Using straw on the floor

[rick]

This business lately of having to book into the dump to drop off floor covering has resulted in me picking up a fairly small bale of straw locally (pet supplies). I know it would be good to have a big compost heap but Im garden sized challenged in that regard. Trouble with straw, though, is it gets mucky all of a sudden and fairly quickly because its not so easy to spot the poops and pick them as it is with hemp,rape seed stalk or pine. However, it does expand and compact down again really well. I just need a place to compress it into some kind of paper bags and dry it out. I bet you could build a house of chicken poo bonded straw blocks - if you were crazy enough!

 

[Marigold]

Interesting idea, Rick. You’d need to bond the straw/poo mix with something to make it waterproof but insulation would be excellent. I think people in ecohouses do use straw blocks in building but maybe with wood facing?

 

[chrismahon]

Straw makes a great hiding place for red mite Rick, as our neighbour found out. Nothing much could be seen, but the chickens wouldn't go into the coop at night and inspection of the perch in the dark revealed it was absolutely crawling with them. All the straw was burned and the coop sprayed repeatedly for several months. But it does make a good insulator and we're thinking of making a sheep shelter from small bales of it, the insulation in our case is for protection from heat.

 

[rick]

I agree Chris, it can easily happen. I can imagine importing RM in a load of straw that has been kept in a barn full of roosting pigeons or similar. My perches are mite proofed (I could wheel in a barrow load and they would all starve to death) but that is an old can of worms that I have kicked round the block so many times - impossible to make work in a traditional coop - mentioning it just drives everyone, including me, crazy!

I remember seeing a family on 'Grand Designs', living in France, that built their huge house out of straw bales and plastered or panelled over them. I think they said it was brilliantly cool in the summer and warm in the winter.