we deep litter with pellets. I would not ever EVER use anything else. Ever. Period. Theres no smell, even with just one layer, after a month of use. I add another bag or two every month.
Vinyl flooring is your friend! Home depot tends to have the cheapest remnants, but try craigslist too.
I'll tell you what, we made half of one wall all chicken wire, the top half. And our coop has an old stove pipe through the wall that we put wire over too. Anyway, that amount of ventilation is incredibly useful. We tack dollar store shower curtains to it in winter to keep them warm. In the summer we plan on getting one of those little solar powered car-cooling window fans to stuff in the stove pipe to keep things cool, in winter we stuff some styrafoam in it. Ventilation should never be under estimated.
We raised the chicken coop floor off the ground- it was a nessecity because our barn has a stream in it in the spring, but honestly its really useful anyway.
