What is the trick to cleaning med-large flake shavings?

[Alterration]

@Weezer

I have good news for you…shavings provide more padding if they are a bit dirty, so it’s actually ok to leave those tiny poop balls to get worked into the shavings. So pick out what comes easily, scrape out the pee spots, and then mix the shavings all up so what’s left behind gets mixed in. This is, of course, within reason. If the shavings look dry, but a bit dirty, that’s perfect. I learned this approach when I had a foot sore horse on stall rest for a long time.

Well that is good news.

They definitely looked dry as most of the pee went “through” the shavings down to the pelleted layer which is still there. It was just the stupid balls that I was fishing out. And I liked how clean and fluffy they still are this morning. Was always super depressing to put in a nice clean bed of pellets and have them start to look grungy the next day. Call me superficial, but I LIKE the way a nice shavings bed looks.

Maybe I’ll get better at this. Thankfully I am down to 4 horses, so it’s not terrible, but what is normally a 20-30 minute job took me about an hour this morning.

I’m so depressed that I can’t dispose of the straw. I’m so quick with it.

[Alterration]

@sascha

I recently switched to dust-extracted fine (2") chopped straw. Great! It’s cheaper than pellets for more volume! It makes an absolutely lovely bed! I mucked cows on chopped straw for years - this should be a cake walk. Nope. It takes me forever

Are the poops hard to find or just hard to grab? Or is the bedding just not being very absorbent? I liked regular straw, but chopped seams like it might not have enough absorbency.

[sascha]

It’s plenty absorbent - more so than long strand straw by a LOT. Very close to pine pellets in absorbency.

I bed very deep, so it’s a matter of my horse being under the delusion that her stall is Oak Island, she is a pirate, her poos are gold, and my last name is Lagina. She’s a master at burying her “treasure” for me to find.

Me: “Your shit is not gold! And my last not is not Lagina!”

My horse: “You’re panning for it, aren’t you?”

[2DogsFarm]

AMEN!
I was fortunate owner of the company had horses, so knew what not to.put in the For Horses shavings.

[Angela_Freda]

First clear out the wet spots
Then start piling (banking) clean shavings along one wall
Then throw shavings with poop piles onto the clean shavings mountain such that the poop rolls to the bottom of that mountain
Scoop it up at the bottom

I toss it all back down scooping up any balls I missed and then adding clean on top

[Alterration]

That’s what I did, but it took me forever! I kept having to fling and more poop balls would roll out.

Maybe I’m not a very good flinger?

[Angela_Freda]

Rolled out if where?
I scoop up the poop pile and surrounding shavings, toss it up on the bank along the wall, and the heavy poop falls to the bottom.
Toss, toss, toss… Scoop up the poop that’s rolled to the bottom, toss in wheelbarrow… repeat
It goes pretty quick.
I can do a 12x12 plus dump water and bed in 15 minutes ish.

A really messy stall that’s been a racetrack all night might require just strip the middle, then flip the outside area that’s not been trampled into oblivion.

I know people who, and have done the shake n sift til the fork only has poop on it.
I find that a drag

@lenapesadie I agree, I like a good bank of shavings on three sides, especially in winter when getting to fresh shavings might be a pia for a few days.

[lenapesadie]

So I personally think it’s easier if the stall is always banked so that when you’re flinging up shavings it’s a really big bank for the poops to roll off / down. Presuming the bed is thick, I’d pick obvious piles, flip up remaining bedding to uncover wet spots and hidden turds.

Other options; pick stalls non stop 24/7, resign yourself to waste, resign yourself to taking a lot of time (relatively) to muck, resign yourself to less than pristine stalls.

[Mango20]

I use the mini flakes, but I frequently horse sit for someone who uses a mixture of mini and med/large flakes in her stalls. I am constantly having to tell myself to stop trying to sift it all out and just clean the stalls like she does…by just scooping under the whole pile and throwing it out along with a fair amount of perfectly good shavings. When I can’t help myself and must be more frugal, the throw it against the wall method works pretty good for me. It works better once you have built up your throwing ramp and the balls fall in a predictable manner so keep throwing at the same spot and spread it out again once you’re done.

[Angela_Freda]

You’ll find your way.
Everyone has their own way

[luvmyhackney]

I make my kids use a screen I made from 2x4’s and wire mesh.

