Chook Me!

Can I use shredded paper in a chicken coop?

Im looking at getting 3 chucks and have been looking into the various designs of coops,Obviously the new eglu cube would be great but the price is too much,so going for a traditional style with nesting boxes and good size run area etc...it seems to me the great feature on the eglu is the removable trays for cleaning purposes,and so plan to get hubby to make me some for the wood one I choose,but could we put shredded paper in the bottom to aid emptying or what would anyone with more experience than me suggest!?

Public Comments

1. Seems like a good way to recycle. Go for it!
2. yes
3. Yes!
4. Yes, shredded paper is good. But I use sawdust, as I can dump it on my raised beds and work it into the soil. Shredded paper gets wet, and when it drys, it sticks together, causing clumps. Sawdust helps the soil,,even clay.
5. shredded paper should only be used as a last resort as it holds the ammonia the hens release when they go to the toilet and considering they go around 50 time a day most of which is when they are roosting at night i would try and use wood shavings but if you can't get this use the paper but change it at least every two days or you will regret the smell
6. I'd personally avoid using shredded paper and opt for woodshavings/chippings or hemcore/aubiose (can be purchased from most equestrian shops and livestock stores and cost about £12 for a 20kg bag which would last 6 months in a small coop). Shredded paper has a poor absorbancy rate and some hens will attempt to eat the stuff which is far from ideal (crop implications etc). The Eglu's are expensive and from what I've heard aren't as easy to access to clean out as they say and if you have a chicken who is unwell and has retreated to the eglu, it's difficult to get access to them. For more info on keeping chickens, check out this site it's a great resource: http://www.henkeeping.co.uk/begin.html
7. Shredded paper would not be suitable to use with chickens. The strand type gets tangled around their legs and the confetti type can be accidentally be eaten when they are pecking around.It would choke and kill them. Sawdust is unsuitable as it can be easily swallow and gets in their eyes and in their nostrils. I have found the best type of flooring and nest box material is straw.
8. We use woodshavings (dust extracted) which are usually used for horse bedding. Not the same as sawdust. Its more absorbant than straw, straw doesn't absorb anything actually. Shredded paper is a last resort if the store doesn't have the woodshavings. The paper gets wetter quicker and stays wet. You can smell the ammonia after a couple of days whereas shavings last for 10 days or so. You can just scatter more on top if need be (if the weather is too bad for a proper clean out) like a deep bedding sort of system used for cattle. We scatter the used woodshavings around the trees in the run and it acts as fertilizer, the trees in the pen are much more lush than the trees outside the pen.