Help with mucking out wood pellet bedding please!!!

[Liostro]

Hi
I recently purchased wood pellets and for the first 2 weeks they were great, took out poo every day and the very wet bits, now 2 weeks later and i havent really noticed til now but they look awful, they have gone a really dark brown (pooey colour!!!) and are so so heavy to lift..... Do I take this all out or just keep adding fresh on top?? I just want it to look nice again!!!! I must add it doesn't smell at all though and are definately absorbing the wee very well x

 

[JenHunt]

if you can bare to leave them - do that! some people use some shavings on top to 'brighten them up' but most will admit it's purely for aesthetics not for any practical purpose!

as long as they don't smell then you're getting it right IMO - we've come to accept that they aren't a pretty bed like straw or shavings, but they work for us!

 

[jennywren07]

I have a couple on this at work and they just don't stay white. Love mucking them out though so much easyer than shavings or straw. As above eave them if you can bare too.

I also find they work better as a thinish bed on rubber matting than as a sole bed

 

[nikCscott]

This is why it's not worth spending the extra on the whiter ones.

Mine are a lightish brown colour in Z's stable (he poos, but no wees) and they are completely blond in S's (but he doesn't poo in his bed, but gosh does he wee) . I got through beds completely every day, and I mix in 2 bags on a Monday morning (dry in the wet pony and very slightly damped in Z's) this for me keeps a dry comfy bed. Its taken some adjusting too but my supplier is really helpful and I now have a system that is working all around.

We are conditioned to want white fluffy beds and you don't get that with wood pellets just think of the money you are no long putting on the muck heap!

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Also if the bedding isnt white you dont feel like you have to polish and buff every flake of fluffy bunny shavings like you used to! Thumbs up to that!

 

[JenHunt]

We are conditioned to want white fluffy beds and you don't get that with wood pellets just think of the money you are no long putting on the muck heap!

totally agree!

Tom is very wet and he gets 2 bags a week (Max) added onto the top of his bed dry. Ron is very dry, but can poo for most of Europe (I swear he's a herd of elephants disguised as one horse) and he gets one a week added dry.

 

[Liostro]

Thanks for all the replies, reassurance that I'm doing it right is a great help, I love te fact I don't have to put extra bedding in mid week and only have quick muck outs in the early hours before work! I just don't like the brown colour...... But for the time and money it saves I will definately live with it!!!!
Thanks again everyone x

 

[ecrozier]

I have been on them about a month now, I was expecting them to go darker brown I must admit having been warned! My two both poo a LOT but one is tidy (ie leaves poo alone) big lad tramples it round and round. Neither are particularly wet and tend to wee in same place. I work from back left corner to back right then back across in a zig zag motion taking out obvious lumps of poo, then rake the fork through the top layer and take out any more I can find. I also lift out the very wettest bits every day from big lad and little one probably every second or third day. Then once I think most of poo out I sweep front half of stable back into bed (each bed is about 4 inches thick across back half of stable). Do a last work over of bed for stray poo. Little tidy boy his bed stays a reasonable colour and looks really nice I think, big lad the little tiny bits of poo that fall through the fork annoy me but apart from working over bed an extra time there isn't much I can do - am learning to live with it!
Am seriously pleased with the bed though - on shaving Roo's stable looked like a peat bog every morning and used absolute minimum 1 bale a week of shavings on a very thin bed, at £6.50+ per bale. On this so far using one bag a week at £3.40 and looks much better - more stable and 'springy' definately. No smell, and I would say slightly quicker to muck out for Roo and much much quicker for j. Consistently using 1 bag each per week, shared one extra mid week last week.

 

[HBrae2]

Mine seemed o look like sand in colour! My mare is very wet and I found it better to put in LOTS of pellets and it stayed drier and cleaner. Personally I found just leaving a thin layer over the rubber matting didn't work for me and it was just soaked and the whole thing had to come out every day - it depends on your horse! When I added 6 bags at once and then topped up with 2 bags a week it was much better. Much quicker to muck out and less waste, makes up for noy being as "pretty" as shavings : )
I'm on a livery yard now which uses dark brown wood fibre so not white to start with so you don't notice : )

 

[milesjess]

They will darken but I normally add a bale of shavings now and again to brighten the bed up.

Mix in the wet with the dry and it'll soon dry up.

My way of working it is -

Open the bag, pour a bucket of water into the bag and leave to soak for 10 min.

Make your bed up.

Mine is on deep litter so take the droppings out and about once every 2 weeks turn the whole bed up and mix it in... Leave the wetter (darker) parts on the bottom as the base then the fresher parts on top. You'll notice the bed double in size.

