Deep litter method in shed coop/poop boards?

[Ted Brown]

@Amped

I used Blackjack 57 on my coop floor and 12" up the wall. Just carried on and did the drop boards as well.

Too expensive to buy for just that but suggest that anything that seals the wood is a good idea. Either varnish or epoxy should work just fine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My roosts are over my built-in brooder, which has a flat sheet of plywood on top. It is not painted and neither are my roosts. I scrape it with a garden hoe that has a broken handle. It is short enough it will fit in my coop without banging on walls or breaking my window.

 

[Chickenclaude]

My set up is different. 4 x 8 upstairs and downstairs. The roosts are upstairs, 2 of them across the 4’ side. The pine bedding covers the floor. The nesting boxes are along the8’ side and open from the outside too. I use milk crates. Every other week I dump the nesting material on to the floor, I stir up the floor droppings and top off w clean pine shavings. Then place clean shavings in the nesting boxes. I can stir up the floor w a hoe from a standing position outside from an access door in the middle of the 4’ side. I can reach the roosts and use a plastic puddy knife to remove any droppings to the floor and they get mixed in. Then the clean pine on top where it’s needed. The shavings are now about 6” deep. So I place an 8” board across the access door to hold them in. (I tried a poop board sling under the roosts but my girls kept tearing it down and I was afraid they would break a leg or something…they kept getting into the sling.)
This works well for me, I keep pine shavings in the bottom floor where I have water and feed available. I clean it all out 2x a year. One year before I tarped the open lower floor I cleaned it out 3 x.
I would rather not walk inside to clean.
I am in NW CT and it’s cold and snowy here in winter.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

The pine bedding covers the floor.

What is your flooring?

 

[SandyRiverChick]

For those with poop boards. What are you coating the boards with prior to installing? I was going to paint the plywood but I’m thinking about a nice layer of clear varnish or clear epoxy.

That sounds like a good idea. After seeing what years of poo does to wood no matter how often you scrape it, I covered my wood poo boards with

thin plastic.

 

[EagleEyes]

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.

 

[BackyardinWales]

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.

Thank you!! I use pine shavings in my roost areas and never knew why it kept disappearing! I'm blind so never realised they scratch and break it down, I just thought they were eating it! Thank you!!!

 

[Sally PB]

For those with poop boards. What are you coating the boards with prior to installing?

I used what I had on hand: White exterior paint. 3 coats.

 

[gtaus]

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.

 

[Chickenclaude]

What is your flooring?

Just 3/4” pine pressure treated and painted. If you use enough pine it will remain dry and kinda fluffy.
My first try was w a sling under roosts to easily remove poo. But my girls damn near broke legs climbing in