Bagged wood chip bedding added to my cost of egg production and needed a season or two of extra composting before it could go on the garden. Instead, I started using loose straw litter from a neighbor's barn. All of the good bales are gone, but there is a whole room of the shattered left-overs that is free for the scooping. They're glad to be rid of it, and I'm glad to find straw anywhere this year when no one grew wheat. Did I mention it's free?
This year I also scored two truck-loads of city leaves (Thank you, Glenna!). I put the first load directly on the garden, but then later found that they work pretty well as bedding for chickens and cows when mixed with the straw. Next fall I'll be out trolling the neighborhoods for more bagged leaves.
The irony is that my suburban parents spend all fall, winter, and spring bagging leaves, but they live too far away to work out a trade.
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