Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

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Ontario Chick
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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Ontario Chick » Fri Feb 19, 2016 1:46 pm

Robbie wrote:QR_BBPOST
Ontario Chick wrote:QR_BBPOST I wonder if it could be used successfully for deep bedding, since the small pcs wouldn't allow for air space which adds insulating value and would just keep settling in to a solid mass?
Also presumably couldn't be mucked out twice a year with a pitchfork?
I only use the flax bedding for brooders in the house (pure magic there) but find it too fine for the pens.
I am game to try anything new, but it has to be an improvement over the old and tested. :)
Seems to have pretty good loft and it doesn't seem to pack down although I'm not sure how it would do if it got damper or wetter. The bales are lighter than shavings or flax.
If it kept the loft over winter it would certainly make it attractive to me, since I use drop bins under the roosts the bedding stays dry.
Really curious to hear anybody's experience with it when used as deep bedding.
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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Robbie » Wed May 11, 2016 8:35 am

Healthi Straw update! I have almost 100 chicks bedded on the stuff upstairs in the bedroom. I saved one bale specifically for this. I'm very impressed with it, there's almost no smell and the only dust is chick feather dust. I used flax bedding last year, the plus for the flax was chick pOop could be scooped out with a cat litter box scoop, but I can't do that with the Healthi straw because the pieces are too big to fall through the scoop, and I have to toss all the bedding at once. The chicks are about a week old, and are eating and p0oping up a storm of course. There's far less smell on the straw , even though there's three times more chicks. I clean out the bedding totally once each day and there's less smell than there was using flax and scooping the poop many times a day and dumping out as needed.
The healthy straw is not quite as good as the flax was at soaking up spilled water, but I've solved that problem by putting a dog diaper under the water fountains to catch any spills.
I'm glad now that |I didn't get that load of flax, now I'm going to try to get the Healthi Straw bales in somehow.
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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Jaye » Wed May 11, 2016 10:02 am

Thanks for the update, Robbie. I am running out of my flax bedding stock so hope to be able to source some healthi-straw myself soon, for the coop. You mentioned that it's not as easy as the flax bedding to pick out p00p with a kitty litter scoop: is it just harder, or is it pretty much impossible?

Also, I wonder if I were to run a straw bale through my leave mulcher, would I get DIY healti-straw, or does the healthi-straw go through some other "de-dusting" process?
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Robbie
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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Robbie » Wed May 11, 2016 11:29 am

Jaye wrote:QR_BBPOST Thanks for the update, Robbie. I am running out of my flax bedding stock so hope to be able to source some healthi-straw myself soon, for the coop. You mentioned that it's not as easy as the flax bedding to pick out p00p with a kitty litter scoop: is it just harder, or is it pretty much impossible?

Also, I wonder if I were to run a straw bale through my leave mulcher, would I get DIY healti-straw, or does the healthi-straw go through some other "de-dusting" process?
It's not possible to pick out chick poops with kitty litter scoop, but if you have a large mesh for the manure rake for the bigger chickens it can be done. Not as easily as the flax though. I just put a thin layer of bedding under my chickens on the poop tarp and scrape the whole thing off each day- much faster than picking through it all but I do pick through the floor litter. Flax is the easier of the two to pick through. The healthy straw is definitely dust and mould free, as advertised, unlike baled straw which I find is much dustier and there's absolutely no musty smell with the healthi straw. Might be worth a try though. The size of the Healthi straw pieces are 1/4-1" or so. There's a very generous quantity of packed straw in each plastic bale, more than in the flax I think.
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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Jaye » Wed May 11, 2016 11:40 am

I do have a bucket style manure rake screened with 1/4" hardware cloth, and I use Sweet PDZ on my p00p board, so would only be using the straw for the coop floor. I have bale straw out in the covered part of my run, and I'm doing "deep litter" there, which works quite well. The only thing is that the larger bits of straw take a while to break down. I was hoping that if I could cut it into smaller bits I could use it in the coop as well.
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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Robbie » Wed May 11, 2016 11:56 am

i don't think you could scoop it with 1/4" hardware cloth. Mine is 1/2" and it's tricky. If the baled straw is working for you then chopping would be a very good idea for the coop. It would shake a lot of dust out too. Le me know how stuffing straw through a shredder works!
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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Robbie » Wed May 11, 2016 12:03 pm

Gawd how hard would it be to rig something like this up? I suppose there's a conveyor belt that moves the straw and looks like two knives to cut it. I guess if you had all day..... a bale of healthi straw cost me $4.50 so time wise it has to be worth it. Interesting device!

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Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by thegawd » Wed May 11, 2016 2:46 pm

thats a pretty cool machine Robbie. I have cut up hay with scissors to fill a brooder n it sucked. A hay chopper would be awesome.
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Re: Anyone tried "healthi- straw" bedding?

Post by Killerbunny » Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:55 am

I just picked up a couple of bales of the TSC Straw Boss bedding for the chick brooder. I am using it instead of paper towel in the bottom. I really like it so far. Seems to be keeping the odour to a minimum and less noisy at night. Only sounds like mice scratching in the Rec room instead of rats! Very little dust too.
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