Wednesday, August 25, 2010

We will Chaff No More [Chicken related]

I love the chaff: it's smells great, blocks odors, composts easily and best of all, it's free. The major downside is that it's so light and fluffy that it travels well. 
Too well. 

Winnie will give herself a shake and suddenly there is a cloud of chaff in the water bowl, the food dish, and in the nesting chamber. 

I would happily put up with all of that if the girls lived in an isolated coop. Instead, their interior area is part of our larger garden shed and is separated by 1/2 inch hardware cloth. So the chaff migrates out of the chicken coop and onto the various tools, machines, and potting paraphernalia that we have stored in the shed. It's making a mess. 


So I guess the big question now is, what are we going to replace it with? We could go back to the pine shavings, but they were expensive and molded easily. Maybe straw/hay? Not sure...