Warm boot recommendations please

[Diana1]

I favour shredded paper because its cheap and uses up our s"Ooops, word censored!" paper but the chickens roost on it and make it flat and I was wondering about straw. In fact I think I'll buy some straw and see how they like it.

 

I'm sure this topic has been on before, so if I can be guided towards that then very well. Just like to know how people get on with straw.

 

Pirate 11 is now laying but Angel (of old) seems to be producing soft shells and I think she is laying on the wooden slats. and the things just go through. The other day I think because we were out I think she got fed up with waiting for me to collect her beloved egg and when we did get home I saw her guiltily coming out of the eglu and her softie may have been lifted from the nesting box and shoved onto the slats in a fit of spite. But then I may be imagining things.

[theherd123]

Diana have you tried adding shellstim to the chooks water to help with the soft shelled eggs?

 

I always use a bottom layer of hemcore in the nesting box and top it off with straw - that is until Flump kicks it all out

[SillyClucker]

i use shredded paper and they seem fine with it. The one thing i would say is that it flattens down very quickly which i don't think straw does (stand to be corrected). Some people have said that if the paper has been printed on the ink can be toxic if they eat it - which they do

[Diana1]

Yes I feel a bit of a cheap scape and want to give them a bit more luxury in the nesting area. I've heard of hemcore - do you get it from scats?

 

I give them oyster shell - will try shellstim - thanks

[theherd123]

Yes I feel a bit of a cheap scape and want to give them a bit more luxury in the nesting area. I've heard of hemcore - do you get it from scats?

 

Is scats a supplier?

[geb0205]

if they eat it - which they do

 

Yes, WHY do these odd creatures insist on eating their bedding?!

 

I have mine on wood shavings, primarily because I buy 120 litre bales for the horse, and nick some from him for the chooks! They LOVE them, especially fresh shavings, where they go and kick them all about and make nests in it...

[SillyClucker]

our local scats get hemcore in but only a few bales a week

[Christian]

Scats sell country type stuff mainly for horses, but they do chicken stuff too. I get poultry spice and mite powder from them.

 

Diana here is your nearest Scats

 

Scats Country Stores, Hectors Way, Newbury, RG14 5AB

01635 43436

 

They are really helpful in my local one, so i'm sure they would order Aubiose/hemcore for you.

 

I use a layer of newspaper, then aubiose then straw. They still flatten the straw but seem to like it. Plus it 'looks' nesty!

[Helly Welly]

I just use shredded paper which i change everyday...the girls seem perfectly happy with it. The three always move it and lay on the bare nesting box anyway

[buffie]

Mine have a litter tray lined with newspaper and to line the nest. remove daily and it's clean and snug

 

BBx

[chocchick]

I did use aubiose on top of sheets of newspaper and that worked really well.

Straw was fine too.

Since the new chickens arrived they poo in the nest every day and I just put sheets of clean newspaper in every day like Buffie. Straw didn't work in this case. I found loose bedding harder to remove everyday.

They've not eaten it to my knowledge but horrid Abbie sometimes pulls it out from the poop tray and shreds it all over the run

[Guest]

My lot eat shredded paper, but won;t eat Barley Straw, so I use that for the nest box now, and keep the shredded bills for the poo tray.

[Diana1]

Thanks for all your feed back - today was my first three-egg day . One was so small it had fallen through the slats but luckily was still unbroken. Pirate II layed hers in the bare box - paper removed and blown around the run. Third egg resting on slats.

 

Angel's the one I think has been laying the soft shelled eggs and the two new eggs today look like they come from the same bird - possibly Speckeldy Rose's first egg-laying day and she's given two??

 

Still haven't had time to buy some new nesting material

[Liz Steed]

I use straw, because inevitably it ends up all round the garden, and I'd rather see straw than paper!!!!

[The Dogmother]

I use Aubiose in the nest box because I found that straw got damp and smelly.

[ali-s]

I use newspaper in the poop tray, and have just changed from using kitchen roll in the nestbox to newspaper. The Hens sometimes got the kitchen roll wrapped around their claws and would end up dragging it about with them I use 4 sheets of tabloid size newspaper folded up and it is too heavy for them to budge

 

Tilly always sleeps and poops in the nestbox at night so a daily change of paper is a must.

[cabbagepatch]

my first three girls love their straw and make a lovely nest to lay in.

 

the three new girls seem to think fresh straw is to forage in and chuck it all over the place, leaving a bare nestbox within five minutes

[The Dogmother]

I've just converetd a neighbour down the road to using Aubiose in the nest instead of straw - she found that the straw was soggy under the top layer.

[bronze]

I use shredded paper, its a fab way of getting rid of my bank statements seeing as the firebrick maker was rubbish.

[The Dogmother]

You could always put the shredded paper on your compost heap Bronze

[Martin B]

May I just add that seeing eggs in a bed of straw is really wonderful!

[bronze]

You could always put the shredded paper on your compost heap Bronze

 

I do, after the chooks have added their security to it.

[Carolinep]

[Egluntyne]

Mine festoon their runs with newspaper if I use that, they eat shredded paper, so I use Aubiose. It stays put, is dryer, and I mix red mite powder into it in the hope that it will do some good.

[jsbates65]

Not familiar with that term. . .