[hillfooter]

I liked the sound of Cozy Coop but on their website there's precious little information about what it is (ie what materials is it made from), how is it made (ie does it go through any heat sterilisation or drying processes) and how do they ensure there's no chicken toxic content etc, so I asked them and below is their reply.

"Hello, and thank you for your enquiry.
We are attached to a wood recycling business.  Their main customer is Norboard (sic), who supply the panels for kitchens, bathrooms etc for the likes of Hygena, B & Q. Their strict specifications mean that any treated timber, MDF or hardwood are rejected at the gate. Once wood enters the yard it goes over a six-man-operated picking belt, to remove any contaminants that may be hidden in the load. Magnets then remove any remaining nails etc at three different points in the chipping process.
We have regular meetings with the Environment Agency, the most recent being last week, and they always leave us happy with the processes in place.
We have been selling cattle bedding for the last ten years and, after further screening, now Cozy Coop for the last year, with a large number of happy customers.
Cozy Coop comes on a pallet of 50 bags ( approx 10 kg each ) and is a highly absorbent, small particle woodchip.

Please contact me if I can be of any further help.

Adrian

Adrian Rainbird
Bio Marketing Ltd
Tel: 07889613347"


He means, I think, Norbord who make mdf, particle board etc not Norboard who are a company who make litho board for printing display panels.

I must say I'm never impressed by testamonial evidence alone for any product without a good quality control system and some testing regimen ensuring it meets appropriate standards backing it up.  It's also not clear to me what the material is it is made from.  Is it material Norbord reject for their own products or is it reject product made by Norbord?  Whichever it doesn't sound like it's going to be consistent and it seems that there is very little further processing beyond removing metal and chipping so it conceivably could contain glue resins or vaneer coatings such as melamine.  I'd like to know a bit more about what it is and how do they ensure it doesn't contain poultry toxins.

Compare Cozy Coop's website with Snowflake who manufacture a top brand softwood bedding "Supreme" which is heat treated, kiln dried and dust extracted and appears to be much more tightly specified.  http://www.snowflakeanimalbedding.co.uk/vites/production.  Cozy Coop www.cozycoop.co.uk/ .

Cozy Coop costs around £6.50 to £8 ish for a 10Kg bag. Snowflake Supreme is around £8 to £12 per 25kg bale for comparison.  So CC isn't cheap.  There's lots of other options for bedding too including by-products from wood pulping and paper making processes as well as natural chopped straw and shavings, hemp straw etc so it's worth looking at other options too.

Incidently a couple of the benefits claimed for CC are "less capping" and "a reduced incidence of hot burn" whatever these two afflictions are?  Answers in a post please the more humourously imaginative the better.

Regards

Regards

[AmandaH]

Gosh, I wish I'd never mentioned the stuff now  :blink:

I have no humorously imaginative response to this as feeling a little deflated 

However, despite all that hillfooter, Cozy Coop is working for me.  From my experience with the four or five bags I've been through so far, Cozy Coop contains no visible contents other than wood and I think you could see certainly melamine and possibly glue resin.

I was assured that it was non-toxic by flytesofancy (reading the chicken keeping guide on the site, I was reassured that they care very much about chooks welfare) and, as a complete novice looking for advice, I was confident in buying from them.

I'll stick with it as it works for me and the chooks seem happy...

[hillfooter]

Sorry Amamda for deflating your enthusiasm for Cozy Coop.  Not what I intended it's just my natural tendancy to dig beneath the surface and it's not a personal criticism of you in anyway.  It comes of a long time being invoved with the animal feed and medication industry.  There's a lot of quackery around and small companies making unsupported claims for their products and I like to know exactly what I'm exposing my animals to. Having a daughter who's a professional Animal Nutrionalist and another who's a Biochemist working for the Ministry of Health and a wife who runs a stables and being personally an engineering scientist I tend to look for data based evidence rather than narative.  Anyway please continue to innovate about new products and opinions as without this we'd have little to debate on this site.  It's all good learning stuff.

I further clarified what goes into Cozy Coop and got the following reply.

"Sorry if I wasn't clear.  You assume correctly.  We use only the clean material ( non-treated softwood ), once contaminants have been removed.

Adrian
Adrian Rainbird
Bio Marketing Ltd
Tel: 07889613347"

So it seems if their manual sort process is bullet proof there should be no particle board, MDF, hardwoods or contaminated or "treated"wood used. 

