They will love that deep bedding. Normally I collect a LOT of dried leaves from the community by now. But with rain every other day, there's no dry leaves around. Not sure what I will do for bedding in the run, if the rain doesn't slow down...
Love Farmer Sam's drainage. :))
They seemed to really like it today. They were perfectly content to stay in their run when I offered to let em out in the cold rain lol
Could you use hay for bedding? Surely a big round bale wouldn't be wet all the way through, would it?
Using hay exclusively for bedding is not good. Hay is something they would try to eat and you run the risk of impacted crops. It's ok when mixed with lots of other things. But mostly, any hay I find, goes on the gardens as mulch. I need about 200 bales a year, to keep my worms fed. :))
Lots of hungry worms is exactly the best kind of problem :D
I'm thinking about finding a farmer with some year old hay and asking for some. My hay farmer friend at work says that may be quite the task though, as it's been a hard couple years for hay farmers around here. I figure if I had a few round bales I'd be doing alright for mulch and such.
Impacted crops is where the chicken's weird throat thing gets plugged up, right?
The crop is where the stones/grit are and the grinding of food happens. The chicken form of teeth/chewing. Not so much plugged up, as the material in it can't be broken down and becomes packed in.
Around here it's been bad hay years for several years either due to drought or too much rain. It's real hard to find mulch hay for free...