How to manage a straw bed?

Laura-Maybe-IV

Laura-Maybe-IV

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Hi all again :)

I have finally resorted to going back putting my horse back on straw. I just can't swallow the price of Shavings anymore which are atleast £8 per bag :( and the price of Chopped straw which where I live is £10.00 per bag :mad:. I have also been around all my local wood yards and no one seems to sell the shavings anymore, so I've tried that with no luck :(

I have used straw before, which I didn't mind but I changed back to shavings when they were still £6 a bag which I didn't mind, but it's just too expensive now. I also feel that straw would make a better bed for my horse who is getting on a bit and I think it would support her joints more as well as making a lovely deep warm bed.

A friend on mine suggested straw again but semi deep littering during the week then lifting the floor at the weekends, she also uses sirocco disinfectant I think she said to avoid any unwanted smells.
How do you all manage straw beds? Btw I have a concrete floor, without matts.
 
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With mine I just do a full muck out every morning, leave the bed up to dry while he's out then bed back down & add fresh straw if needed before he comes in. My floor is concrete too. It's never smelly, although he's pretty clean anyway. Takes me about 10 mins to muck out & he always has a nice big comfy bed xx
 
I do a full muck out each day, & leave the bed up to let the floor dry.
Semi deep littering works, but you do need reasonable drainage. And a stable big enough so that even when there are several barrow loads of wet bedding, the majority is dry, without the bed being 4' high.
 
I hate deep littering :o just think it gets smelly and is a pain at the end of the week to muck out! rather even the workload :P - I fully remove all muck and wet straw every morning and leave up to dry. I then mix fresh straw with the old straw when I put it back down to stop my horses eating the fresh straw , and make the bed more evenly absorbent . And my horses are on brick floor
 
I have a really deep bed which stops everything getting mixed in.

All poo out then scrap back the clean straw, get rid of the worst of the wet and then fresh straw on the bottom and pull the bed back down.

Then at the weekend the entire bed is thrown up and banks are turned over (it's a good workout as his banks are 1ft wide x 3ft tall and his bed is over 1ft deep of compact straw).

Takes me about 15 minutes to muck out in the week (18hh horse in for about 15 hours/day) and then about 30 minutes on the weekend when I do the banks etc.
 
Full muck out every day, bucket of shavings to absorb the wet. Find that keeps wet straw to a minimum. Lift the bed and leave up at weekends when I've more time. I have jeyes fluid made up in a spray bottle, give a quick spray every few days to avoid smells. Every few months I fling a bucket of dilute jeyes down and sweep out to lift any stubborn bits. Love straw, hate the smell.
Takes ten minutes on weekdays, and 30 at weekends. Also scrub all my buckets out and sweep surfaces to get rid of webs. I'm OCD! :D
 
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Thank you all very much for your replies :)


Yeah I forget how quick straw is to muck out, I currenly have a 15.0hh mare and a Section A and Shetland who share a stable, they are all stabled around 15 hours a day at the moment.

I've never really semi deep littered so I might give it a go, although if it gets particularly smelly I will go back to mucking out daily! I will look at some kind of disinfectant though in case it smells! I do have a drainage channel running through my stable so it could be useful!! :p
 
smokey said:
Full muck out every day, bucket of shavings to absorb the wet. Find that keeps wet straw to a minimum. Lift the bed and leave up at weekends when I've more time. I have jeyes fluid made up in a spray bottle, give a quick spray every few days to avoid smells. Every few months I fling a bucket of dilute jeyes down and sweep out to lift any stubborn bits. Love straw, hate the smell.
Takes ten minutes on weekdays, and 30 at weekends. Also scrub all my buckets out and sweep surfaces to get rid of webs. I'm OCD! :D
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I'm the same Smokey, my buckets are all scrubbed daily and the cobwebs are swept of my walls to!! :D
 
I currently have a shetland and a highland, both on straw but managed differently. The Highland gets a full muck out every day and the bed left up and relaid at night to let the concrete floor dry out. The shettie is on rubber mats but with a quarter of the stable on straw. I pick the muck out every day but leave the rest to bed down a bit. Reasoning is 2 fold, because the bed is in one corner it becomes a bit firmer as it gets trodden down and doesnt slip about, also she will eat the whole lot if she has a nice fluffy bed so she just has a tiny section of straw sprinkled on top as needed, she wont eat the slightly dirtier stuff once she has slept on it. Takes me about 10 mins to do both, including relaying and I am also anal about neat edges etc.
 
