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afrozenbrew

What do you line your nesting box with?

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I've been using straw in the nesting box for years now, but read recently that mites live inside the holes in the centre of the stalk and therefore it's bad to use. I've also used paper shreddings in the past. Someone has suggested wood shavings to me, so I've been considering getting some of those.

 

Just wondered what everyone used/thought and if anyone knew if that was true about straw?

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Wood shavings are not a good idea as they get clumpy and soggy quickly, and are often from an indeterminate source.

 

I think that depends. The ones I use are only clumped together until I shake them a bit as we got a huge bale of them from Mole Valley-they last ages, we've had ours for 2 and a half years! Ours only get damp as the chickens poo on them...

 

BTW I use a mixture of shredded paper and wood shavings in my nestbox.

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Wood shavings are not a good idea as they get clumpy and soggy quickly, and are often from an indeterminate source.

Ours only get damp as the chickens poo on them

 

That is the point I was making. :lol:

 

Hemcore and Aubiose don't get soggy and revolting anything like as quickly as woodshavings.

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I line mine with chicken poo...and some more chicken poo for good measure. The pooier the eggs the better, or so my girls think :oops:

 

Do you have a recurrent problem with mites? I use straw and they have never had them. Nor have they dropped dead from aspergillus :wink: But I am hoping to change to shredded paper (if I can find a reliable source, still waiting on dh to bring some home, been nagging for ages....but this is due to composting time really as I think my big muck pile waiting for my new compost bin might take ages to break down...hmmm, thinking of burning it...or is that gross?)

Maddy xxx

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I use shredded paper but I was finding with the cube that filling the poo trays and the nesting box used more paper than I could shred.

 

Now I don't put anything in the poo trays and I tip thepoo straight into the veggie beds. I just give the poo trays a good hose down once a week to clean them.

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I line mine with chicken poo...and some more chicken poo for good measure. The pooier the eggs the better, or so my girls think :oops:

 

Do you have a recurrent problem with mites? I use straw and they have never had them. Nor have they dropped dead from aspergillus :wink: But I am hoping to change to shredded paper (if I can find a reliable source, still waiting on dh to bring some home, been nagging for ages....but this is due to composting time really as I think my big muck pile waiting for my new compost bin might take ages to break down...hmmm, thinking of burning it...or is that gross?)

Maddy xxx

 

No. I've never experienced them, just heard that they were a particular problem with straw and got spooked! I might switch back to paper just incase. If you , or anyone else, would like some shredded paper I'd be happy to send you some, we get bags full of them from the office!

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I use shredded paper but I was finding with the cube that filling the poo trays and the nesting box used more paper than I could shred.

 

Now I don't put anything in the poo trays and I tip thepoo straight into the veggie beds. I just give the poo trays a good hose down once a week to clean them.

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that you shouldn't put the poop direct onto the veggie patch.....not 100% sure of that factoid though!

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