Building Dilemma

[BankFam]

Nests can be floor level, that's not an issue at all.

As far as the litter falling in/out of places, my simple solution is a piece of wood held by bricks across wherever you're trying to contain the litter (I use 1x6s, you may need to use a 1x4, depending on how much it constricts the openings).
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Also to be realistic, you will not be doing any form of deep litter in there. it's a moist composting system that favors being in direct contact with soil. Deep bedding would be the better option.

How do you manage only having litter sectioned to one space, since the chickens poop absolutely everywhere?

And what is the difference between deep litter and deep bedding?

 

[BankFam]

Another option would be to not do deep litter. We have poop boards, and very little poop on the floor, so a small/thin layer of something on the floor works great. You then could put a small lip along the bottom of the nest boxes (and pop door if needed) to keep litter out of them.

I'm considering that option. I've been planning on deep litter the whole time to make maintenance easier and have some nice compost. We even have a huge door installed in a way to make the clean out easier. I just don't know why he put everything else flat on the floor....and now he's trying to argue against fixing it.

 

[BankFam]

I'm not sure where you live and what kind of temperature extremes you get...? If you're in an area prone to cold, windy, wet weather, it's probably worth it to create a way to seal up the gaps. If you're in a more temperate climate, it should be fine... as long as you at least seal them up with hardware cloth to prevent predators getting inside.

Personally I am more concerned with the wind blowing rain/ snow into the coop and my chooks getting wet & chilled. But then, I'm in the Colorado Rockies at 8500ft - we get some wicked weather extremes! My coop is literally over 90 years old, and it's all masonry with a regular roof - that sucker is as solid as you can get, which is what we need up here, between 9 months of snow and every mountain predator you can think of.

We live in WV on a hill at the bottom of the mountain. Our summers are usually in the 80s and winters around 30s. We did have some serious gusts the last couple months though, some as strong as 60mph back in December. That was absolutely crazy!

We have a panel covering, I think it's the west side. The other 3 sides are open, but I think we're going to cover the front/north gap too and just leave 2 sides open for ventilation. (Covered with hardware cloth.) It was cold and windy again yesterday so I sat in the coop to see what it was like and it was pretty breezy.

 

[BankFam]

Uch! You guys I'm so stressed! Now I'm concerned about ventilation because we have lots of ventilation at the top, but I'm worried about the wind being too cold. And we have windows on the sides (with doors so they're optional to open) for extra ventilation in the summer, but they're right in the middle of the walls where I would put the roosting bars. I had read up on all this stuff a while ago before I made the drawings of how I wanted him to build the coop but he kept changing so many little things as he worked that I don't even know what we're doing anymore.

 

[MamaFox78]

We live in WV on a hill at the bottom of the mountain. Our summers are usually in the 80s and winters around 30s. We did have some serious gusts the last couple months though, some as strong as 60mph back in December. That was absolutely crazy!

We have a panel covering, I think it's the west side. The other 3 sides are open, but I think we're going to cover the front/north gap too and just leave 2 sides open for ventilation. (Covered with hardware cloth.) It was cold and windy again yesterday so I sat in the coop to see what it was like and it was pretty breezy.

Oh that's not bad at all!! You're lucky! We get subzero winter wind chills down to -20's, and gusts up to 100mph... a recent wind storm was so severe, it sheared a metal panel gate... snapped it completely in half. Another one took down several trees and blew the wall off my horses' loafing shed. We're currently looking at 2ft of snow in the next couple days, followed by thunderstorms next week. See pic for my setup... the winds blow like crazy right off that mountain peak.

Even with all this crazy weather, my chickens are fine. My old coop isn't air tight, there are definitely drafts and during bad blizzards snow blows into the middle of the coop around the old stove pipe. As long as they're not directly exposed to drafts and moisture can't get in, you should be fine!! If you feel like there's too much wind in there, you could always make some panels to block those gaps on super windy/ cold/ rainy days... but it sounds like your climate is way milder than mine so I wouldn't stress too much.

 

[MamaFox78]

How do you manage only having litter sectioned to one space, since the chickens poop absolutely everywhere?

And what is the difference between deep litter and deep bedding?

You could do poop trays filled with PDZ under the roosting bars... you can scoop it like kitty litter. I'm going to try that myself as soon as we get a spell of good weather (see my post above). Then the deep bedding could be contained to the main floor space, and nesting boxes filled with straw or whatever you plan to use.

My understanding is deep litter is self composting as it's in contact with the ground, and usually has moisture to help it compost... deep bedding is in contact with the coop floor, and needs to be cleaned out when odor appears that isn't remedied by adding more bedding.

Personally I use sand on the concrete half of my coop floor, and the other half is dirt so I sprinkle lightly with DE and let them use that for dust baths over our 9 month long winter. I'm considering going to poop trays and a deep bedding instead of sand, but I'm worried about parasites so I'm still researching.

 

[woodworm]

I use hemp as deep bedding and just top it up occassionally. Never smells but doesn't compost either as it's dry (other than the chicken poop).

You could just take the floor out of your coop entirely, I'm sure you can use the boards to block up the bits below the coop. This would allow you to use deep litter and also raises the height of your windows, doors and egg boxes. You would lose run space though as the chooks can't go under.

Otherwise I don't think it would be too difficult to raise the egg box opening to be honest and I'd just put the roost bars level with the windows as you'll only open them for extra ventilation when it's hot and still weather anyway. Just need to make sure they are higher than the egg boxes.

edit - just realised my roost bars are level with my windows! No problems here as long as they are closed when the weather is bad.

You're husband is going to hate us

 

[3KillerBs]

And what is the difference between deep litter and deep bedding?

Using Deep Bedding in a Small Coop

 

[BankFam]

Oh that's not bad at all!! You're lucky! We get subzero winter wind chills down to -20's, and gusts up to 100mph... a recent wind storm was so severe, it sheared a metal panel gate... snapped it completely in half. Another one took down several trees and blew the wall off my horses' loafing shed. We're currently looking at 2ft of snow in the next couple days, followed by thunderstorms next week. See pic for my setup... the winds blow like crazy right off that mountain peak.

Even with all this crazy weather, my chickens are fine. My old coop isn't air tight, there are definitely drafts and during bad blizzards snow blows into the middle of the coop around the old stove pipe. As long as they're not directly exposed to drafts and moisture can't get in, you should be fine!! If you feel like there's too much wind in there, you could always make some panels to block those gaps on super windy/ cold/ rainy days... but it sounds like your climate is way milder than mine so I wouldn't stress too much.

Yeah, it's very unusual for our winds to get as high as they did. Thanks. I probably will just do a removable panel on the front for extra windy weather because I don't want to lose that airway. And the windows will probably just have to remain closed at night so they don't get a chill. Because they are at the exact level of the roosting bars.

 

[BankFam]

You could do poop trays filled with PDZ under the roosting bars... you can scoop it like kitty litter. I'm going to try that myself as soon as we get a spell of good weather (see my post above). Then the deep bedding could be contained to the main floor space, and nesting boxes filled with straw or whatever you plan to use.

My understanding is deep litter is self composting as it's in contact with the ground, and usually has moisture to help it compost... deep bedding is in contact with the coop floor, and needs to be cleaned out when odor appears that isn't remedied by adding more bedding.

Personally I use sand on the concrete half of my coop floor, and the other half is dirt so I sprinkle lightly with DE and let them use that for dust baths over our 9 month long winter. I'm considering going to poop trays and a deep bedding instead of sand, but I'm worried about parasites so I'm still researching.

After I commented I saw someone else's article all about it. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions!