Deep litter method in shed coop/poop boards?

Pics

emyancey

Songster
Feb 18, 2024
91
154
106
Northern New York
Hi,

My first ever chicks arrive in a couple of weeks. I have 12 babies coming. I (my dad really) am building a 10'x14' shed and it will have a storage area and the rest will be henhouse, so the henhouse portion will be approximately 80- 90 square feet (haven't decided what is a good amount of space for the storage/workspace portion), but want to account for chicken math. They will have an attached run. I live in Northern New York. I want to do the deep litter method with hemp bedding in the henhouse. Is that something that is possible with a large, walk-in henhouse? I see people do deep litter with other styles of coops. Also, if I am going to do deep litter method, should I have poop boards or no? I am undecided. I know the deep litter needs the droppings to do its thing, but also thought it would be better to have poop boards so that they have coop space that isn't entirely covered in droppings to give them more space to bop about and do their thing, so I can hang water and feed underneath, ect. Thank you for any suggestions and advice!
 

Attachments

  • hredirect2.jpg
    hredirect2.jpg
    36.6 KB · Views: 405
deep litter method
Northern New York
Deep litter method in a shed in NY is going to be difficult to accomplish because of the cold weather.
poop boards
THIS is the way to go IMO. This is what I do in Southern NY and it is just so easy.
deep litter needs the droppings
It also needs warmth and moisture. Due to the freezing temps in NY, you don't really want added moisture in the coop because of frostbite.

I use pine shavings and/or hemp bedding on the coop floor and granular zeolite or DE on the boards and scoop the boards every morning with a metal cat litter scoop. The full poop buckets get dumped into a compost pile.

The coop is cleaned out once a year and layered with the poop pile into a second pile to 'cook' for another year before going into my gardens.

You can maximize space by using the roost/poop board arrangement below.
I have my nest boxes bumped out into my storage space over a built-in brooder but you could hang them under a poop board just as easily. For the number of birds you want, you could just install 3 nests and that would be enough.
Coop ventilation.png
 
The deep litter method is where you turn your coop or run into a compost pile. The microbes that eat the materials need enough moisture to live and reproduce. If you get too much moisture it can go anaerobic and become a stinky slimy mess. Too dry and the organisms can't reproduce or do their thing. If the poop or bedding are frozen the organisms cannot break it down. The poop will not be stinky or slick but it won't go anywhere.

I do not use the deep litter method. I keep my 8' x 12' coop so dry the organisms cannot live, let alone multiple. About once every three or four years in the fall after the garden has gone to bed I dump the bedding in the garden. I actually have a winter garden so I dump that stuff in a different garden section. By the time warm weather planting time comes around it has broken down enough that it is not a problem. I'd expect that to work in the frozen north but I have not actually done it where the ground stays frozen for a few months every winter.

I use droppings boards to limit the amount of poop that goes in there. Depending on the time of the year I might go one week or six weeks between scraping my droppings board and tossing that in the compost pile. How often depends on poop load (7 chickens versus 50) and how dry the weather is. If the poop on the droppings board starts to stink I waited too long. If the poop on those boards or in your coop gets too thick it can hold moisture and stink. Removing most of the poop from my coop with those droppings boards is what enables me to go so long between deep cleaning the coop.
 
In Wisconsin i do deep litter all year and clean out two times a year.
I dont have a walk in coop but it works well here.
Then i use the bedding for compost
I do exactly the same and I would definitely use poop boards as far as shavings, I buy bales of wood chips/shavings at either farm & Fleet or a local feed store.
I used a piece of vinyl flooring left over from the floor of the coop to line the poop board with.
 
I don't know if the OP is still around reading this thread, but I thought I would add some thoughts to a number of good posts earlier in the thread...

I want to do the deep litter method with hemp bedding in the henhouse. Is that something that is possible with a large, walk-in henhouse? I see people do deep litter with other styles of coops. Also, if I am going to do deep litter method, should I have poop boards or no? I am undecided.

I live in northern Minnesota, about 90 mins to the Candian border. My coop is 7X13 feet. I use dry deep bedding in the coop, cleaning it out twice a year, once in the spring after the temps get into the 50F's or 60F's, and then again in late fall before the snow falls.

Deep litter is actually an active composting system. It requires moisture. I don't want moisture in my coop in the winter months. Everything freezes solid in my coop in the winter, so composting deep litter would not work for me.

Dry deep bedding is a lot like deep litter, except that you keep most of the bedding dry as possible. In the fall, I start with maybe 3 inches of dry bedding in the coop. Once or twice a month, I will add more dry bedding to the coop. Most of the new bedding goes over the litter underneath the roosts to cover the frozen chicken poo. The rest of the coop does not get soiled much, so it takes very little extra litter to keep it clean.

