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How many inches of pine shaving

post #1 of 6
5/9/12 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 

I am reading as much as I can before my chicks arrive in a month (So excited!!! I have been waiting for them since february). Now that I am set on a lot of things, I am still learning on the DLM. I know there are a lot of threads about it but I am still unclear about the amount of pine shaving you have to add. I explain: I will start with 3 or 4 inches of pine shaving and some DE and every month I will rake the old one and add a few handfuls of the new one as well as the DE. At the end, how much of pine shaving will it be? Wouldn't be too much? I am planning on building the coop next month and I am trying to make sure everything is a the right level, so if I have so much pine shaving on the floor (for example almost one foot by next spring) what about my nesting box (that were suppose to be one foot elevated)? I was planning to have the nesting boxes a little bit elevated but with that much shaving it will be at the same level. So in your coop how much shaving do you have after 6 or a year? I hope I am making sense hmm.png

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post #2 of 6
5/9/12 at 3:05pm

I don't measure it out that much.  I put about 3 inches in first and sprinkle DE... mix with a rake and let it alone.  When it starts to get nasty, I add another 2 inches and more DE.  I would say, I add to my pile about once every 2-3 weeks
 

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post #3 of 6
5/9/12 at 3:08pm
Thread Starter 

Yes but at the end, don't you end up with a huge pile of pine shaving before you clean it entirely?

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post #4 of 6
5/9/12 at 3:15pm

My coop is 4x8 floor space. I started off with 2 wal mart bales of shavings. It was pretty danged deep but you will lose some as you clean the coop. 

Proud owner of 4 Red Sex Links, 2 barred Rocks, 1 RIR, 2 Daschunds, a kid and a wife!!!

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Proud owner of 4 Red Sex Links, 2 barred Rocks, 1 RIR, 2 Daschunds, a kid and a wife!!!

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post #5 of 6
5/9/12 at 3:18pm

We scoop most of the poop off the top about once a week and throw in the compost -- some shavings obviously go out with it.  If shavings get low, we may add a little more, but we don't have to do this very often.  Every 6 months (spring and fall), we clean out / wash the whole coop -- throw all shavings into compost and replace with new.  Seems to work pretty well for us (about 3 - 5 chickens sleeping in 3' x 5' coop space).

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post #6 of 6
5/9/12 at 3:26pm
Thread Starter 

Now I get it clap.giflol. I am going to have to add a little retaining "wall" in front of the human doors if not all the shaving will fall. I am planning on having doors like Erin barn chicken coop:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/erinlees-chicken-coop

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