Pelleted bedding in the bitter cold

[Simkie]

It is COLD here and my bedding is freezing. I use pellets, rehydrated with about oh…2-3 gallons of water/bag? Stalls are cleaned daily with all wet and poop removed. It seems that enough moisture from the rehydrating and from any missed pee hangs out in the bedding. The top 2 or so inches of the entire stall froze into a particle board like sheet a few days ago when it dipped into below zero temps and has stayed that way.

Any tips? I’m considering switching to shavings for the winter because this is such a pain. It’s nearly impossible to clean the stalls and it seems like it can’t possibly be a comfortable surface for the horses.

[AmarachAcres]

We use hot water to plump the pellets but honestly you don’t HAVE to puff them up first. You can just put them in as pellets.

Switching to shavings works as well of course. Whatever you find easiest.

[Texarkana]

I used to use the pelleted bedding dry, without rehydration. The horses didn’t seem to mind standing on them or laying in them as pellets, and they are crunched into sawdust after a night or two of the horses moving around the stall.

Although I can’t weigh in on the bitter cold part-- it doesn’t get that cold in any of the states I have lived in! Sounds miserable!

[S1969]

Part of my stall cleaning includes “churning” up the bedding in the winter with my boots, so that it is not frozen. However, you do need to do this carefully when re-bedding the stall - if you just dump water and leave it overnight it might not be possible to “re-fluff” the bedding for months (ask me how I know).

When it’s really really cold, I try not to add bedding at all. My horses use their stalls as a run-in only, and never lay down in them (they will lay in their hay, in the sun…argh!)

But, if I had to bed horses on pellets all winter, I might consider adding shavings to the mix. Especially if I had a lot of horses.

[GoForAGallop]

Yep, in the winter I put them in dry, like others have said. Then I pick out all the wet stuff, more than I would in the warm weather (in the warm weather I tend to leave the semi-damp “edges” of the pee puddles, and mix them back in thoroughly).

That has mainly cut down on the big frozen sheets, I know exactly what you’re talking about because there certainly was a learning curve the first winter I used them.

If it’s really frigid, I muck first thing after they go out in the AM, so that their pee spots are still unfrozen.

Honestly, once you get into those sub-zero temps, ALL the bedding starts freezing. So annoying.

[keatssu]

We only had a few weeks last year with the freezing problem. If I had to deal with it for months, I would switch to shavings, the finest I could find.

I add a full 5 gallon bucket to each 40 lb bag - I use a clean muck bucket. In the warmer months I use 4 gallons per 1/2 bag of pellets. When you add that to your bedding it helps rehydrate the older bedding and cuts way down on the dust that can be a problem with pellets.

[LauraKY]

I use hot water. But I try to plan ahead and fluff up enough pellets to last for periods where the temps don’t get above freezing. I just bank them in a corner of the stall.

I also use much less water in the winter…I’m not aiming for complete fluff up, partial is OK.

[LauraKY]

I use hot water. But I try to plan ahead and fluff up enough pellets to last for periods where the temps don’t get above freezing. I just bank them in a corner of the stall.

[Robin]

I am also in the Twin Cities area so I understand the problem. What I would
suggest is to add feed salt to the bedding. We have sawdust as part of
our indoor arena footing and I have found that adding salt to the footing in
autumn keeps it from freezing solid during the winter when we need to
water the footing to keep dust down. You might try mixing the salt with the
water you use to hydrate the bedding and see if that will help.

I have not had problems with the salt affecting the horses’ hooves or the
horses wanting to eat the material but it will most certainly rot any metal
siding so you would want to keep it away from that.

[AmarachAcres]

I love this idea. It would work with my mare and pony. The geldings… who knows.

Banking away!

[QUOTE=LauraKY;7934642]
I use hot water. But I try to plan ahead and fluff up enough pellets to last for periods where the temps don’t get above freezing. I just bank them in a corner of the stall.

I also use much less water in the winter…I’m not aiming for complete fluff up, partial is OK.[/QUOTE]

[Ozalynda]

Mine go in dry. Pellets break down as they absorb the moisture in the bedding and the horses don’t seem to mind the feel of the pellets at all. Plus it is a good indicator of when a new layer is needed. I use it with a mix of peat and when I used peat straight I had problems with freezing bedding. Mixing in the pellets pulls enough moisture out of the peat that it hasn’t frozen at all.