Works for me

Make sure your putting enough bedding down but if you soak a new bag it'll crumble the pellet then dry out so it's more absorbent.

 

[glamourpuss]

I acquired a wood pellet bed & a stack of bags of wood pellets with my youngster (he was given to me with everything he had)
I'm now totally converted to wood pellet as a bed. TBH I'm not bothered by the colour of a bed but it's ease/quickness to muck out, whether it moves @ how absorbant it is....the wood pellets tick every single box.
I find mixing in some pellets undampened keeps my bed looking fresh

 

[Liostro]

Thanks everyone, very vey helpful posts z

 

[LaurenM]

I love wood pellets I've had to take out the mats though. I'm only adding one bag every week and a half. I turn it over every day to dry out. My mare can be messy and can be clean - if its bad weather she tends to be messy.

 

[Maesfen]

- if its bad weather she tends to be messy.

I think damp weather tends to draw in the moisture to the bed which makes it seem worse, beds are always drier in dry weather, honestly!

 

[Cluck]

Don't mix the wet with the dry. It is much better to take out the wet patches every day. That way the whole bed stays dry and sweet smelling. The pellets will only turn a brown colour if you are leaving in too much pee!

 

[Liostro]

Iv think mine is mainly brown from muddy feet!!! So hosing off hooves every night now!!!!!!!

 

[Wagtail]

Well although I love wood shavings I get through 3 - 4 bags per week per horse. I don't throw anything out that isn't wet or poo either. Maybe I just have very mucky horses!

 

[Wagtail]

Don't mix the wet with the dry. It is much better to take out the wet patches every day. That way the whole bed stays dry and sweet smelling. The pellets will only turn a brown colour if you are leaving in too much pee!

That's what I do and my beds are lovely, but as I said, I use a lot of pellets (very slightly dampened). Still, they work out cheaper and faster to muck out than shavings.

 

[spotty_pony]

All of the horses at my yard are bedded on wood pellets. We have found that the really clean horses tend to do better on it, although then the bedding tends to dry out and become dusty whereas the really wet ones have to have more bedding added and it doesn't look so nice.

The bedding definitely goes further if you soak it first so it is a yellow sandy colour. Although, if your horse is very wet, make sure you add a bag or two of dry pellets too to absorb the wet in the stable.

We find if we remove all droppings in the morning and the worst of the wet areas and turn the whole bed over to allow it to dry out it stays relatively clean, is easy to maintain and very economic too.

 

[Liostro]

Ok so i have taken out a load of the wet today and it had gone a pinky colour!!!do you think I'd be better to take out wet more often now that I know roughly where he pees?!?!
Also any ideas to stop a bed walker as he must go round and round and roundin circles as there not 1 solid poo in there which with my shavings fork takes forever to get out!!!!!!! Shall I now add some dry pellets as to me the bed feels quite damp still :-(

 

[9tails]

Ok so i have taken out a load of the wet today and it had gone a pinky colour!!!do you think I'd be better to take out wet more often now that I know roughly where he pees?!?!
Also any ideas to stop a bed walker as he must go round and round and roundin circles as there not 1 solid poo in there which with my shavings fork takes forever to get out!!!!!!! Shall I now add some dry pellets as to me the bed feels quite damp still :-(

I don't take out any wet, if the bed feels damp I add a couple of bags of soaked pellets on top. I never add dry as the pellets just stick to new poos and I lose a load of bedding. Broken down bedding adds a layer of swadust to poos. I use a bucket and glove, sifting with a shavinsg fork takes up far too much of my time.

For a bed walker, get there earlier in the morning Mine can go from pristine piles of droppings to poo soup in a matter of minutes if I'm late.

 

[Cluck]

Ok so i have taken out a load of the wet today and it had gone a pinky colour!!!do you think I'd be better to take out wet more often now that I know roughly where he pees?!?!
Also any ideas to stop a bed walker as he must go round and round and roundin circles as there not 1 solid poo in there which with my shavings fork takes forever to get out!!!!!!! Shall I now add some dry pellets as to me the bed feels quite damp still :-(

How deep is your bed? If you want to deep litter (which personally I hate), it has to be at least 8" deep.

If you are not deep littering and taking out wet which is a pinky/red color, it means you have left it too long. If the sawdust is that color it can't soak up any more pee.

Does your horse box-walk if he has hay in front of him? If not then give him more hay in a small mesh hay net, which means he can't walk it into his bedding.

 

[Liostro]

Gloves and a bucket for me tomorrow then ;-) the sound of deep littering appeals but I don't think I'd cope with leaving the damp in there everyday..... Hhhmmmmmm decisions the pellets r so so much better than straw though!!!!!
Thanks for all the advise everyone!