the pile of shredded bits!

Maybe, as a precaution, you should do it in your garage. And maybe tether yourself to something sturdy to pull yourself out, if it starts to suck you in.

 

[Logar]

Now I really want to see the pile of shredded bits!

Maybe, as a precaution, you should do it in your garage. And maybe tether yourself to something sturdy to pull yourself out, if it starts to suck you in.

Good idea! The pile has continued to grow and I am scared it will get a mind of its own soon

 

[Logar]

Good idea! The pile has continued to grow and I am scared it will get a mind of its own soon View attachment 3958951

Over 150 boxes and I don’t even want to know how many hours later and The Wall of Cardboardia is complete

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

The surprise, when you add leaves in the run is that the soil gets a lot healthier . The combination of leaves and chicken poo makes a perfect compost.
In the fall I always use the leaves in the run and as bedding too. If we prune we shred the smaller branches for a longer lasting top on the run-soil for the same reason.

I use very no bedding on the coop floor, it’s a sand floor (my chickens font poop on the coop floor). The sand floor is a mixture of soil (with loam) and river sand. Its not dusty. My coop is an altered prefab and I don’t really go inside.

The coop after I got the poop board out.
View attachment 3956793

On the poop board I use a base of sand to avoid that the poop doesn’t stick on the board and to use all kind of bedding to avoid smelling. Upcoming period I clean it once every 2-3 weeks when the weather is okay. Fresh topping every week.
In summer, I don’t top but clean weakly to avoid a plague. When I had a red mite problem they only had sand bedding with a few tobacco stems.

Poop boards : a thin layer of soil and whatever is available for free or shavings.
In summer the free topping is often grass clippings, dried grass (fresh hay). In autumn leaves. In winter shavings, hay or straw when it’s very cold.
Nest-boxes: sand/ diatom/ shavings/ hay. The hay/shavings get a second life on the poop boards.
Sand floor: I rake it now and then. The area under the poop board is used as sand bath. Only in winter after a snowstorm and it’s below zero during the day the chickens wont go out to the run. Then I add straw on top of the sand floor. In the Netherlands thats max 1-2 weeks a year.

An investment in a paper shredder could a good idea. In the end it would save me money. But now they pick up the paper and cardboard every 3 weeks to recycle it . And I really don’t spend much money on bought shavings/straw/hay. Guess about € 10 -15 a year.

I always store a dozen bags of leaves over the winter and toss them in the run to keep things dry and interesting for the ladies

 

[Logar]

I ended up getting 10, 13 gallon bags full of shredded cardboard from just about 150 very thin boxes.

I am really liking my shredder as well.

 

[gtaus]

I ended up getting 10, 13 gallon bags full of shredded cardboard from just about 150 very thin boxes.

I am really liking my shredder as well.

That was really a mountain of cardboard you had amassed! Have you considered how much it would cost to purchase that much bedding for the chickens and/or how much compost that you can eventually make for your gardens? That's the way I look at it.

I have not paid for bedding for many years, but I used to buy compost in big bags and spent a small fortune every year on it. Now, I shred all our paper products, use them as coop litter, and then turn them into compost after they are spent as bedding. I literally have made hundreds and hundreds of dollars' worth of chicken run compost.

Well, just the fact that I am saving all that paper from ending up in landfill somewhere makes me feel like I am doing a small part for our environment.

 

[gtaus]

New Power Cutter Sold at Menards!

I have previously mentioned that I purchased a power cutter a few years ago. It cuts up cardboard into thin strips so I can shred all my QVC and Amazon boxes in my home quality paper shredder. It's so much easier on my old hands than using manual heavy-duty scissors. Since I bought my power cutter, I have been shredding almost all our cardboard boxes and it has been maybe a good year and half since I had to take any cardboard to the recycle center.

The other day, I was in Menards and they had an endcap full of their new power cutters...

That's about half the price I paid for my power cutter a few years ago. As far as I can tell, all those power cutters are pretty much the same design with a standardized cutting blade. Probably made in the same Chinese factory just with different colored dyes for the various brands.

That is Menards regular, every day, price. I suspect that they might go on sale for even less pretty soon. Menards has a way to staging items on the endcap like this a few weeks before they go on sale. At any rate, the everyday price is half of what I paid for my power cutter and it looks every bit the same model.

Again, the power cutter is not a must have tool for shredding cardboard at home, but it sure makes it much easier for me and my hands are not cramping up anymore. I use my power cutter all the time, so it was worth it to me. Now, you can get the same thing for half the price!

 

[gtaus]

I got the Amazon basics 12 sheet shredder. I believe it is a cross cut. I actually have a 14 sheet micro shredder but I broke our last one so not allowed to use it for cardboard lol. I may be able to sneak in 1 piece to compare it with the cross cut one.

That's great. For some reason, I stopped getting notifications on this thread, so I was surprised to see a number of new posts today when I wanted to make a post. Really impressive mountain of cardboard you stacked up.

I have never had a micro shredder. I would love to see how well a micro shredder shreds cardboard compared to the crosscut shredders like I use. Are the micro bits better for bedding, or are they too small, for example?

Like I said, I have picked up used shredders from our local church Thrift Shop and paid less than $5.00 each. I have worn out one shredder but broke a couple others by overloading them with too much paper. Live and learn. If the shredder is rated for 10 sheets, I only put in 5 now. Just seems to make the shredder last longer. And, of course, I cut all my cardboard down into strips to feed down the center "credit card" slot. That works well for me.

I don't know what the duty cycle for your shredder is, but I find it better to shred a little paper every day then to save up a load of paper products for one massive shredding event. I know I used to shred a lot of paper at one time and sometimes the shredder would overheat and shut down on me. Now, I just shred the paper as I get it. Actually, works out better for me because I don't have a bunch of paper products taking up room until I shred them.

BTW, how long did it take you to shred up that mountain of cardboard? If you already mentioned that before, I apologize in advance. Like I said, for some reason, I stopped getting notifications on new posts on this thread...

 

[gtaus]

Follow Up on Menards Power Cutter

As I suspected, those power cutters at Menards went on sale this week...

That's the best price I have been able to find on these type of power cutters. For comparison, here is the current listing at Harbor Freight which had the lowest price until now...

Like I said, I use my power cutter all the time and it was worth it to me when I paid about $25.00 a couple of years ago. Now, for less than $10.00, it might really be tempting for others as well. I can easily cut up cardboard into strips to feed into my paper shredder. My old hands don't cramp up after cutting up cardboard anymore. Since I got my power cutter, I don't think I have sent any cardboard boxes to the recycle bins and have kept all that material out of the landfills.