Wood pellets PITA?!

FlyingCircus

FlyingCircus

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How do you guys treat your pellets to make them manageable?! I enjoyed them for a week or 2, now they're driving me nuts. Dust EVERYWHERE, so hard to sweep the mats, they just get stuck to it and when slightly damp are nearly impossible.

Help! I have a full pallet of them ?
 
FlyingCircus said:
How do you guys treat your pellets to make them manageable?! I enjoyed them for a week or 2, now they're driving me nuts. Dust EVERYWHERE, so hard to sweep the mats, they just get stuck to it and when slightly damp are nearly impossible.

Help! I have a full pallet of them ?
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I only use them in my mares pee bank and Aubiose everywhere else. I also don't wet mine either. works for me and clear them out every 2 weeks
 
My mare is an absolute minger in the stable - manages to turn most bedding virtually black over night from her weeing for England and box walking :( I'm afraid adding shavings on the top will just add to the amount I need to take out?

The pellets are the only things that keep reasonably clean, but even then they break down to a fine dust that goes everywhere.
 
I loved wood pellets but vet declared them too dusty for one of mine, I now use shavings but with a little wood pellets underneath as I have bags left!
 
I tried to semi litter with them but in winter hated doing the weekly wet removal as so heavy. In the end was taking out the worst of the pee patch every day. You need to mix damp & dry together to stop it getting dry but you end up with a dingy albeit dry bed.
 
Dontforgetaboutme said:
I tried to semi litter with them but in winter hated doing the weekly wet removal as so heavy. In the end was taking out the worst of the pee patch every day. You need to mix damp & dry together to stop it getting dry but you end up with a dingy albeit dry bed.
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Would agree with this if you can’t add additional bedding to it. It might need a bit of wet in a semi deep litter style
 
water it slightly with a watering can, that's what my neighbour did. I got sick of mine and swapped to chopped straw type bedding the name of which escapes me. I didn't like the idea of him ingesting all that dust on his floor fed hay
 
Pellets on the wet patch, shavings on top, preferably large flake like Bedmax so that the pee drains down to the pellets. Mine is small and likes to trash his bed and this is the best combination for us.
 
Wet it regularly try not to disturb it too much. Mine was never dusty. Always added dry ones if I’d taken out a decent amount of wet. There are ways you kind of have to mess about with it. Remember horses aren’t nesting animals. A firm flat surface is all they need to lie down. Fluffing and banks not really doable or required.
 
Bedmax or similar large flake shavings and a leaf blower are the answer to your woes. We don’t sweep, we blow. Something like this as battery is amazing for the yard - Cordless Leaf Blower Werktough 20V B001 with 3.0A Battery and Fast Charger Leaf Sweeper Blower https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D8PB4TB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_6H9XFFZ9DWCSC6WJ9JMM

I have been experimenting for 6 months and the above works the best for dirty horses.
 
LEC said:
Bedmax or similar large flake shavings and a leaf blower are the answer to your woes. We don’t sweep, we blow. Something like this as battery is amazing for the yard - Cordless Leaf Blower Werktough 20V B001 with 3.0A Battery and Fast Charger Leaf Sweeper Blower https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D8PB4TB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_6H9XFFZ9DWCSC6WJ9JMM

I have been experimenting for 6 months and the above works the best for dirty horses.
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Love this! ?



Not sure how to multi quote, but sadly the not disturbing the bed and pellets at bottom doesn't work with a box walker :( the bedding is always mixed up all over the place in the morning.
 
Maybe just water down with a watering can as suggested above. Mine have never been dusty. I put them in dry and mix them around.
 
I used to use wood pellets and found them good for wet horses. I found that you need a fairly deep bed to start. water added to begin. Then disturb as little as possible. Only remove the poo daily. When you need to take out wet just remove the wet patch. You should end up with a solid base. Just add either dry or damp pellets as you remove the wet. I have changed to straw pellets this year as got fed up of White horses poor delivery service.
I find straw pellets much less dusty and lighter when wet. I am mixing in the odd bale of shavings to the bed to fluff it up a little bit.
 
Wood pellets are compressed sawdust. As an only bedding or with a horse which disturbs them I wouldn't use them dry. I used to put a bag in a wheelbarrow, fill with water until it was just about covered, and that swelled up into exactly the right dampness to make them dry enough to lie on and damp enough not to be dusty.
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I've been using pellets for the first time this winter and I have no issues with dust at all - I wonder if this differs vastly brand to brand?

