A-Frame Deep litter Question

[calily11]

Hi everyone,

I am planning to build an a-frame chicken tractor modified from the ones I've seen online. I am planning to keep the tractor on a raised bed permananently. Most a-frame tractors has an enclosed to portion of the coop, but I am planning to have it bottomless so that when they roost at night, their droppings would automatically drop directly onto the ground below where I will have peat moss and vermiculite as a bedding. That way the hens could scratch below during the day and mix it for me. No poop to clean up or atleast that's the idea.

I use the squarefoot gardening technique so that is why I have peat moss and vermiculite as the bedding. The chicken poop would be my compost part of the mix. So when I need to use the mix I could take the bottom layer of the bedding and use it in my garden.

Has anyone every done this?.... I am hoping to get feed back about this idea. The thought of cleaning chicken poop everyday is not appealing to me. My question really is will the chickens be able to turn my litter well enough if i throw scratch in there.

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, calily11, and

! Pleased you joined us! I haven't seen the design you are planning but it seems to makes sense. When you say bottomless - do the roosting birds have security from predators in the tractor at night. Good luck to you!

 

[calily11]

I will actually put wire below the raised bed before I put the litter in. That way now animal can not dig their way in and under. So the chickens will fly up to their roost at night. I decided not to put a ladder to get to the roost bar and nest box. No ladder means no cleaning up poop on it. I read somewhere that chickens really don't need a ladder to get up. The roost bar will probably only about 3-4 up above ground.

 

[drumstick diva]

I wonder if peat moss or vermiculite would harm them if eaten. I hybridize streptocarpus (house)plants and work with both when mixing potting soil, they are very dusty and irritating to lungs when dry.I use a dusk mask around them. IMaybe this could cause respiratory problems with the chickens.

 

[calily11]

Maybe I should just use pine shaving bedding and when it is done composting I could mix the other 2 when I am ready for it to go in the garden.

 

[ac3070]

I was wondering how your deep litter a-frame coop worked out? Did the bedding/litter stay dry enough? We are building a traditional a-frame (not raised) and would like to deep litter inside it but I"m not sure it will stay dry as only the top half has a roof.