Wet Coop bedding

moukoyui said:

Hello, this is my first time posting.  I am a new chicken mom.  I am trying to solve our chicken coop mystery.  Our chickens have a large 12x18 outdoor run that has natural cover from trees and a small (kit from tractor supply) coop with nest boxes.  Our birds are a mixed flock - 2 orpingtons that we purchased as laying hens, and 2 (2 roosters and a hen) that were hatched out at my school ( I am a teacher) that are meat birds.  They have free access to the pen and coop all day, but they put themselves to bed at dusk.  Their food and water are outside.  The coop has spots for 2 low roosts, but the meat chickens cannot use them and typically knock them over.  

Sorry for the novel length description, but the problem we have right now is that the coop bedding (pine shavings and hay in the nest boxes) is getting increasingly damp.  We live in the Carolina's and have humid weather all year round.  Our bedding system worked GREAT in the summer and we hand little smell and nice clean birds.  Now that winter has arrived, it does not seem to be drying and I am now bedding a shallow layer and cleaning everyday and it is still smellier than I would like.  My meat birds also have dirty breast and belly feathers.

What am I doing wrong?  
Help from a chicken newbie in NC

Click to expand...

moukoyui said:

Hello, this is my first time posting.  I am a new chicken mom.  I am trying to solve our chicken coop mystery.  Our chickens have a large 12x18 outdoor run that has natural cover from trees and a small (kit from tractor supply) coop with nest boxes.  Our birds are a mixed flock - 2 orpingtons that we purchased as laying hens, and 2 (2 roosters and a hen) that were hatched out at my school ( I am a teacher) that are meat birds.  They have free access to the pen and coop all day, but they put themselves to bed at dusk.  Their food and water are outside.  The coop has spots for 2 low roosts, but the meat chickens cannot use them and typically knock them over.  

Sorry for the novel length description, but the problem we have right now is that the coop bedding (pine shavings and hay in the nest boxes) is getting increasingly damp.  We live in the Carolina's and have humid weather all year round.  Our bedding system worked GREAT in the summer and we hand little smell and nice clean birds.  Now that winter has arrived, it does not seem to be drying and I am now bedding a shallow layer and cleaning everyday and it is still smellier than I would like.  My meat birds also have dirty breast and belly feathers.

What am I doing wrong?  
Help from a chicken newbie in NC

Click to expand...