wood pellets

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whiteclover

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How many bags do I need to make a deep bed, also do I have to soak each bag? My new horse is coming home next week and I dont want to use shavings or straw.
 
8 15kg bags would make a nice deep bed in a 12 x 12 stable :)

I empty mine into a huge wheelbarrow and pour in about 3-4 litres of water per bag, then just dig around a bit to make sure they all get wet. Seems to work pretty well :)

ETS: Hope we are going to get some pics of new horse!
 
We used about 10 bags to start a bed then topped up with 1 or 2 bags a week. Best done as above, empty into a wheelbarrow then pour water on top until the water line is level with the pellets.
 
I'm loving aquamax now.. Started with 8 bags. I put 1/4 water to a 1/3 in a large water tub (like the large ones you get in orange etc from tesco) and add one bag. After I set it up, initally i was adding one bag (with water already) and seemed to be going through lots of bags, however now I've changed tact and every morning I scatter a couple of scoops worth of the wood pellets and it kind of blends in, and just take out wet patches (usually scattered wood pellets in the empty place and the raking over some of the bedding over the pellets. Noticed yesterday I've only gone through two bags and it's a month since last bought some, so now working well after intially being dispondent (prob found this is what the instructions say but I just got on with it) My horses feet are dry now as apposed to being 'uriney' after a night so really pleased, as hoping it's keeping his feet a lot healthier/more hygienic.

Best wishes
Hannah
 
barehoofhannah said:
I'm loving aquamax now.. Started with 8 bags. I put 1/4 water to a 1/3 in a large water tub (like the large ones you get in orange etc from tesco) and add one bag. After I set it up, initally i was adding one bag (with water already) and seemed to be going through lots of bags, however now I've changed tact and every morning I scatter a couple of scoops worth of the wood pellets and it kind of blends in, and just take out wet patches (usually scattered wood pellets in the empty place and the raking over some of the bedding over the pellets. Noticed yesterday I've only gone through two bags and it's a month since last bought some, so now working well after intially being dispondent (prob found this is what the instructions say but I just got on with it) My horses feet are dry now as apposed to being 'uriney' after a night so really pleased, as hoping it's keeping his feet a lot healthier/more hygienic.

Best wishes
Hannah
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The thing is with wood pellets is that there is no provision for walls, I like walls to ensure no draughts and horse wont get cast.
Another thing is that the recommended 15kg per week means that the bed is not dry, and a wet bed means a smelly bed as far as I am concerned.
I am in a unique position in that I am only allowed to use pellets, and they are cheaper, but they drive me mad, picking up tiny poops the size of marbles, transferring to barrow and back again. I could spend 30 mins doing this in one stable, previously I used to skip out four horses in twenty minutes.
With shavings, all I did was pick out a few forks full of dirty stuff, and once a week or so, I went through it all, walls included, throw a bale of shavings round the walls, and that was me set up for several days. once a month I re-created my bed, therefore I used five/6 bales per month. Cost £32/35 per month
The pellets have cost me £40 to start,then four weeks at one per week, now on up to two per week, ie £8.00 per week, £32 per month.
If one does not mind compromise, a pellet bed is cheaper, all round it is maybe £2.50 per week cheaper.
 
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I will try the adding of two scoops per day, I did try adding almost a whole bag of dry pellets, but this only worked near his water bowl.
however, I am a particular about his bed, especially as one reason for going barefoot was that I wanted non smelly feet [his not mine!]
PS he has a rubber mat where he sleeps
PPS the best way of soaking is to add half a small tub of water into a wheelbarrow, the water should just be visible when one tips the barrow, leave for five hours and the stuff will expand, a lot, to twice its volume.
Otherwise add a large kettle of boiling water for a quick result.
 
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I put the pellets into a wheel barrow and spray with the hose for 15 seconds per bag. I like nice dry pale coloured beds and so use an average of 3 15kg bags per horse per week. But they are really quick to muck out (around 5 minutes a stable).
 
Wagtail said:
I put the pellets into a wheel barrow and spray with the hose for 15 seconds per bag. I like nice dry pale coloured beds and so use an average of 3 15kg bags per horse per week. But they are really quick to muck out (around 5 minutes a stable).
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I find I am picking poop for ages, but other ponies are on damp deep litter and they poop in one place, so easy to do.
 
I love wood pellets! Having said that, my horse box walks so I do have quite a lot of small poo bits. I've found that they best thing to use is a metal garden sieve which I use on the worst part of the bed once or twice a week and it gets loads of poo out that would be too fiddly with a fork.
 
we've been using wood pellets for two years now. and I love them.

Tom box walks so his bed is never neat and tidy, but with pellets it isn't a bog after 5 minutes, and it takes us 10 minutes to skip out each day, and I put 1-2 bags in per week after taking a half barrow full out once a week in addition to what we skip out.

Ron is uber tidy and barely stands on his bed (weird horse!) so I use 1 bag every 1-2 weeks, and it takes 5 miliseconds to muck out! :D unless he's dug a hole for a giant wee, in which case it take 5 minutes. :)
 
Thanks for your suggestions. I can get them for £2.50 a bag locally so I thought Id try them but I want a deep bedding for him.

I didnt realise you couldnt put walls up with the pellets but then I never did with shavings really. I just hope he doesnt get cast.

Sychnant - yes I'll put some photos up.
 
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cavaletti said:
Thanks for your suggestions. I can get them for £2.50 a bag locally so I thought Id try them but I want a deep bedding for him.

I didnt realise you couldnt put walls up with the pellets but then I never did with shavings really. I just hope he doesnt get cast.

Sychnant - yes I'll put some photos up.
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Yes you can put up walls with pellets once they have broken down. Not a problem at all.
 
cavaletti said:
Thanks for your suggestions. I can get them for £2.50 a bag locally so I thought Id try them but I want a deep bedding for him.

I didnt realise you couldnt put walls up with the pellets but then I never did with shavings really. I just hope he doesnt get cast.

Sychnant - yes I'll put some photos up.
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I've been using them for the last three years and wouldn't use anything else from choice now.

Just remember to rake out any dropped hay as for some reason that makes it clump and hold the wet more; I use a garden fantail type rake which is great but if I forget to do it, it does make a huge difference to the texture of the bed.
 
cavaletti said:
Thanks for your suggestions. I can get them for £2.50 a bag locally so I thought Id try them but I want a deep bedding for him.

I didnt realise you couldnt put walls up with the pellets but then I never did with shavings really. I just hope he doesnt get cast.

Sychnant - yes I'll put some photos up.
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Yes you can have walls, but it uses many bags, if I had the choice I would use shavings for walls, well in fact I would use shavings full stop.
I now find there are a host of fruit flies living in the walls, not nice to have to spray every day, I will be getting rid of the walls as he will be out 24/7 in a week or so, but due to the current condition [abscess] I psrticularly want to keep bed underfoot dry and clean.
 
Walls does not use many bags once it's soaked and broken down . I always have a back wall for my horse to lie against would not want this to be shavings as he frequently stands on it and mixes it with the rest of the bedding and shavings would stop the clean bedding sieving through the shavings fork.
Liking the suggestion of the garden sieve and very jealous of those that use one or less bags a week , my large stinking beasty uses two! :)
 
lannerch said:
My stinking beast uses 2 15kg!
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Mine too! However it is a small price to pay for not having dripping wet rugs from the amount he wees!! On shavings he was a nightmare - both him and his rugs stank to high heaven! At least with the pellets his feet and rugs stay dry and clean!
 
I absolutely love pellets! Can't believe it took me so long to find them. My pony's bed was always soggy with shavings and I used loads but the pellets are so much more absorbent. My horse never really caused a problem with shavings and has always been really easy to muck out (Likes to create one huge pile of droppings against the back wall and always wees in the same spot!) but, even with him, I use far less pellets than I did shavings. I pull the bed back everyday as I don't like the idea of deep littering but that's just personal preference. I find that if you split a bag between two tub trugs and then add a few scoops of water to each in the morning, by the evening when you put the bed back down, they've fluffed up really nicely and you can just tip them in with the rest of the bed. I add an extra tub trug (so half 10kg bag) every other day or so.

I've also got a plastic 'fine tine' fork. A bit pricey for a fork but well worth the money. Makes mucking out a doddle and so much quicker!
 
Mine is on wood pellets and shavings combined, stated off with just pellets but didnt like hte 'look' of it, and found that I could add one bale of shavings every other week to use as banks and a light coating over pellets in the middle. I then remove poo daily and the pellets weekly, works out really well and I only use a bag of pellets a week at about £3.50, plus the shavings every other week.
 
I've been using LWP for 3 years now. Both my boys are wet.

I don't bother to dampen them any more - the damp Blackpool air is enough for me;)

In winter I use 13 bags to start off the bed (I like it very deep) but I could get away with 10.

This time of year (when they are out more) I just have a sprinkling on my mats which stops it getting dusty in the dry summer.

I don't bother with banks - I've seen horses get cast with banks, I don't believe they work, I just think they look pretty for us.

I can live without pretty :)
 
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