We don’t use anything fancy! I know some people can get real creative on what they use for bedding. However, we just use a couple of things: straw and pine shavings.
We get both at our local Tractor Supply. I’m sure you can find them both at any feed stores!
Pine Shaving is used for our nesting boxes, chick brooder, and for injured chickens that come into the house. (**Also used for injured ducks but please scroll to the bottom for more info!) We get the 5.5 cubic feet pine shavings. It’s in a large plastic bag which you can see below. I scoop pine shavings into a bucket or plastic grocery bag to carry outside to use.
Straw is used for the goat house, nesting boxes, and is spread out over mud in the pens. There are two types of straw that we get. The first straw is in a square bale with plastic straps holding it together. The second kind is compressed straw which seems to be about the same amount as the square bale but is a few dollars more. Compressed straw is compacted straw into flakes or slivers, placed into a plastic bag.
I like both straws but for different reasons. With the compact straw it is easier to store. If you are needing to fill a small area or nesting boxes, one sliver of straw can be taken out. Then the rest of the straw is still in the plastic. Nice and neat, tucked away.
With the straw square bales, if you cut a strap a lot of straw pops out. I LOVE taking these bales, putting them into the goat house then cutting the straps. The straw is super easy to spread out vs compact straw. Compact straw sticks together, a lot of pulling the straw apart is done. Square bales to me are a time saver with covering a large area.
**More on pine shavings and ducks. I have a theory on these two but I’m not settled 100 % if it’s true or not. We had an injured duck that had gotten hit by a car. We brought her inside, put her into a plastic tub filled with pine shavings. She was getting better but I noticed respiratory wheezing sounds. We changed the bedding whenever it got damp. When ducks feel good, they splash water all over the place. It’s part of their cleaning, it’s what they do. We had another injured duck inside but I don’t remember having the wheezing problem. The one duck that was wheezing, I put her outside and the next day the wheezing was gone. Just be careful with wet pine shavings. Perhaps straw may be better than pine shavings for ducks. We’ve had several injured chickens lay on pine shavings and never had a respiratory issue from it! Just wanted to type this out for you to be aware and listen to your duck in case it starts. You don’t want one problem then a respiratory infection on top of it.
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