When I start a stall, I’ll add water to about half the bags. From that point forward, though, I don’t add any water. The horses break down the pellets just fine. I very rarely have any need to totally strip a stall, so nearly never add water to the bedding.
I had one load that was really dusty, and did play around with wetting those down. Thankfully the feedstore didn’t sell that brand very long. Can’t remember what they were called–white bag with red lettering, from Canada. They were terrible.
I go through about four pallets of bedding a year for four horses.
It’s nice to have the manure bins away from the barn but the farther they are the harder you work with the wheelbarrow. I would not have the bin uphill from the barn. And think about the path. You can’t push a wheelbarrow through mud.
If you want to wet pellets a very convenient way to do this is to empty the bag into a wheelbarrow, roll the wheelbarrow to your water tap, put some water in and wait half an hour.
If you don’t have water at the barn you could take the pellets on the wheelbarrow up to the house or to whatever tap you use to fill water in the fields.
If you are going to have horses in the barn overnight they will need water buckets so you may end up running a hose to the barn anyhow.
With your tiny acreage I would worry you might not have enough space to spread the finished compost even once a year. You also need to consider when to spread it. I am not sure if you are supposed to do that on dormant winter grass or early spring when grass starts growing. I don’t think you want to do that midsummer.
I live in a semi-arid part of the country, so have been adding close to a 5 gallon bucket of water to each bag, and they are broken down and dried out within 24-36 hours. Going to try less water with the next use, but right now it’s below zero so I’m forced to go with regular shavings. Have you ever tried the straw pellets or chopped straw?
Just 2, one is a small pony so i only get barely a full muck tub out of his stall in the mornings lol. My friends bringing over her older large pony to keep him company and then they will be out more than in like if its not freezing or raining or snowing theyre gonna stay outside lol
The grass stays pretty good thru winter. I use muck tubs for now but if i have to use a barrow so be it lol. At least ill be going downhill with the shavings. Thinking for them even if i do pallets ill staple a tarp on the bottom n up the sides a bit to help keep runoff out of the clean shavings. The manure so far is pretty much all poop n not much shavings im hoping itll stay that way to help with composting!!! I do walk the water buckets back n forth when i fill them. And i have another muck tub as a water trough that i just move frok one field to the other since my gates in the middle of them lol.
For those that use pellets, how many bages per stall?? I have 10x12 stalls, and the front 2.5 ft or so i rake back since when it rains water blows in sometimes
I begin an empty, bare stall with 4-6 bags, wetted down until they puff up/soften (this will leave some pellets whole and some sawdusty). This will give you a bed about 3 inches plus deep. You treat this a bit like a cat box-- get the urine patches out each day and pick up the poop, then put bedding back over pee spots.
It sounds like you’re adding so much water that all of the pellets break down and fluff up? That’s your problem. You want intact pellets in your bed.
Pellets are “dust free” in that the really small particles have been removed before they’re made, but horses walking on the sawdust once it’s no longer in pellet form makes small particles again, and you get dust. The longer you can keep the pellets whole, the less dust you’ll have.
When I do add water, I spray with 10-15 seconds with the hose…just enough to fluff up some of it. But in an established bed, the pellets go in dry. Once everything is broken down, that’s usually about time to add more.
I’ve done pellets in a COLD climate, and while the top layer of the bed did freeze, it didn’t happen until it was REALLY bitter–like 20-30 below, for several days. If you’re having problems around zero, that’s another indication you’re probably keeping it too wet.
And definitely play with brands. Some are definitely better than others! They’re not all the same for sure.
It isn’t reclaimed material, but it is super convenient for me. I get my shavings in bulk. I made two boxes that are set on pallets. I can put both boxes in the bed of my truck. The top opens so the tractor can dump the shavings into them… I close the top, drive home, and use my tractor to take them off the truck and put in the alley near the stalls.
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Wow that is very nice! Around here the sawmills deliver shavings and “hog fuel” ( cedar mulch for paddocks and riding arenas) by the ton. Which is a lot if you only had a couple horses.
I’m at a self board barn with 59 horses where everyone picks their stalls and runouts obsessively:) so manure management is pretty large scale. We have most of it taken away by dumpster to a landscaping company (we pay dumpster company) and also maintain a more pure poop compost pile for the general public to use for gardening. In the Spring and Summer they grab it before it’s cooked, over the winter it builds up a little and gets a chance to compost. The compost piles have concrete footings wooden roofs and are turned periodically by tractor.
OP has just 2 ponies and they are on pasture all day? So the manure management question is going to be a lot smaller and simpler than what I’m used to!
That looks awesome!!! My dh has a ton of wooden bins at work like 3x4 that he offered me to use for stuff. I may dissassemble them and try something like this!!!
On pasture all day and in at night. In the summer from about 8 or 9 till about 6 but where its cold n drk earlier for now hes going in about 630 or 7 till about 630. Still if i can get him out before the sun comes up at all he doesnt have but mayybbee 3/4ths of a mucktub full in the mornings thank goodness!!
