Aubiose, how many to start a bed and how to muck out

[two troubles]

Hi, I'm about to put down my new Aubiose bed and I was wondering a) how many bales people use to start a new bed and b) how you manage it (i.e. full muck out or semi-deep litter). Thank you

 

[Moomin1]

I use about 5 bales to start, and I full deep litter. I add two bales per week. My mare is a very messy 16.3hh girl.

 

[hobo]

I use a dozen to start the bed and only ever remove the poo's as the winter goes on the bed is set and I use about 1 bale every 5 days. Through the summer i just keep it tidy and just before the winter I start again. Even the dig out is not that bad and I would not use anything else. The daily muck out means just going in with a bucket & gloves and than a little rake after. I do have big stables 17ft square that helps but still would recommend it though it is not cheep to start a bed it is cheep to maintain.

 

[two troubles]

thank you everyone so far I'm on matting if that makes any difference.

 

[kez81]

I use it on top of really thick mats for the old boy. I use about four bags to start and skip wet and poo out with gloves daily and top up with one bag a week when boys come in at night. I am lucky though that my boy is very clean and tidy and only pees in one corner of the stable and pops in the other. My other two are on straw as its included in my livery and god what a difference! Takes me ten mins to muck out old boy stable, takes blooming ages to do theirs! Poop everywhere and always lots if stinky wet straw, I take out two full wheelbarrows from each one if in overnight and its back breaking!

 

[fatpiggy]

Horse is no more sadly, but I used to start the 10 x 12 stable with 7 bales (plenty in the banks) and a good spraying with the hosepipe. In the winter we used 1 bale max a week (no turnout) and half a bale in the summer if in at night. On Saturday mornings I would scrape back all the loose surface until the cork base was reached (this is how it goes after a while), dig out the wet patch, pull it all back over and top up with fresh. This was usually one fairly heaped standard gardeners barrow. I was lucky that she only did 3 poos over night so daily mucking out was just that - 3 poos! I recommend a proper Aubiose fork (I used to get them from Future Forks). Not cheap but superbly engineered and they last years as long as you don't try to pole vault with them. If you had given me free shavings for life I wouldn't have changed from Aubiose. It is still light even when absolutely soaked with wee and believe me there is no odour when you expose the wet even though it is a week old. Brilliant stuff.