I'm leaving the wet in and removing all droppings, digging out the wet occasionally & replacing with soaked pellets and it seems to be working well. Bed is much tidier than with shavings as it's more stable so doesn't get dragged around so much so the wet is soaking through to the base & not being mixed about when he drags his feet through it.
 
I love the ease of use but hate the dust, so now I top them with Sundown Yellow (chopped rape straw). It helps kerp the dust down a bit.
 
When I've had dust issues with wood pellets in the past I just misted them in the stable with this cannister pump mister/spray thing. I don't know what it would be called, but usually it's used for spraying plants and weeds. That worked well because it dampened the dust but wasn't too wet.
 
AFB said:
I've been using pellets for the first time this winter and I have no issues with dust at all - I wonder if this differs vastly brand to brand?
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I only use wood pellets for cat litter but yeah, brand makes a huge difference to how dusty they are ime. The ones the yard gets in bulk for the horses (also used as cat litter) are incredibly dusty. But I also wouldn't be paying what I pay for the cats stuff to use with the horses either (recycled wood rather than compressed sawdust, much darker in colour and larger fibres).
 
I used them for two winters. Initially liked them for ease of skipping out. Lifting the wet weekly was horrific on my back though and I found they left a constant film of dust on rugs etc and in manes/tails - I felt that this couldn’t be good to breath in all the time, it must sit in the air surely being breathed in. I also found the absorbed damp on winter days and the bed always felt cold/damp to touch. Moved yards anyway which necessitated a change and I wouldn’t go back to pellets even if I had the choice.
 
All the above really. Different brands do have different absorbancy, but I am afraid I source mine from the bargain stores labelled as cat litter. Tip them out in the pee place, spray with water from a garden sprayer and leave to swell, then cover with a generous amount of pulverised wood pallets (Purebed by Houghtons). The Purebed is heavy enough to keep any dust down, but is not in itself absorbent. Since I switched to this method I have reduced the bedding bill by around 40%, but I don't have a box walker - you have my sympathy!
 
FlyingCircus said:
Love this! ?



Not sure how to multi quote, but sadly the not disturbing the bed and pellets at bottom doesn't work with a box walker :( the bedding is always mixed up all over the place in the morning.
Click to expand...

i have a box Walker and just mix both in together after day 1, just throwing it up does that before pulling down for the bed. The shavings add a bit more spring and the pellets add absorbency. I don’t deep litter. I just muck out as normal but take out minimal wet.
 
As with all these issues, I think it depends on the horse.

We have 2 on a deep litter bed - to set up the bed we put in layer of barely damp pellets as a base, with a good layer of shavings on the top, so the pellets are never exposed.

To maintain the bed we scrape off the top of any exposed wet areas around once a week, put dry pellets on top of any remaining wet area, then pull any clean shavings back over the top to make the bed look nicer. Our beds always look clean and inviting on this regime.

However both our horses are 'tidy' in the stable, tend to pee in the same area, and are turned out every day.

We use the cheapest pellets available but decent shavings. I can also second the recommendation for a small leaf blower, makes sweeping the yard a much easier job!
 
I confess that I don't get on with pellets myself (they don't seem to reduce the amount of muck I throw out but they are ok for cats) but I have friends who love them, so they obviously work for some (we have gone back to just shavings). As others have said, different brands seem to be more or less successful.

I know someone who uses Megazorb under a layer of straw where their horse wees and that seems to work well. I use Megazorb for my small animals and it is quite good because, like wood pellets, you can just dig out the wet bits and leave the rest undisturbed (but it actually seems to work).
 
I think brands do make a difference. Years ago used Aquamax, tried a cheap and suddenly had problems with dust.

Am using them again now and use Snowflake premium pellets as that's what yard supplies, recently supplier ran out and had to get Pure Pellets and they were awful, not as absorbent and worked out more expensive despite being cheaper as I was having to replace more.

I partly soak, put them in a wheelbarrow and enough water that they start to fluff so you have some unpopped pellets amongst the fluff. It's trial and error how much water you need for this.

I bought the aquamax Fork to muck out, it's so much quicker as the basket shape and prong width is perfect for sifting out little poos that have been scattered. It's not that robust but after trying every other variation in fork, I come back to it.

Horse has a definite pee patch so everywhere else I sift through but the pee patch I leave till I'm ready to lift it out. I sometimes put a handful of unsoaked pellets in the pee patch ready to absorb.
 
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