Chicken cleaning/run advice!

[Jordyndavidson]

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone happened to have any advice for what type of material to put in the coop and run? I’m making making a nice long trip run, but i wanted some advice and personal experience for the bedding and litter. Also, if anyone had any advice on how to clean the coop and run/how often? Thanks!

 

[3KillerBs]

I recently wrote an article on it:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

I hope you find it helpful.

 

[neo71665]

I use rice hulls in my coop and wood shavings in my run. Bought a wood chipper so I can make my own shavings. The rice hulls I pick up free from a buddy who uses them in his commercial chicken houses.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

My whole set up is filled with natural, washed, coarse grain river sand. It’s SO easy to clean! I just use a long handled wok spider to scoop the poop from the poop decks, the floor of the coop, and the run. It takes me about ten minutes to clean up after seven hens. We buy the sand from our local quarry. A fourteen ton load delivered is a couple hundred bucks and I have only had one load in three years. A couple times a year I throw a 40 pound bag of Sweet PDZ on the poop decks, just to add to the depth. I live in waaaaaaaay-Southern Ohio where it’s always “moist,” so sand works best for us.

The best part is, aside from the ease of cleaning, I hardly ever get a poopy egg and the girls can dustbathe wherever they want!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Very recent poll about coop cleaning, so you can get a lot of ideas (and see how widely different everyone is when it comes to managing cleaning): https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/official-byc-poll—how-often-do-you-clean-your-coop.1453186/

 

[littledog]

The ideal materials really depend a lot on the climate where you live, how much rainfall you get, temperature in summer and winter, are they on a sloped or flat area, how many chickens in how much space, etc. There's no one ideal material, in fact bedding that is perfect in a dry climate could be a disaster in a wet climate, and vice-versa.

We could give you much better advice if you put your general location in your profile, as well as tell us more about how many chickens you have and describe the landscape where you keep them.

 

[Jordyndavidson]

The ideal materials really depend a lot on the climate where you live, how much rainfall you get, temperature in summer and winter, are they on a sloped or flat area, how many chickens in how much space, etc. There's no one ideal material, in fact bedding that is perfect in a dry climate could be a disaster in a wet climate, and vice-versa.

We could give you much better advice if you put your general location in your profile, as well as tell us more about how many chickens you have and describe the landscape where you keep them.

I live in north ga, I have 9 hens, and live in a wooded neighborhood. My backyard has a ton of trees scattered about the yard.

 

[3KillerBs]

Sounds like you may have pine straw handy. As you see in the article I linked, I love pine straw.

Pine straw is free for the raking, dries out on top rapidly after even the heaviest rains, decomposes slowly, isn't particularly prone to packing/matting, and smells nice.

The cons are that it's not as absorbent as some other options and that, when dry, it's subject to blowing around.

 

[aart]

What kind of bedding you use may depend on how you manage the manure.
This is about cleaning, but covers my big picture

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.
-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.
- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.
-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).

There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.

That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 7 years.