[Simkie]

Thanks for the ideas, all!

No hot water in the barn, so that’s out. I’ve considered bringing a muck bucket of fresh bedding into the house to water and expand, but that might be taking it a bit far? :lol: My problem hasn’t been the actual rehydration of the pellets, it’s the residual water that’s left in the bedding–from rehydration, and likely also from any pee that gets missed and from the eleventy billion % humidity (yes, I think that’s an actual number here in MN) that gets absorbed into the bedding. All of that moisture freezes and leaves the bedding a solid sheet. Fun.

Sounds like there’s no magic answer. I’ll try adding the pellets dry and see how that goes. I did a bit of that this summer and felt like I was tossing a lot of unexpanded pellets, but that would be preferable at this point.

The salt idea is really interesting! Two of our stalls are metal framing, so I’d not want to go that route there, but the others are wood all the way around. If it gets really bad, salt may be in the cards for that side of the barn.

Ozalynda, I think your peat/pellet bedding solution is really, really novel. What sort of floor is underneath? I just don’t quite understand how leaving all the wet isn’t going to = a whopping job of shoveling out the whole lot once the peat gets saturated?

[IFG]

Not as cold here in MA as in MN, but I just add dry pellets and pick out the wet. They expand on their own where needed.

[KitKat987]

I’ve had luck mixing in a half a bag of shavings with the rest of the stall rather than changing the bedding completely. It just seems to keep it broken up easier as it can’t freeze to itself as easily.

[beowulf]

I’ve had luck in the winter with dumping the whole bag (unsoaked) into the corner of the stall, and dumping the remaining water from the horse’s water bucket onto the pile in the corner. Fork it over one or two times, pick the rest of the stall, and then go back – drag the pile off the wall and refluff.

Once the water has been completely absorbed, it shouldn’t freeze easily. I usually sift it around with the old bedding and bed the extra in the corner.

I will say soaking it while it’s piled in the corner has worked so much better than just laying down the pellets and sifting. I don’t know why.

I would be hesitant to just put the pellets in dry for two reasons: 1. when added dry, they don’t ‘fluff’ to the same volume as they do when wet down first. 2. When added dry, they can be slippery. I’ve seen horses slip in their stall (especially if it is mat flooring) with the dry pellets.

[Showbizz]

I, too, add the bedding dry. Banking is a wonderful idea as well. I do get a couple of poop piles that freeze when we’re in the single digits and below, as we now are, but luckily it never lasts more than a week at a time.

[merrygoround]

My observation after several winters, is that watering the pellets must be dine very cautiously. A full bucket is too much, 2/3 to 3/4 works with the pellets we have. Even then manure balls will freeze but seldom the spread bedding. Any spare bedding left for daily spreading may get a little cranky with extended cold periods.:sadsmile:

[Ozalynda]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7936048]

Ozalynda, I think your peat/pellet bedding solution is really, really novel. What sort of floor is underneath? I just don’t quite understand how leaving all the wet isn’t going to = a whopping job of shoveling out the whole lot once the peat gets saturated?[/QUOTE]

I think a major point is that my arrangement isn’t a boxstall but a 50 square meter run-in for five horses so no one is confined in the stall. The foundation is bricks on sand and elevated above ground level to help prevent seepage upward. I haven’t had any pee saturated areas but the peat layer is at least 6 inches deep compacted so there is a lot of absorbtion capacity.

I don’t t throw out any bedding at all when I muck out. Only manure. And the bedding is totally dry to the touch and smells great.

[Cat_Tap]

I had the same problem with the pellets. Switched back to sawdust. What I do now is that I put a small bucket of pellets into the area where they pee. I know all their spots, and then put sawdust over it and in the rest of the stall. I don’t wet the pellets and they absorb the pee nicely and easy to pick out each day. The rest of the stall stays much drier.

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=Cat Tap;7938837]
I had the same problem with the pellets. Switched back to sawdust. What I do now is that I put a small bucket of pellets into the area where they pee. I know all their spots, and then put sawdust over it and in the rest of the stall. I don’t wet the pellets and they absorb the pee nicely and easy to pick out each day. The rest of the stall stays much drier.[/QUOTE]
This is what I do too.
I tried using fluffed pellets and they would always freeze solid.