Straw on top of shavings

atropa

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Thinking of switching to straw on top of my current deep shavings beds to save some money this winter, does anyone have any photos of this set up? I know I've read several people have tried it before. What are your tips for making sure the two layers don't mix?
 

atropa

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Mm I would but my current beds are a mix of mostly shavings with some wood pellets mixed through, I don't want to lift them to put down a complete pellet bed as I'm absolutely skint paying hundreds of pounds of vet and farrier fees monthly atm :p
 

Kylara

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Hard to keep from mixing but if you don't mind it mixing it can be good. If mixing is a definite no then use a shavings fork to muck the straw out and stick it up one bank. Then muck she shavings out. Lay the shavings town and then unbank the straw back on top. Or semi deep litter and skip out and muck out once a week
 

atropa

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Thanks Kylara, I just thought most people used the shavings as a kind of deep litter base and then mucked out the straw on top hence asking about not mixing. Have you used this combination yourself?
 

ameeyal

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I use shavings underneath as they are good at soaking up urine, then add straw on top and just muck the straw out, i find the straw stays on top and the shavings dont move, i really like this set up, if you have a horse that pees at lot you will need more shavings down, or just take out the pee areas.
 

atropa

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I use shavings underneath as they are good at soaking up urine, then add straw on top and just muck the straw out, i find the straw stays on top and the shavings dont move, i really like this set up, if you have a horse that pees at lot you will need more shavings down, or just take out the pee areas.

Thank you, that was the kind of setup I had imagined. One of my mares pees a tonne, and as such has a huge deep bed with pellets too, so I'm hoping this will help soak up the pee.
 

william95

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There's a lady on my yard that does this and she's always got a very clean bed- no smell, no mixing of bedding and she finds it works very well for her. Her straw then goes a very long way so very economical.
 

Mrs G

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I had to muck out a bed like this recently while a friend was on hols. I was pleasantly suprised at how well it worked; the shavings really soaked up the wee (v wet horse) but the straw on top meant the bed still looked big and inviting while not using as much straw; and I'm a die-hard big straw bed person!
 

Pc2003

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I put a very thin layer under the straw so it doesn't get mixed up but it's enough to soak up most of the wee. I lift the straw then sweep up the shavings which are normally quite wet. I put a new thin layer down every 2 days and I only put it in the area horse wees so I only use a bag of shavings every 10-14 days. Works well for me
 

Kylara

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I've done both mixed and not mixed. Don't like straw to start with :p and both have their merits. I've not deep littered either method though. But full muck outs daily. The non mixed was on a stud yard in massive boxes and drove me potty as took at least 25 minutes a box!
 

my bfg

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I started this set up three weeks ago, my girl feels the cold and was digging down through her straw bed and laying in the wet patches. I put two big bales of shavings down and now add two bales of straw throughout the week (same as I did before) and treat it as deep littered, she's stopped digging down, the shavings base stays still and it's much quicker to muck out just the straw part each day
 
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