Deep litter in Canada

[Thurston1306]

I am building my new coop next month and husband and I are arguing floor vs DL method. I am in favor of the no floor method and my only concern with the deep litter is that the spot that we have for our coop is at a low point in our yard . Will the pooling of water negatively affect the litter development ? Can I conteract it by putting a drainage level of 3 inches of gravel down first ? We are in Alberta Canada and I would like to provide my hens with a cozy dry coop without having to pay to heat it

 

[amiachicknorwat]

Hi, The only solution I see is to use the deep litter as insulation, then also deep enough where it can be hot composted. Most I've heard here speak of cold composting, but I think it gets colder there than here in BC Rockies. I hear chickens can handle the cold, but how cold? They'll love the bugs composting attracts, as I've found since I included our main compost pile within the chicken run. You can just have a complex of perches above the floor to give them warm dry run around space. Best of luck, Nick