Couple of wood pellets questions

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ecrozier

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Am swapping my extremely grubby youngster onto wood pellets this weekend - he's out on a couple of weeks holiday at the mo and having just had concrete laid in our yard/stables (finally - been waiting 3 years!) it seemed a good time to swap.
Firstly - am pretty clear on set up of bed, between 8-12 bags go in, opened up, bucket or so of water per bag thrown over them. Question 1 - do I literally just throw water over the bed or better to try and spray with a hose or something? Question 2 - banks - do you bother?
Then mucking out - lift out poo, and worst of wet (which I believe makes 'clumps') every day then mix the slightly damp stuff into the bed. Question 3 - what type of fork do you all use? Normal shavings fork or do I need something specific?
Think that is all my questions for now!

ETA - if I like it for Roo, I'll probably swap J onto it too - just wondered though has anyone ever done a 'gradual' swap ie had a shaving bed and then just started adding wood pellets instead of fresh shavings? Seems a terrible waste to throw away a load of clean shavings!
Thanks :)
 
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ecrozier said:
Am swapping my extremely grubby youngster onto wood pellets this weekend - he's out on a couple of weeks holiday at the mo and having just had concrete laid in our yard/stables (finally - been waiting 3 years!) it seemed a good time to swap.
Firstly - am pretty clear on set up of bed, between 8-12 bags go in, opened up, bucket or so of water per bag thrown over them. Question 1 - do I literally just throw water over the bed or better to try and spray with a hose or something? Question 2 - banks - do you bother?
Then mucking out - lift out poo, and worst of wet (which I believe makes 'clumps') every day then mix the slightly damp stuff into the bed. Question 3 - what type of fork do you all use? Normal shavings fork or do I need something specific?
Think that is all my questions for now!
Thanks :)
Click to expand...

1. The finer the spray, the more absorbancy will be left in the pellets and the better they will bloom out as a bed
2. Banks - no dont bother, almost impossible with pellets. If you have cast prone/elderly horse then you can get cast strips made of rubber for the wall.
3. Normal fork not shavings fork altho that would work too. NB only lift out wet if it is dark coloured or coming right to the top, otherwise will mix in with dry stuff just fine and no smell.
 
I wouldn't bother disturbing the wet until it actually comes to the surface. The more you leave it alone the better it'll be. I take mine out once a week. I use a shavings fork but the forks designed specially for pellets are even better as you can use them like a sieve to remove little bits of poo and clumps of bed :)

A leaf rake is also a useful tool if you have pelleted bedding :)
 
hi
i tip a bag into a wheel barrow then add half a bucket of water , i used 10 bags to start with then add one or two bags dry per week
i do have small banks
i use an ordinary shavings fork for the poos and a snow shovel for the wet which i take out twice a week
 
1. Fine spray, really good soak then wait a few minutes fluff up and then hose, repeat again until most pellets have dissappeared.
2. I have banks, easy enough after pellets have fluffed up.
3. I only take out the droppings, never lift the bed at all (deep litter), add a bag a week. Then remove the whole lot once they are turned out 24/7 in March/ April time.

Saves a huge amount of time on mucking out, stays smell free, horses always lie down and sleep on it, way cheaper than other forms of bedding.

I use an ordinary shavings fork.
 
Brilliant thanks all. He's not cast prone as far as I know - had him 2.5 years and never had a problem yet, he doesn't tend to roll anyway even in field). Might not bother with banks!
Where would I get a specific pellet fork?
Interesting re the wet - hes not a hugely wet horse more tends to do a LOT of poo and then trample in it a lot, so maybe I will leave the wet a week or so at a time...
Jesstickle what do you use the leaf rake for?
Maggiehorse, how long do you need to leave eack bag in wheelbarrow with the water?
 
As the others have said.

If you want banks you could always use your old shavings to save throwing them away.

Use the garden rake for smoothing the bed over once mucked out and for getting any hay out of the bed; for some reason, any hay/haylage left in seems to clump into damp patches even if the horse doesn't pee there; it's less than two minute job and does make the bed look and feel better if it's bare of hay.

