Day 133 - The Good Dust

When considering chickens as being an investment, there would be costs, both initially and recurring. Besides keeping them fed and watered and providing a safe and predator-free home, there were other items that were important to keeping a healthy and productive flock. One such item revolved around cleaning up after the birds.

Chickens are known for producing plenty of poop. Npow, we can use that poop to enrich our garden, but that takes time. Based on the sheer amount of poop created, cleaning up can be arduous. In our research, we learned about a deep litter method which involved adding a deeper amount of animal bedding to avoid constant cleaning. Preparing for this method added a few steps to the coop creation process but would hopefully save time and money in the long run.

Multiple trips to the local store, especially when there was a sale, led to a surplus of wood shavings. We took those extra bags and stored them in the loft until it was time to do some coop cleaning and replace bedding.

Now as mentioned before, the loft was quite dirty. Even though I did some cleaning, the dust collects rather quickly in the barn. Normally, I am not a big fan of dust.

Depending on the dust.

It’s always nice to find partners willing to help in projects, especially when what they offer is free. I don't consider myself overly frugal but a deal is a deal. When I did prairie restoration at my school, I was given the advice that putting sawdust on dispersed seeds can help keep the seeds in place, improving their chances of becoming prairie plants. I reached out to my contacts and was able to acquire sawdust from our high school wood shop.

When we got chickens and knew we would need to somewhat regularly change the animal bedding consisting primarily of wood chips, I remembered this partnership and rekindled it.

Now, besides the loft being full of the unwanted dust that creates a thick layer of filth on whatever is stored there, we now have a loft with an overabundance of bags full of sawdust.

Luckily, the chickens love it even more than I.