Confused about coop bedding/floor material vs run bedding/ground material.

[larissap112]

Does the "deep litter method" only work for indoors? I don't want to use sand in my run. It will be a small run for 5 chickens, because they will be able to "free range" in my fenced back yard during the day. I just really, really, don't want to clean it often. And sand sounds way too much like litter boxes, and I already hate cleaning the two I got for my cats.

Pine shavings with deep litter method is what I hope for, just making sure that will work for an outdoor run.

 

[7KardashiHens]

You can put leaves in your run if you want to use a deep litter method. You can also use pine shavings but they smell awful when wet- I'd definitely make sure the run is covered if you use shavings.

 

[7KardashiHens]

I forgot to mention that if you use leaves, it will make an awesome compost, plus give the chickens bugs and stuff to scratch at (which turns the pile for you!).

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

We use the DLM both inside and out, we do not, however, use pine shavings, they tend to soak up water and hold on to it. This make them turn moldy and smelly quickly. As has already been mentioned, leaves work well but I wouldn't stop there. If you have a lawn to mow, those grass clippings will also make a good DLM ingredient. We use leaves, small twigs, grass clippings, trimmings from the garden harvesting, just think of the DLM as a compost heap, if you would compost it, it can be part of the Deep Litter.

I forgot to mention that we use straw as our base material.

 

[donrae]

I do deep litter in my large-ish run and throw pretty much everything in there. Pine shavings (not too much, they're spendy) grass clippings, leaves, stall cleanings that consist of horse manure and hay, sometimes straw, etc. I'm with you on not wanting constant cleaning!

 

[PapaChaz]

my 10x22 run is completely DLM. I let them start out with just the grass, then I put in about 4 or 5 inches of wood chips. Every time I pull weeds in the flower beds or garden, that goes in there. Cut the grass and the places in the yard I have to rake, the clippings go in there. I did put some shavings in mine, haven't seen any problems with them at all.

There is a whole thread on deep litter method, and on page 167 about half way down the page is a video done by a member here, Beekissed, go read through that thread and watch that video and it will pretty much answer your questions. But in a nutshell, yes by all means do the deep litter method ONLY if you want to have an odor free, fly free area for the chickens that requires YOU to do very little work

here's a link to the page it's on, scroll down to post 1665 and watch her video.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/70/deep-litter-method/1660


I did a video on my coop and run today, it's currently uploading to youtube and I'll be posting it up in my 'future coop and run' thread to kind of finish up that thread. I show my run and talk about the stuff I've put in the run as well as tour the coop and show it

 

[RonC]

I use the deep litter method in the coop with pine shavings, plain ol dirt in the run. Raking or hoeing it occasionally to clean it up. Gonna be some well fertilized soil when I move it.

 

[7KardashiHens]

Is it possible to use both? My coop is at the bottom of a hill, so it gets muddy if I don't use sand. However, I don't like it as much as pine shavings and I have to scoop it pretty much every day. If I keep an inch or two of sand on the bottom layer and use the DLM on top, will it still work? The sand should keep it well-drained and the organic material should compost the droppings, right?

 

[PapaChaz]

Is it possible to use both? My coop is at the bottom of a hill, so it gets muddy if I don't use sand. However, I don't like it as much as pine shavings and I have to scoop it pretty much every day. If I keep an inch or two of sand on the bottom layer and use the DLM on top, will it still work? The sand should keep it well-drained and the organic material should compost the droppings, right?

I didn't realize how low the spot in the yard was when I put my coop and run there. Then we had a very wet spring and I realized I was going to have to do something. First thing I did was put the blade on the tractor and cut drainage from the area all the way to the ditch at the front of the yard. Then I put in 4 or 5 inches of wood chips. I've continually put stuff on top of that, by winter with leaves and more chips and everything else I'm putting in there, I expect to have it built up at least a good 7 or 8 inches. Of course the drainage was the key, getting the water to go away from the coop and completely out of the yard.

I would expect that the chickens will dig down to the sand, and it will all eventually be mixed, so not sure if you're really going to get any additional 'drainage' from having the sand in the bottom of it anyway. Perhaps while it's dry you can work on making it like a 'raised bed' garden so that everything will flow around it. of course a couple drain pipes out would help any water coming directly in have a place to go.....

 

[7KardashiHens]

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to work on that tomorrow.