We use wood shavings from a local sawmill to cover the floor in the chicken coop. Our trailer has a 4’x8’ bed with 3.5’ walls and rear gate. The sawmill sells the shavings by volume. So, to make things easy, I marked the walls with stripes at 1’ and 2’ heights. Now, when I fill the trailer, I can quickly tell when I have reached 32 or 64 cubic feet of shavings.
I always walk around in the trailer to pack down the shavings. This is beneficial for two reasons. Mainly, because they sell shavings by volume, not weight. Secondarily, because packed shavings don’t leak out of the openings in the trailer while I’m driving home. When I open the rear gate to unload the shavings it is fun to see how little falls out.
Years ago, I got tired of making weekly trips to the sawmill and built a large bin to hold shavings on our lot across the street. It is 8’x8’x4’ in size and can hold a whole winter’s worth of shavings. To make it more attractive, I stacked logs all around the perimeter. Because there is plenty of air space between the logs and the bin, and plenty of ventilation around the roof of the bin, moisture vents easily and the shavings are nice and dry when it is time to use them.
As soon as I saw the log construction, my brain said two things: first, there’s a tired little boy somewhere who stacked those logs, and second, there’s a nice supply of wood, in case you run low on the stack for your house woodstove!