It started with a cat.
In 2007, a product developer was tired of the ammonia smell in his home. He spent years developing a wood pellet made from one specific tree, processed one specific way, that could absorb and break down ammonia at a molecular level. Not mask it. Not cover it up with additives. Just wood doing what it does, better.
The result was simple. Highly absorbent. Extremely effective at eliminating odor.
Turns out - it worked for something else - and it worked really well.
As Mike experimented with the product, he realized it worked incredibly well as bedding. Especially for chickens. Chicken waste builds up fast, and so does the smell. It can take months for ammonia to break down enough for the waste to be usable as fertilizer.
Around the same time, Paul's dad was dealing with the same problem every backyard flock owner knows: the smell. Paul tried the pellets in his dad's coop. Then his neighbor's. He stuck his head in to check the smell. Nothing. Six weeks later, he did it again. Still nothing. Just a light pine scent. He called his brother-in-law Todd that afternoon.
Paul and Todd had been managing real estate properties together across Tennessee and Alabama, areas with coops large and small, with problems the product was built to solve. They also happened to know plenty of people with backyard coops in their own neck of the woods.
Word spread fast.
Your animals shouldn't live in ammonia.
You shouldn't have to hold your breath to collect eggs. And you shouldn't have to choose between effective and natural. Farmstead Bedding is the only wood pellet bedding made from a single wood species, processed to eliminate ammonia rather than absorb it or mask it.
Every bag is consistent. Every bag is chemical-free. Every bag is tested.
Most pellet bedding products are made from whatever's available at the mill — a mix of wood species, sawdust, and scraps compressed into pellets. The formula varies batch to batch.Farmstead Bedding uses one specific wood type, sourced from a dedicated supplier, processed through a proprietary method. That consistency is what makes the chemistry predictable. It's why every bag performs the same way.
The result? A bedding material that has been third-party tested to eliminate ammonia — not just reduce it — in both lab conditions and real-world coop applications.
Chief Flock Officer
Chief Roost Officer
Chief Pellet Officer
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