Sawdust

Day 40: Sawdust

Sawdust for chicken bedding makes me cough.
Probably not good for the chickens either

I can't get ahead of the economics of chickens. We buy about two bags of feed ($15 ea), two bags of bedding ($10 ea) and about $10 on miscellaneous other stuff like oyster shells or scratch every year. That's about sixty bucks a year. We spent $200 building the coop, $100 buying two water dispensers and a feed dispenser, $30 on a water melter, $15 on an extension cord long enough to in plug the melter, and $15 on a permit. So that's $360 in start-up costs for about six years of laying, an average of another sixty a year. Two chickens give us about 400 eggs a year. So that's $120 in annualized costs for $3.60 a dozen.

My co-worker Judy sells her Happy Hens eggs for $3.50 per dozen. So for just a dime a dozen, I get all the fun of cleaning the coop, tromping outside all weathers in my bathrobe and boots to open and close the coop, driving fifteen miles to the Tractor Supply store for chicken feed, and finding someone to take care of the birds when we go on vacation.

I am motivated to minimize my chicken care costs, and neither of us remembers why we have this big bag of unopened sawdust. Might we have gotten it from Fingerle's years ago, thinking it could be used in lieu of salt on ice? Nothing else comes to mind.

Backyard chicken web sites unanimously agree that sawdust is no good for chicks, but most seemed to think that as a supplement to regular bedding, sawdust is okay for layers. It's absorbent and it smells good, but in large doses it's too dusty for chickens and humans. It can cause respiratory problems. I went ahead and mixed it in with the cedar shavings. I was interested to read that construction grade sand makes warmer, cleaner, cheaper reusable bedding. Next time I'll try it.

Re the wisdom of using sawdust as bedding: I'm still coughing.