Thanks sharilyn

I think the black colour is really beautiful - the green shimmer is almost like a peacock colour!
Hi love my girls. I really like the rice hulls. I have a large tractor sitting on a concrete base ( my car port) and I buy large bags ( I think 125kg but will have to check- will also check price) and change the bedding about once a fortnight but can stretch out to 4 weeks ( but bit grotty by then). The bags do 4-6 bedding changes (depending on how deep I put it in) so 8-24 weeks per bag. My local feed place is willing to deliver the bags to my farm which is fantastic so I get 2 delivered at a time.
They don't eat the hulls but I think there must be little bits of rice in there as well because for the first couple of days they really scratch around and seem to be finding little bits of something to eat. They really enjoy scratching around in the hulls. It definitely keeps the droppings dry and keeps the flys down- when I had them just on concrete for a couple of days (trying to debrood all 3 girls!) the flys were bad, whereas normally I don't notice them. I think the texture of the hulls is probably closer to being on dirt so it's satisfying to scratch around in. I use it as a bit of a mulch for garden- takes a long time to break down.