This is the pile outside the barn that every farmhand is familiar with. When you muck out a stall it goes in a pile that can look a lot like this. Fresh straw goes in and soiled bedding comes out. That’s where the pitch fork comes in.
First thing you think of on the farm is animal bedding, and it’s definitely good for that. But, straw has a lot of uses, especially in the garden. It’s much better for mulching your flower beds for winter and summer because it doesn’t have the seeds hay has in it.
If birds have access to water they will take 2 or 3 baths a day. They bathe to clean themselves of parasites, ticks, lice, mites and fleas that can eat their feathers and cause infections and disease.