How to manage a wood pellet bed

Rhandir

Rhandir

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I've just taken the plunge and swapped to wood pellet bedding, I have the base laid and watered and it is now fully fluffed up. My dilema now is just how do I go about maintaining it, do I take wet out daily or weekly, add fresh pellets dry or pre wet them (I am concerned that my horse might eat them if left whole .. do any horses actually do that ?) Do I let it all bed down or should I be forking it over to keep it light?

Any advice would be gratefully received.
 
I use pellets with shavings on top. The idea is to either leave the wet completely or like me I just take it out once a week or more if the wet comes to the surface. I add pellets straight out of the bag, but then they are covered with shavings so might be different
 
My advice is (if your horse is clean and especially if a mare because they pee back into the banks) is to deep litter, and lift the wet at the weekend.. Deep litter also works for a cleanish gelding (put pee spot ends up in the middle), but not for a box walker (she gets much less bedding and is muched out daily (we have rubber mats)).

Therefore try to muck out without disturbing the base too much.

When I'm adding new bedding I soak it (bag of pellets to kettleful of boiling water) and it fluffs beautifully..

Best of luck.

Fiona
 
I used them last year for the first time and prefer them to shavings. However I'm not convinced I got the best from them. I picked out the poo daily and worst of wet. Added dry pellets as needed. Used a poo scoop and shavings fork. Would be interested to hear how others manage them and what tools you use.
 
I take the wet out whenever it comes to the top, and shove a bag of dry pellets in as & when needed. I mix them into the fluffed up ones and my horse doesn't touch them. She can sift out her grass nuts from the wood pellets so I think she knows what she's doing :)

I used to love a big deep aubiose bed but now I'm used to a small pellet bed and it's really easy to manage. My horse was disgusting in the rather small stables we have until I switched. Only thing is I find my horse is always covered in bedding from lying down in it. Can't wait to clip her so I can just shake a rug off rather than spend hours getting the dust out of her coat!
 
I have the dirtiest gelding ever, all other bedding was disgusting. Thought we would give wood pellets a good, had nothing to lose.

They are by far the most absorbent for my lad. They do take some getting used to though, and our whole yard are on them and we all manage them differently.

This is how I manage mine. Initially put 20 soaked bags down (big stable), tried not to disturb the base, took poo out daily. Once base 'set' I now take the wet out when it rises to the top, I dig down and remove and then fill the hole with a raw bag of pellets.

Once a week I soak a bag of pellets and spread over the top to lighten the bed.

You will find it gets quite dusty in dry weather, when this happens I just hose over the whole bed with water.

I use 2/3 bags a week in winter and 1 bag in summer.
 
I took the wet out daily as my horse is very wet. I would add 1/2 a bag of dry pellets to the wee spot every few days. Due to the unique way my horse uses his bed (doesn't poo in it, lies where he wees!) the rest of his bed would be left untouched during the week and then at the weekend I'd move some of the untouched bedding across to replace the wet and add some lightly - dampened (wet enough for it to soften but not turn into sawdust completely) bedding to the clean side of his bed to replace that. This would stop the bedding getting too old and dusty.
 
I use White Horse Platinum, but this doesn't work as well with inferior pellets. My bed is made of about 6 x 15kg bags, all thoroughly soaked so that they swell to at least 3 x their original size. Install horse overnight, remove every morning. Muck out daily taking out only the poo for a fortnight, then remove wet patch. Re-lay the original pellet bed over the wet patch area and flatten out then add two x 15kg bags of wood pellets, again well soaked to at least 3 x their original size. This provides a lovely large bed, it stays very white and is beautifully dry.
 
Just a quick question .. do you dampen the pellets in the cut open bag or tip them out in a pile first ... if wetting them in the bag, how much water do you use?
 
I take wee and poo out every day, it's so quick I can't see the point in leaving it and I don't think it saves on bedding.
I always soak pellets before adding, either loose in the wheelbarrow or in the bag, depending on how good the bags are.
If they get too dry in the summer, just hose with a spray attachment.

Eta....full bucket of water for a 15kg bag works best for me.
 
I have wood pellet underneath a thin straw bed.
5 bags of soaked pellets. This was firmly trampled down so it wouldn't move then straw bed with thick bankings on top.
Daily I skip poo out of the beds & tidy up the straw using some of the bankings to refresh if needed.
Once a week thoroughly muck out the straw & chuck clean up onto banks. Dig out wet from pellet base. Fill in gaps & add 1/2- 1 bag of wood pellets unsoaked to the base. Trample down.
Bed down straw using banks to top up bed. Add around 1/2 bale of straw to replace banks.

Cheapest, quickest way with 4 horses & the straw is much more pleasing to the eye than a pure pellet bed for me.
 
Gelding: remove wet patch when it comes to surface- I try to keep his bed as firm as possible as a bit pottery as elderly. Then I just sprinkle the pellets in his bed and gently rake into bed.

The mare: it's like a tidal wave when she wees! So take wet out daily. As rest of bed is really dry (she pees in same place) I add a bag and mix in the sprinkle bag with hose.

Love wood pellets as so versatile but you need to experiment and find what works with you and your horse.
 
I started using Verdo, chucked a load in, skipped out the droppings and left it to stablise, if wet appeared I dug it out, and I added pellets wet when I wanted to lighten it or dry in pee spots. It got dark and thin quickly no matter what I did. I swapped to White Horse platinum pellets and what a difference! Instead of using 3 or 4 bags a week, I use 1, occasionally 2. The bed is lighter, thicker and just nicer to look at.

I use a shavings fork to take the droppings off, and when thats done I have a cheapy plastic rake. Mine gets a trickle haynet loose in a tub trug so trashes his bed! If I rake if lightly it pulls up all the little bits of droppings and hay. I rake it to the front and scoop it up. Hes on assisted livery and the yard mucks out twice a week at least. They dont use the rake and you can really tell the difference!
 
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