I always think if I'm happy for my birds to eat it then I'm happy to use it as litter  (not that I suggest you should feed litter or use food as litter of course but inevitably they'll scratch though it and eat some).  I'll leave it to anyone reading these posts to decide for themselves whether they think what they've heard satisfies their own criteria.

Regards

[lucylou]

im willing to try anything that claims less cr*ping and reduced incidences of hot bums - can't wait to try it

[Foxy]

I use easibed...

boy that was funny wasn't it?

oh dear.....

can't stop giggling....

get it? Easibed?

[hillfooter]

im willing to try anything that claims less cr*ping and reduced incidences of hot bums - can't wait to try it

Well it seems that for "hot burn" (sic) read "hock burn".  A condition normally associated with broilers raised on deep litter and caused by them dragging themselves through ammonia laden litter.  Though if only they could make it produce less cr*ping and hot bums I'm sure it'd be a winner.

[AmandaH]

Hey hillfooter - no probs, I didn't take it as a personal criticism.  As you say, it's good to find out about these things and talk about them.

Anyway, I am used to having my ideas dissected.  I come from a family of engineers - Dad's a civil engineer (retired), sister's a chemical engineer, brother-in-law does something complicated with microwave signals for BAe (not ovens, he gets very cross if you mention them), other brother-in-laws are structural, mechanical & electrical and civil engineers...  And where family members aren't engineers, they're in IT.  It's all a bit tedious if you, say, want to build a chicken coop.  A horde of bespectacled beardie-weirdies (my sister has no beard) descend upon you with their theories, technical specifications and CAD designs.  Trouble is, none of them are much cop at actually *building* anything!

Even changing a light bulb can get a tricky around here... 

Anyway, good to know more about Cozy Coop so thanks for the research!

[ScottBarton]

The best stuff to use by far is horse bedding. I have owned my chickens since Feb of this year and i am only on my second bale! Its only around £8 per bale!
Its called 'Aubiose' and comes in large compressed packs. I think there is also a product called 'Hemcore'.
Its 100% natural, can be scooped up with the poop and deposited straight into the compost (although i tend to only do that once a month), its clean, non dusty, and it also acts as an insulation.
I use straw in the nest boxes.

Any good horse feed stores, country stores will sell it.
I get mine from a store near me called Lillico.

http://www.attlees.co.uk/index.html

[hillbilly]

WoW!  Haven't you all been busy! I had no idea it was so complicated/in depth 
My chooks have started pulling the straw out of the nest boxes to lay eggs on the wood shreddings in the bottom (2 today  Hurray!!). I have to replace it for them to sleep on - or maybe they'd just sleep on the shreddings?
Seems to work OK except the wood shredding are basically poo coloured so it can be tricky to get it all out  :blink:.
Hey Ho...
By the way, Hillfooter, do you see any problems with wood shreddings? They're literally the brash from felled or fallen trees in the wood that we put through the shredder.

[hillfooter]

Well hillbilly I'm nothing if not opinionated so of course I have a view on shreddings too!!

Shredddings are fine used in a run where there's good ventillation, though I'd prefer that they were rotted a bit first so the chx won't tend to eat them.  I use "forest mulch" which is composted shreddings in the winter to prevent the chx churning up mud.  Wouldn't use it in the house though as litter as they will have far too much moisture content and there's a danger that they will promote mould growth some species of which if eaten can be highly toxic.  Also if the litter dries out they can release spores which in the confines of a house can be quite concentrated and cause a nasty respiratory infection which can be fatal.  In any case shreddings aren't the most absorbant material so I'd stick with something a bit more sterile, such as softwood shavings or a specialist bedding, in the house and use the shreddings in the run or as dry doormat to the house entrance.  Make sure you don't shred anything which is poisonous such as Yew for example.  I believe there's a sticky somewhere on such poisonous plants to avoid.  I'll leave it to you to look it up.

Hope this helps

[hillbilly]

OOps!
OK so the shreddings come out and I do actually have to buy something 
I try very hard to find solutions from my own resources where ever poss.
Thanks all for the advice I'm off to find AmandaH's Cosy Coop tomorrow. By the way AmandaH that's some family! Luckily for me my engineer (the RMPPOH!! ) has turned his hand from metal to wood and makes chicken runs that are within 3mm of square! I tell him the chooks wont notice but it just makes him cross...