That gets all the poops, they don’t have the throw the poop against the wall to separate it down yet.

Maybe something like that otherwise those electric pitch forks shifters look awesome.

[Alterration]

Maybe I’m not explaining what I’m doing well.

I make a bank. I fling a scoop that I know has some poop into it up into the bank. Some rolls out, but some just buried itself into the bank so I have to flip and fling a few times.

I suspect that in part it’s because I have a heavy pooper who poops all in one giant pile. He literally goes over and keeps adding to it. This pile is super easy to get in the sawdust because it sits on top.

In the large flake he covers it with a layer of clean shavings so it is a poop lasagna. I scooped what I could, but even so when I did the flinging it was very messy.

It may be that I was trying to be too frugal with the bedding and I just should have scooped that all out, but it is such a large pile already - he is a heavy pooper - free choice hay He also only pees in one spot, which I have dubbed his latrine.

The scatterers were much simpler to clean. Still took me awhile, but their poops were much drier, having been tossed around in the stall a bunch.

[lenapesadie]

@Alterration

I fling a scoop that I know has some poop into it up into the bank. Some rolls out, but some just buried itself into the bank so I have to flip and fling a few times.

Try smaller scoops

[Angela_Freda]

And a streeper slope to your bank

For a big pile that gets more piled on… I’d just put that allllll in

[Mango20]

If he goes in the same spot all night, how about just make the bedding very thin in that spot? I do that for one of my mares. It makes it so much easier to scoop it all out without doing much sifting, and she has different spots in her stall for lying down or standing around. That one spot is only for pooping.

[Texarkana]

@Alterration

Unfortunately I’m nowhere near a cabinet manufacturer, and I’m stuck with what TSC gives me because I don’t right now have a vehicle (very long story, will be getting my car back soon, but I’m fairly sure I’ll have to rely on deliveries). So changing bedding isn’t going to happen unless I can get the finer flake from TSC, which they were out of last I checked.

Surely someone has luck with these, because they sell so many! Or do they just suck really badly and people put up with it? LOL

I use the yellow bag ones from TSC most of the time. Not because I love them (I also prefer straw), but because of the combination of convenience + availability + price. Most of my herd stays out 24/7; only one stays in regularly.

I think the trick is to find the right bedding depth for the animal. Too little bedding and everything gets disgusting, too much bedding and it becomes the world’s worst scavenger hunt. But if you find the sweet spot amount of bedding, you can just scoop out entire wet areas and manure piles with minimal sifting.

I always feel like I’m wasting more bedding than necessary with shavings.

[Displaced_Yankee]

I actually like large flake shavings.

I echo the others who say a steeper bank and smaller flings. I use about 1/3 of a muck fork for my flings for heavy poop areas. My flings also hit the wall at a slight upward trajectory, so the poops sorta roll up the wall and then back down the bank. I also start in the least-soiled areas first to make a good bank.

My horse also uses cough too much cough cough of his hay for bedding. As long as it isn’t peed on, the toss and bank method helps integrate the hay into his bedding.

[Alterration]

I’ll give this a shot tomorrow morning, thank you!

I figured there had to be something I just wasn’t getting.

Less fork, bigger bank.

I did try to put less bedding on his poop spot but he whooshed it all around. It was windy last night and the temps dropped almost 20 degrees so everyone was a bit more active than normal.

[punchy]

@lenapesadie

Other options; pick stalls non stop 24/7

This is me. I have a kind of sickness. But easy to clean stalls every morning!

[TheHunterKid90]

Gotta find the shavings that are in the middle. Not sawdust but not the large fluffy light flakes.
We show at the dream park in nj and whoever their shavings supplier is has the PERFECT bedding. They are Black plastic bags.
It’s
Not dusty, makes a good bed but it has a little weight to it so it sifts super easy.
A lot of people bank to clean or bed super light and essentially strip every day but I’m 2-3” of bedding per stalls and a full stall sifter. Scoop piles and obvious urine and then I sift the entire stall like a litter box. Move “old bedding” to horses wet spot (gelding) or to the back 1/3 of the stall if it’s a mare and then new bedding at the front.
When the shavings are working with you and not against you I can do a 12x12 in about 10 min. The large flake I feel don’t absorb urine enough and there’s a lot more waste because the flakes are so big and light that they don’t fall through the pitchfork easily.