I also do straw two ways. In the stable I do a full muck out and take out all the wet. In the stable where I have forklift access (big gate!) I poo pick only then about every 4-6 weeks have the whole lot taken out by machine and start again. That works a treat and no barrowing loads of wet straw to the muck heap.

I have really deep beds and no rubber matting.
 
I tend to take out the poo and top up with a small amount of fresh straw in the week and then do a full muck out in the week and re bed down etc

Hes out from about 7AM till about 5-6PM so is never too messy

I do play it by ear tthough if any wet has come to the surface i will do the full muck out that day rather than wait for the weekend. it depends on the horse and the weather sometimes as well
Wehn its cold my horse is clean as anything takes 2mins to muck out

If its particularly warm and when it gets more towards spring as it is doing hes messy and wet

: not sure why... doesnt usually drink as much when its cold... could be that...
 
MyBoyChe said:
I currently have a shetland and a highland, both on straw but managed differently. The Highland gets a full muck out every day and the bed left up and relaid at night to let the concrete floor dry out. The shettie is on rubber mats but with a quarter of the stable on straw. I pick the muck out every day but leave the rest to bed down a bit. Reasoning is 2 fold, because the bed is in one corner it becomes a bit firmer as it gets trodden down and doesnt slip about, also she will eat the whole lot if she has a nice fluffy bed so she just has a tiny section of straw sprinkled on top as needed, she wont eat the slightly dirtier stuff once she has slept on it. Takes me about 10 mins to do both, including relaying and I am also anal about neat edges etc.
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Thank you, I will try that with my ponies as they only seem to go in one area so that might really work with them :) thank you!
 
With my horses on the livery yard I do a full muck out every day and they have nice big fluffy beds.

With the horses on the farm they are not really on their beds in the same way as they have free access to wander the yard and share a very large stable. We deep litter that with a shavings base and do a total clear out every couple of months. Seems to work
 
Mine are on part livery & shavings now so I no longer have mucking out duty, but when I did semi deep littering straw was always my preferred option for a balance of time & finance :)

I'd skip out through the week, popping a slice or two of fresh straw in every day, and then clear out all wet on the weekend and turn the banks - putting down a fresh bale of straw.

It works best without mats, and on your full muck out day leave the bed to air and disinfect.

It suited my lifestyle, as during the week it was very quick and easy and also meant by not lifting the bed I didn't get that awful clingy ammonia smell that you can get with straw.

The full muck out day was a bit minging, but preferable for what I needed. Last yard wouldn't let wood products be used so I just used straw. Previous yard did, so I used a bag of wood pellets under the straw - this was MUCH better, and if you have that option then worth considering.
 
Ive just gone on straw for the same reasons and its fab. So much quicker to much out, Im doing a full muck out daily and looks so much nicer AND its savng me a fortune.
I didnt bin the shavings, just banked them up and pull a bit down where he wees.
Im on mats too and wondered about the smell but up to now its been fine.
 
Louby said:
Ive just gone on straw for the same reasons and its fab. So much quicker to much out, Im doing a full muck out daily and looks so much nicer AND its savng me a fortune.
I didnt bin the shavings, just banked them up and pull a bit down where he wees.
Im on mats too and wondered about the smell but up to now its been fine.
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Yeah it's just not viable to keep my three in shavings anymore, yeah I really think that straw is the way forwards. And from what people have said about mucking out daily is the way to go I think. I had mine on matts with straw before and I didn't think that it was a good mix, it made my stables really smell, they had earth floors underneath and the matts held onto the smell.
Thank you though :)
 
I full muck out every other day. Skip out and take any major wet out on off days. Drainage is good though as its a field shelter which one lives in at night.
Putting a layer of shavings under straw beds works well, especially if you know where your wet spots are.
 
I do the deep litter method. It takes a while to build up, it's more than 4 inches deep and stays completely put ALL WINTER. Yep, I only take out the poo and add fresh on top.

It does not move so very good for concrete. Stops any slipping, capped hocks, casting etc. lots of people worry a bout ammonia but as long as the deep layer is not disturbed, the ammonia stays trapped until it is disturbed.
 
tallyho! said:
I do the deep litter method. It takes a while to build up, it's more than 4 inches deep and stays completely put ALL WINTER. Yep, I only take out the poo and add fresh on top.

