Making Bedding
April 8th, 2014 · No Comments · Posted in farming
Why buy bedding for chicks at the store when you can make it yourself?
As a gardener back in the District of Columbia this Flowtron “leaf eater” was one of my favorite tools. Aside from the goofy name, it did a great job of turning fallen leaves into a component for compost that I could store indefinitely in garbage cans. Anyone who’s tried to garden on a large scale in the city knows that one of the biggest impediments is finding the materials you need to make good compost. Well, my leaf eater was perfect for taking care of the “browns” I required in my compost pile. When I didn’t have leaves, I shredded straw.
That’s how I got the idea for making straw bedding for the chicks in our basement brooder. We always have bales of straw on hand here on the farm. For small chicks, the long, curly stems that come out of a straw bale wouldn’t work at all. But pass them through the leaf eater and they turn into a fine, fluffy cloud of material that’s soft as goose down. Well, almost.
The device is little more than a line trimmer housed in a metal can and runs on standard 110-volt current. As you can see, it mounts perfectly on top of a garbage can. Feed the straw into the can slowly and within minutes you have enough bedding to line an entire brooding box. Occasionally you need to replace the plastic filaments that do the grinding. Otherwise it couldn’t be easier.
I think I paid less than $100 for the machine years ago. I’m sure it’s paid for itself many times over since then.
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