DLM for run?

I've been reading the DLM thread for so long my eyes have crossed, but I'm still confused.

We have 4 pullets and I was planning on making a 4x4x4 coop for them with a dropping board/tray that I pull out and clean daily/ every few days. But now I'm wondering is DLM in the coop is better.

Also I was planning on doing DLM in the 4x10 run. The current area for the run is mud right now. Well garden soil for a garden I planted. It will have a roof but the side would just be wire. Would that get too wet for the DLM to work well?

Can I keep the food and water in the run vs in the coop?

They will also have a free range of the yard when I'm out with them and I'm making a tube run in a grassy area as well. It's just the main coop and run I'm unsure about.

That’s fairly common on here, wondering what the absolute best is. We all want the best for our chickens. Someone will come on here with the message that if you don’t do something their way the future of the civilized world will be forever changed. Then someone comes on equally strong for a different way. Then a third person joins the conversation. Often they don’t take into account whether your coop is an elevated small coop with limited access or a big walk-in coop, how many chickens you have, elevated or on the ground with a dirt floor or maybe a wooden or concrete floor, your climate, urban or rural, and certainly not your lifestyle. This might be your topic, how much room they need, should a window be on the south, east, or north side, what to use as roosts, how to provide ventilation, should you heat your coop, how to feed them, should you vaccinate and for what, practically everything to do with chickens. We are all unique. What works best for one person may be totally inappropriate for another or both may work equally well. There are normally advantages and disadvantages for every method. The hard part for someone with no experience and just starting out is to decide which will be most appropriate for them. It’s important that we tell you what we are doing and how it works to help you decide but it’s not always easy for you.

I assume your coop will be elevated with a wooden floor since you are considering the tray idea. The pop door will probably be on the side and maybe raised several inches up off the floor. Yours may be totally different but many people use a version of the deep litter method on these. I say a version because there are different ways to do this. The true deep litter method involves piling a lot of bedding in there and keeping it damp enough for it to compost but not wet enough to cause disease problems. It’s a pretty delicate balance. Most people just keep it dry and rely on the bedding absorbing the moisture from the poop with the chickens turning it to help it dry. With good ventilation that can work. One potential problem with this is that the wooden floor and coop sides will rot if it stays damp at all so you need to protect that wood from decay. Linoleum or certain paints are a common way. Another issue is poop load. If you have a high density of chickens pooping in an area the poop can build up so fast that it never dries out and you have a stinky coop. A droppings board under the roosts can help with this but just how much room do you have in that 4x4 coop? If your coop is on the ground and has a dirt floor the dynamics of this change.

Some people use a version of the tray method you are talking about. They may or may not use some material in the tray to help dry out the poop so they can go longer without cleaning it. You have to clean it out on some schedule and do something with that stuff, either the poop by itself or the poop and bedding. That may be a compost pile, bagging it for the garbage, or something else. How often you have to do that will depend on poop load, what if any bedding or other material you use, how moist your weather is, and other factors.

A popular method for a small elevated coop is to use bedding, maybe wood shavings, wood chips, straw, hay, dried grass clippings, or something else and clean that out into a wheelbarrow as needed. For some people this is weekly, some go a lot longer. It’s going to depend on your individual standards, poop load, how damp your weather is, and other stuff. Again you have to do something with the stuff you take out. If you use a lot and clean it out regularly this can really pile up.

I don’t know which will be the best method for you and your lifestyle. They all can and do work. Your basic goal is to keep it dry. As long as it is dry you are generally doing OK. A wet coop is dangerous from a disease standpoint and will probably stink really badly.

Some people use the run as their compost pile. They rake up a bunch of leaves in the fall and dump those in, put in their grass clippings, garden wastes, and kitchen wastes. Like the coop, this being wet can be an issue. You might be able to get away doing something like this in Kansas City. You’ll have some wet spells but it’s generally a fairly dry climate. One important thing for this to work is that it has to drain well. If it is in a low spot where water drains to you should not try this. If it is elevated a little or on a hillside so it drains you might have a chance. A berm or swale on the upslope side to keep rainwater runoff out can be a big benefit. Rain blows in from the sides as well as from above. You might want to block the rain from your prevalent rain direction to help keep it drier. You’ll need good ventilation too so it can dry out. Tossing some kinds of treats on the ground so the chickens search and scratch for them can help keep it turned so it can dry out better, but they will probably be scratching for treats anyway in that mix. As always another issue is poop load. If the poop builds up too thick you can have problems. I don’t know how bad four hens in that space will be. You can try it and see how it goes. A member of the sister gardening forum does that in east central Texas and loves it.

Some of us keep food and water in the coop, some in the run, and some both places. As normal people will give you all kinds of reasons for doing one or the other. As long as you don’t leave the chickens locked in the coop for extended periods of time when they are awake, feeding and watering in the run works fine. It gives you more room in a small coop too.

The closest thing I have to your set-up is my 4’ x 8’ elevated grow-out coop. It has a wire floor so the poop falls though. I rake and shovel that out as needed, depending on the weather and poop load. And I only keep juveniles in there, not adult laying hens. Some wire has sharp points on it from manufacturing that can tear up their feet so you need to watch that. Also I used ½” hardware cloth for the bottom and when the chicks get older the poop no longer falls through the openings. As always advantages and disadvantages. Everything is a tradeoff.

I don’t know what the best way for you is in any of this. Many different things can work. Whichever way you choose to go forward you need to remain a bit flexible. You will have some tweaking to do.

Good luck!

The cool thing is that you have a small coop. If you try one method and find it's not working out, it will be pretty easy to switch to another method.

I use sand in my 4x6ish coop. My 8 hens spend hardly any time in it. They prefer to be in the covered run instead. I rarely have poop anywhere but the poop board. They all roost at night so nobody spends much time on the floor. I use sand because it is most convenient for me. Scooping the poop board and the occasional stray poop takes no longer than if I had to turn or top off shavings. Every once in a while I have to buy a new bag of sand. A bag of sand takes up less space than a bag of shavings. It's a good choice for me.