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Previously, I have used sawdust & straw for my hen house bedding. At the moment the livestock are going through it like wildfire.My work throws away loads of bags of shredded A4 paper. Would this be fine for using in the chicken cree as bedding in the nest boxes and on the floor. After which I would put it in the compost bin.

I know you can use shredded newspaper but not so sure on the A4 as it may be too thick or not suited to being composted. Comments please

I've put shredded A4 in my compost and it's worked OK. You just need to balance it with some 'green' waste like you would with newspaper. I've found an equal amount of grass clippings mixed with the shreddings does the trick

Quote from: VP on January 17, 2008, 20:55:22
You just need to balance it with some 'green' waste like you would with newspaper.

Oh dear. My hens get to eat just about all the spare greenwaste I have. They love it.

How about putting the chicken manure with the shredded paper, or have you earmarked that for the garden? Or you could use it as a mulch instead perhaps? I use my neighbours rabbit and guinea pig bedding as a mulch round my fruit trees and soft fruit. It's great at keeping the weeds at bay all thro' the summer

We shred all our junk mail (glossy stuff) cardboard packets (pg tips, cornflakes packs etc) bank statements, letters, birthday/xmas cards etc etc etc and it all gets shoved into the compost bin and rots down fine.  ;D

We shred all bills, A4 paper and glossy and it goes into the hen house and nest boxes ( especialy with young pullets who trash the nest boxes) no problem here some stick to the eggs but it all gets mixed up with shavings and straw and newspaper plus poo rots down no problem at home and lottie.

Same here Teresa, I use shredded paper and straw though tend not to put the paper in the nest boxes as it sticks to the eggs.  When I clean them out the whole lot goes on my compost heap and rots down.