Brites wood pellets - I'm confused

wallykissmas

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I have laid a bed of brites pellets, made them wet enough to break down and had a lovely white fluffy bed, added a few more bags and a bag of whole pellets but my bed isn't dry.

Its gone a darker colour and is damp , it's not the dark redish urine compact wetness and doesn't smell of wee. I've picked some up and squeezed it and it still feels fluffy ish but is damp. The pellets that I added whole are still hard and not started to fluff.

They are on mats and horse isn't normally that wet so it's left me confused as to what it is ?
 
I've just started mine on pellets this winter and will be curious to hear the answers as I was thinking just that this afternoon.

Mine have been down a week and I put down my first bag since laying the beds and I too wondered about the dampness.

My beds are dark and fairly damp despite me thinking I've been doing everything correctly for the last week. I too decided not to wet the new pellets (wrongly or rightly). I'm hoping by the morning they'll have mixed in and fluffed up.

Like you, the beds don't smell but I can't help but wonder if standing on damp bedding is a potential breeding ground for the likes of thrush. *confused*
 
do you only take the wet out once a week?

I poo pick every day flick dry bed over exposed wet patches and then once a week i treat the bed like i was doing an archeology dig to expose the wet patches, remove these and then put down a layer of 1/2 pre wetted and 1/2 dry pellets making sure that where the wet patches where have more of the dry pellet, put the old bed back over and rake flat. yes it can change colour but the secrete is less is more
 
I poo pick and normally remove the wet every couple of days and around the edge remains dry white and fluffy but for som reason this bed all looks wet.
 
Ive had my four stables on pellets now for four years, i have a mixture of v wet 17h tidy horse, two 15.2h very dry mares tidy mares and a creature from hell! They are all different, much the same with any bedding, however i start the beds with enough bags (usually 6-8 15kg bags) to give me 4-6" of fluffed up bed i put enough water on to fluff them up, but not too much or they will be too wet and not absorb as much wee. After the first few days for the boys i remove their wet patch and replace the area with whole dry pellets then recover with the old bed. I repeat the then every 5-6 days depending on how wet they are, the girls get 1 bag a week and jyst take the small amount of wet out weekly, their beds actually get a little too dry sometimes. It really does depend on how wet the horse is and how much they mess it all up. I wouldnt swop back to either hemp/rape seed straw or shavings -its just so quick to muck out each morning, i can get them all done in just 10-15 mins, even the horse from hell only takes 5 mins! Far easier and the much heap is way smaller!!! Keep perservering find out what right for you and your horse
 
How much water are you adding? I use half a bucket per bag and always wet new pellets as take ages to break down otherwise.Beds never feel damp after about half an hour . I always add water into slashed bag , allow to expand for about 20mins then spread out.
 
Maybe I'm putting in too much waters, I used brites all last year with no problem, then didnt have anything all summer as they lived out. Might have lost my knack.

Cob goblin how big is your bucket that your using ?

Also wondered if to move Hay net as its at the back of the stable and I'm thinking horse might be dipping his hay and that would be why the pellets are so wet but don't smell of wee.
 
Maybe I'm putting in too much waters, I used brites all last year with no problem, then didnt have anything all summer as they lived out. Might have lost my knack.

Cob goblin how big is your bucket that your using ?

Also wondered if to move Hay net as its at the back of the stable and I'm thinking horse might be dipping his hay and that would be why the pellets are so wet but don't smell of wee.
Just a normal black bucket of the kind you find everywhere. Forgot to say, I add about three-quarters of a bucket in the summer so that pellets don't get too dusty.
 
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