Best flooring for cold weather?

[chickyfarm]

I'm just south of you in northern Wyoming.  I don't provide any supplemental heat for my chickens, nor is my coop insulated. The floor of both my coop and my run is good old deep litter on top of the dirt that was there when we built.  I don't have to clean it regularly (once a year if necessary) and have no odor problems whatsoever.  The chickens love to dig through it for tidbits they might have missed or for little bugs, and dust bathing in it was also a favorite pastime.  It kept them well occupied during the long winter.  In the summer they dig holes in it, lay down and spread their wings out over the edges of the holes they dug to cool off.  In the winter they also dig holes in it, then they snuggle deep into it for additional warmth.

For my DL I started out just using pine shavings, but I learned that they don't break down very well on their own.  So I took a very wise woman's advice and started adding some grass clippings, weeds we'd pulled out of the flower beds, garden trimmings, raked up leaves (complete with small twigs to help with lessening compaction) and the good old chicken manure the girls (and Scout) provide.  I absolutely love this method.  My chickens are healthy, happy, well occupied, and I don't mind working in the coop one little bit.

can I ask, when you say litter? Is that cat litter? And what does DL stand for? Thanks, I'm new to the lingo and abbreviations

 

[Percheron chick]

Litter is any organic matter that will absorb and provide insulation. Typically, you start with a clean freshly bedded coop in the fall and just keep adding through the winter. As it breaks down, heat is given off. It can also provide entertainment and a place to dust bathe. Shavings, straw, leaves, wood pellets, shredded paper, dried grass clippings, ground corncobs... never kitty litter. Skip the heat lamp.

 

[Blooie]

Yeah, what she said!

 

[chickyfarm]

Litter is any organic matter that will absorb and provide insulation. Typically, you start with a clean freshly bedded coop in the fall and just keep adding through the winter. As it breaks down, heat is given off. It can also provide entertainment and a place to dust bathe. Shavings, straw, leaves, wood pellets, shredded paper, dried grass clippings, ground corncobs... never kitty litter. Skip the heat lamp.

thank you! Do you keep a light bulb in there over winter? Not necessarily a heat lamp but just light. And do you ever clean the litter out or just let it keep composting? Does it attract mites?

 

[Blooie]

The only light bulb I keep out there is in the fixture up on the wall for my convenience if I have to go out to do something while it's dark. Other than that it's never on, so in answer to your question I have no heat source whatsoever out there. I know of at least one person, Beekissed, who is using the deep litter method and hers is 5 years old now, without having been changed. Mine has been going strong for a year. A light turnover once in awhile - just flipping the poop under the top layer of litter, is all that I need to do and that takes less than a minute. Occasionally I add another light layer of whatever I have on hand.

As for mites, well, my theory is that if you're going to get them, you'll get them. Chickens can end up with mites no matter what kind of flooring or litter you use. They'll find cracks and crevices on the undersides of roosts, in the walls, even in the nest boxes. I actually think that the constant dust bathing the chickens do in the deep litter helps fight them rather than specifically causes them.