I don't do poo boards at all. I find that the chicken poo in my coop freezes hard as a rock, is almost impossible to get out, and does not smell at all until springtime temps hit that 60F or better when I clean everything out. Just keep covering the frozen poo all winter, once or twice a month, and you will not have a problem.

I could probably get by with just cleaning out the coop litter once a year, in the spring, but I toss all my coop litter into the run twice a year to compost in place. Then I use that chicken run compost for my gardens. My chicken run compost is much, much better than the bagged compost I used to buy. Plus, I know exactly what organic materials are in my chicken run compost.

The deep litter method is where you turn your coop or run into a compost pile. The microbes that eat the materials need enough moisture to live and reproduce. If you get too much moisture it can go anaerobic and become a stinky slimy mess. Too dry and the organisms can't reproduce or do their thing. If the poop or bedding are frozen the organisms cannot break it down. The poop will not be stinky or slick but it won't go anywhere.

I would agree with that. But I prefer the dry deep bedding which keeps the moisture down in the frozen coop in the winter months. If you live in the north country, moisture in the winter coop can cause frostbite. The chickens can keep themselves warm in dry cold temps. Just make sure you have good ventilation and keep things as dry as possible.

In Wisconsin i do deep litter all year and clean out two times a year.
I dont have a walk in coop but it works well here.
Then i use the bedding for compost

Pretty much my schedule, except that I use dry deep bedding.

I live almost to Canada so things are definitely cold and they freeze for sure. If you're only cleaning out the coop once a year, you just let them scratch it about and leave it?

Although I use dry deep bedding, not moist active deep litter, I encourage my chickens to scratch the coop litter as much as possible. Most of the poo is directly under the roosts, but any other poo on the surface of the coop deep bedding will work its way down to the bottom when the chickens scratch the bedding. If I see an area that needs a bit more attention, I'll just toss some chicken scratch in that spot and the chickens will "clean" it up in no time with their scratching and pecking for the chicken scratch.

In the winter months, the poo freezes and does not smell. But I don't like to see poo sitting on top of my coop litter. So, I add a thin fresh layer of litter about twice a month under the roosts, and maybe only once a month for the rest of the coop.

How often are you cleaning out your coop bedding/floor then? What do you use as bedding?

Using dry deep bedding, adding fresh litter maybe once or twice every month in the wintertime, I only clean out my coop litter twice a year. In the spring when the temps get warm, then in the late fall before the snow falls. I want to start the winter with fresh coop litter.

I have used all kinds of materials for my chicken coop litter, including free wood chips, dried grass, leaves, and now my favorite litter is just shredded paper that I make at home. Notice all my bedding choices are free to me. They all are compostable when I toss the litter into the chicken run.

It's OK to mix and match coop litter as well. The chickens don't mind if you have some wood chips, grass, or leaves all mixed together.

The last 2 years I have used paper shreds exclusively. Fresh paper shreds are lighter in weight, dust free, have no smell, and will compost faster than most other bedding litter I have used when I finally toss out the old litter into the chicken run. What better way to treat all those paid bills and junk mail than to let the chickens poo all over them! Works for me.
 
Once every three to four years. Not because it is messy but I want that stuff on the garden. I do use the stuff from the compost pile more often, usually two or three times a year when I plant stuff. I store completed compost in feed bags in the dry.

I use pine wood shavings from Tractor Supply. I put it two to three inches thick and top it off as needed. It does not break down (rot) in the coop but their scratching will turn it to powder so I have to occasionally top it off. They scratch around my feeder looking for spilled feed so they can pile it up on the far walls. I occasionally level it back out.
 
I do 6 inches of dry pine shavings in my coop and add about 1/2 once a month. Has worked well for 3 years

That has been my experience for 4 years now. It works for me.

I really like pine shavings, but I have access to lots of free litter/bedding options that work well for me. I would have to buy pine shavings. I just try to cut any costs where and when I can.
 
I read your coop article and admired it! I live almost to Canada so things are definitely cold and they freeze for sure. If you're only cleaning out the coop once a year, you just let them scratch it about and leave it? Isn't that similar to deep litter, or since most of their waste is landing on the poop boards, it doesn't accumulate enough to function that way? I am leaning toward your set up for sure. I am just curious having never done this before :)
All of the night time poop lands on the boards and is removed daily. Because I built my run as predator-proof as is the coop they just go out there as soon as they come off the roost in the morning. So between the run and the pen, the daytime poop is not getting left in the coop. Therefore the bedding in the coop only gets somewhat soiled during the winter. It doesn't need to be changed out more than once a year.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom