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debratugwell

CHICKENS ON WOODCHIPS

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It probably refers to hardwood or softwood as a genus (big word).

 

Hardwood can be very soft as Balsa wood is a hardwood and it's as soft and light as polystyrene. Beech is a softwood but is incredibly hard.

 

I'm full of useless information :?

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I use Aubiose or Hemcore - it's dryer and softer too, deodorises any smell and composts like a dream. A loacl chook keeper, who shows her chooks uses it for deep-litter as it doesn't mark the birds' feathers.

 

Hubby is going to build the design on the Omlet website for keeping chickens on woodchips where the run and a surrounding area are covered in woodchips. If I use Aubiose/Hemcore surely everything would just get soaked straight away when it rains and need changing whereas presumably woodchips would stand up to the elements better????????

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we use hemcore/aubiose in the run. surrounding the eglu and run we have bark chips (for us to walk on) as in the winter it can get pretty mucky.

 

Aubiose/hemcore soaks up the wet superbly, it never seems wet underfoot and there are no smells. and the poo seems to disappear in it :)

 

We put quite a thick layer of aubiose/hemcore in the run....once a week we remove the top layer and replace with fresh and once a month we take the whole lot out and replace. A bale lasts for ages.

 

Oh, and I have a clear shower curtain over the run - to protect from the rain and on top of that I have the winter and summer shade to protect from the sun....so all stays nice and dry

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ooooooooh - now I see what you mean. So do you keep the Eglu and run in the one place all the time and just walk around it? I had thought about making the area big enough so that I could move the eglu up a couple of feet each way just to rotate the area the run is stood on. This however would mean that all the hemcore and woodchip would get intermingled together eventually I suppose.

 

What do you do?

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yes ! We havent moved our eglu.

 

We have the bark chips all around the perimiter, with little stepping stones in the chips (to make it pretty :) ) and some potted plants around it too, then we have a logroll/wooden border around the bark chips to make it neat and tidy. The Hemcore/aubiose is in the run.

 

We also bought some lovely solar lights on offer last weekend and have dotted them around the eglu, looks really pretty at night when I go out to shut the eglu door. :)

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Chelsea's set up sounds just like mine - my eglu is static, on solid earth with Aubiose/Hemcore inside the run, an Ikea shower curtain over the run and Aubiose/Hwemcore in the poo tray and nest box. It is almost like it is kiln-dried because it doesn't soak up the wet at all, which is a problem I had with bark and woodchip, which both went soggy and smelly.

 

The Hemcore I get is treated with citronella, so it repels flies too. It costs about £7 for an enormous bale, which is compacted and lasts for ages. I also use it in my Rablu.

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I'm with Chelsea and Claret on this one - use aubiose/hemcore and you won't regret it. I can't explain it, but it doesn't go soggy in the rain as you might expect, and it's much easier to rake out and compost down than woodchip. I started off with woodchip from B&Q, just basic hard brown stuff, but most of it got kicked out of the run quite quickly.

A word of warning - I'm sure I constructed my bark chippings area to eggsactly the Omlet instructions, but it wasn't quite big enough to pull out the droppings tray ... I built it before the Eglu arrived, so I couldn't check. Measure yours, or add a couple of extra feet. :) Mine's only been down for a couple of months, but I don't plan on moving it - just rake out the aubiose and add some fresh every so often.

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I think a lot depends on the set up you have.

I have had Aubiose in the bantams run & if it were not a walk in run I would not hesitate to use it again as it is really good,very economical & easy to compost & use.

 

However I have a walk in run with a clear plastic roof (see photos in my album - link below) & we found that walking across dewy grass & onto Aubiose meant we got Aubiosy feet & it got walked into the house,which was a pain :?

 

The bants are now on 805 wood chip with some Aubiose & its working well,the big hens are on woodchip & thats fine for them :D

The roof on my pen means it all stays very dry....in fact too dry in summer & we have to hose it down every so often to stop it getting too dusty :roll:

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Chelsea's set up sounds just like mine - my eglu is static, on solid earth with Aubiose/Hemcore inside the run, an Ikea shower curtain over the run and Aubiose/Hwemcore in the poo tray and nest box. It is almost like it is kiln-dried because it doesn't soak up the wet at all, which is a problem I had with bark and woodchip, which both went soggy and smelly.

 

The Hemcore I get is treated with citronella, so it repels flies too. It costs about £7 for an enormous bale, which is compacted and lasts for ages. I also use it in my Rablu.

 

Do the chickens not get really hot in the summer with a shower curtain over the top???

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8 hours ago, Crazy Hen said:

First time chicken owner, are Pets At Home Beech wood chips OK for the chicken run? I know flyts of fancy do specialist wood chips but needed to put something down now

They’ll be fine. But if you have an option, go for the bigger chips rather than the very fine ones. 

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