The issue with shavings is that they take forever to decompose. Do you have a run attached to your coop? If so, is it grass covered? If it has had all of the vegetation stripped from it, I'd suggest that when you clean your coop, you dump the used litter into the run. Add lawn clippings, garden debris, and any other compostable material you get your hands on. This will make a nice deep composting litter in your run.
I use leaves for bedding in my coop. Several times/year, I clean some of the bedding out from under the perches. There's a clean out door on that back wall, so it's super easy to prop that door open, and just push/pull a lot of that bedding right out into the run. I think I'm finally achieving my goal of a composting deep litter in the coop. I've not cleaned it since last fall, and all I smell in there now is a nice sweet earthy smell.
It's my goal to have my run covered with 6" of compost at all times. It's a work in progress, and I may never achieve it b/c the run is 500 s.f. I add lawn clippings, leaves, wood chips, garden debris, and any other compostable materials I can get my hands on. The birds are busy working that compost every day. So, when they are not able to get out to free range (due to heavy hawk predation), they have a job to do. I also keep a compost drum during the winter, and any compostables I don't want to put into the chicken run go in my HK mound or the drum, or a separate pile. I also have a worm bin. A girl can never have too much compost!
I use leaves for bedding in my coop. Several times/year, I clean some of the bedding out from under the perches. There's a clean out door on that back wall, so it's super easy to prop that door open, and just push/pull a lot of that bedding right out into the run. I think I'm finally achieving my goal of a composting deep litter in the coop. I've not cleaned it since last fall, and all I smell in there now is a nice sweet earthy smell.
It's my goal to have my run covered with 6" of compost at all times. It's a work in progress, and I may never achieve it b/c the run is 500 s.f. I add lawn clippings, leaves, wood chips, garden debris, and any other compostable materials I can get my hands on. The birds are busy working that compost every day. So, when they are not able to get out to free range (due to heavy hawk predation), they have a job to do. I also keep a compost drum during the winter, and any compostables I don't want to put into the chicken run go in my HK mound or the drum, or a separate pile. I also have a worm bin. A girl can never have too much compost!