Just be ready for the bed to become the colour of sand instead of the fluffy white you're used to. I do know someone who sprinkles some shavings over her bed to make her feel better, only uses about a bale of them a month so not a big extra outlay and they mix into the pellets very well.
 
Thanks Maesfen - not overly bothered about having banks so will try without. Will find myself a garden rake! And fluffy white is not a colour of bed Roo is partial to - I leave a fluffy white bed and come back in the morning to a a small peat bog.....
 
Ive moved onto them for last 2 weeks. I love them.
I put 8 bags down and used watering can for wetting them.
I also had shavings before so i used the clean stuff to make banks as she likes to lie down and roll.
I use a plastic shavings fork and you can filter out the poo. I have saved so much bedding this way.
I have used 11 bags so far (including first 8, but i do like it quite deep)
 
ecrozier said:
Thanks Maesfen - not overly bothered about having banks so will try without. Will find myself a garden rake! And fluffy white is not a colour of bed Roo is partial to - I leave a fluffy white bed and come back in the morning to a a small peat bog.....
Click to expand...

Sounds like they will suit you fine then! I wouldn't change to anything else now, it's my 3rd or 4th year on them. :)
 
OK, my question! How many bags would you suggest I need for two 12 x 12 stables, one with 3/4 bed and one with 1/2 bed? They will be used as the base layer for a deep litter with a bale of shavings on the top of each bed.
 
broke_but_happy said:
OK, my question! How many bags would you suggest I need for two 12 x 12 stables, one with 3/4 bed and one with 1/2 bed? They will be used as the base layer for a deep litter with a bale of shavings on the top of each bed.
Click to expand...

I'd go with 8 for both myself, wouldn't be happy using less although you might get away with 6 for the smaller one
 
Thanks jennygrace - sounds good. How big is your stable and did you do a full bed or just half or two thirds of stable? I think I will do between half and two thirds as he stands with his head at hay and just poos and poos and poos in a big pile (greedy perhaps!?) so aim is to keep the landing zone to just rubber mats if possible!
Maesfen excellent to hear thanks - I really hope they work out. Two other people on yard are already on them and recommended, plus I used a much heavier more absorbant bedding than my usual (bedmax) at camp last month for 3 nights with him being in 24/7 apart from when in lessons and they did seem a better choice for him I have to say.
Tr0uble thats interesting - do you just mix in? May do that with J, as he is pretty clean anyway.
 
we've been using pellets for 3 years now (i think!)

we put a clean bed of 10 or so bags down (stables are 14x16foot), only soaking 2 or 3 bags in a wheel barrow first.
We take out the squelchy wet bits as necessary and top up with dry pellets. usually about 1 bag per stable per week.
we use a shavings fork just cos that's what we had and it works fine.
try to leave the bed as undisturbed as possible and it will work best

Ron barely lies on his but then he never lay on straw or shavings either. Tom can still turn pellets to a bog in 10 minutes flat, but he box walks and digs, and throws his buckets about, and rolls etc so it's no wonder! but so much better on pellets than anything else we've tried!
 
I throw 13 bags down in a heap and throw a bucket on them (if I can be bothered). Then go and finish my jobs then go back, swirl it around and lay it out.

After that I never bother to wet them

I don't have banks - I'm too cheap:)

I use the same metal shavings fork that I already had.

You can use pellets with any other bedding.
 
I have rubber matting, but one of mine likes a big bed as well, so I put down a decent ish shavings bed first, then lay the pellets on top....within a couple of days he has mixed them and broken down the pellets (would put 5 bags in to start with)

The bed grows as the pellets absorb moisture from the atmosphere, and you end up wi a nice fluffy mix of part shavings, part wood pellet fines and half broken down pellets...makes a fluffy, super absorbent bed with the benefits of the absorbent pellets amd the comfort/appearance of shavings.

Still find the poo sits on top and the pee clumps into nice easy to remove 'pucks'!!!
 
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