It does not move so very good for concrete. Stops any slipping, capped hocks, casting etc. lots of people worry a bout ammonia but as long as the deep layer is not disturbed, the ammonia stays trapped until it is disturbed.
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Thank you tallyho! I have thought about deep litter for my ponies as they are quiet clean and I think it would suit them. I'll give it a go for them, as they don't need a full muck out everyday. :)
 
I have returned to straw for cost reasons too, (and my lovely established deep littered stables got flooded in the snow melt and are still drying out) but I do establish and maintain a thin layer of more absorbent bedding such as flax or rape straw as a base. The straw is then easy to lift off with the droppings, and the wet is sopped up by the base layer - straw does pong when it gets that ammonia in it.
Then all I need to do is semi muck out the top layer - toss the straw to the sides, lift out the droppings, removed any dark wet straw and top up both base and straw. What was costing me £30 a week for 3 boxes is now costing me £15 at most (a bale of chopped rape straw bedding plus half a round bale of straw) and it is lighter and warmer.
 
I fully deep litter with pellets on the bottom and straw on top, so he's only skipped out daily. I use 2 small bales a week atm as he spends 2 days a week in and he eats it (which isn't a real issue as he's a fatty so can reduce his hay a little more) :)
 
I have mats & do a full muck out daily.

My horse likes moving his bed around a LOT in the night and squashes the poos all ore the place..

Hence going on wood pellets once this lot is used up. But I love it, so quick to muck out and looks so cosy!
 
My racing yard is the same: straw with concrete floors. We put our straw really deep so the horses can't feel the concrete at all. We muck out in the mornings take all poo and wee out, put the bed up and sweep the floor. Then when they go out to work we put the bed back down and add more straw :) the bed is usually up for at least half an hour or more so the floor dries
 
I skip out twice at day, minimum, and remove any wet patches every couple of days. I do a full muck out once a week. I put clean straw on the top of the bed and the banks every day and pull the underneath bit of banks to the middle when I muck out and sweep properly. The bed is deep. it says clean,dry and in place that way. Oz is very tidy and will only lie on clean straw. It doesn't smell at all.
I don't bother too much about concrete drying in winter - summer time I might leave the beds up though.
I like doing straw beds - it's quite therapeutic and looks lovely when finished, all clean and bright:o
 
JillA said:
I have returned to straw for cost reasons too, (and my lovely established deep littered stables got flooded in the snow melt and are still drying out) but I do establish and maintain a thin layer of more absorbent bedding such as flax or rape straw as a base. The straw is then easy to lift off with the droppings, and the wet is sopped up by the base layer - straw does pong when it gets that ammonia in it.
Then all I need to do is semi muck out the top layer - toss the straw to the sides, lift out the droppings, removed any dark wet straw and top up both base and straw. What was costing me £30 a week for 3 boxes is now costing me £15 at most (a bale of chopped rape straw bedding plus half a round bale of straw) and it is lighter and warmer.
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Yeah, I am currently paying £30 a week if not more for bedding for my three!! Hence the reason I'm going back to straw, I am getting an 8ft x4ft bale in the next week for £35 and that should do my three for 3 months :) a huge saving!! That'll save me nearly £100 + I've started feeding balancer and chop which has again saved me more money! I'll be getting good at this money saving soon!! :D
 
FinalFurlong said:
My racing yard is the same: straw with concrete floors. We put our straw really deep so the horses can't feel the concrete at all. We muck out in the mornings take all poo and wee out, put the bed up and sweep the floor. Then when they go out to work we put the bed back down and add more straw :) the bed is usually up for at least half an hour or more so the floor dries
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Thank you Final Furlong, that's what i'll be doing. I used to do that with my old straw beds and I used to leave them up all day and it was clean, she did used to eat a little bit but not enough to make her sick she would just nibble bits of it! But she is clean on straw so that is the good thing, plus its cheap! :D
 
I keep my boy on a deep straw bed . . . originally he was on an aggregate floor and I found I could semi-deep litter that with no bother, but now he's on a sealed rubber matting floor (no seepage underneath and rubber mats (part of the sealage) up the walls) and I have found that I need to take the wet and poo out every day. As already mentioned, I do keep a really deep bed and I do top up with clean straw every day . . . if I don't I find that I pay for it (in terms of mucking out) either the next day or the day after.

Kal is a dirty horse (which is a trial because he is grey and I HATE him being dirty) so I do like to keep his bed as clean as possible . . . and I find that keeping it deep and making sure there is a decent layer of clean straw on the top every day works. He only has two banks (and they are huge) and I only turn them properly once a week, but the floor of his bed gets a good going over every day and I remove all poos I find and as much of the wet as I can . . . I firmly pat down the remaining straw and then when level and the banks are refirmed I add fresh clean straw.

Hope that helps.

P
 
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