Deep Litter Method in SMALL COOP??

[ejtalbert]

Hi! I'm Emily, and I have 5 12-week old pullets. They stay in the run most of the day, which is aprx 95sq feet. (fenced in because we live in the countryside-suburbs)
I have heard that the deep litter method can amount to up to 12 inches of compost, and I just don't know if there is enough space.
We currently have our nesting boxes blocked off because they were sleeping in them, and we haven't seen an egg yet.

Thoughts?
Here are some photos of the coop:

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't think you will be able to use a deep litter system with 5 chickens in a coop that small.

The usual recommendation is 4 square feet per chicken in the coop and 10 square feet per chicken in the run. Five chickens would be healthier and happer long term with 20 square feet in their coop -- 4x5 minimum.

IMO, deep litter works best in the run -- where you have the moisture (not sogginess, but moisture), required to maintain the cold-composting process where the poop combines with the "brown" materials to create odor-free, garden gold.

In the coop I used deep bedding, which was perfectly dry but piled up over time so that I needed only clean it out once every 6-12 weeks.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

What @3KillerBs said, and you might consider raising those perches a bit higher to encourage them to sleep there in favor of the nesting boxes. Looks like they are just screwed down, so it shouldn't take much to unscrew, lift, and re-secure them.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Its a very attractive coop - expanding the run was a great start, now begin thinking about how you will expand the hen house - likely wider, rather than longer, matching the existing roof line. That will minimize the amount of new fencing you will need if you then choose to expand the run to the same width.


Commercial hen houses seem to be "sized" the same way camping tents are. Physically "Fit" within, not Physically "Comfortable" within.

Like you, I'm brand new at this, but I've come to three early conclusions. 1) once you get "the bug", a few chicks is never enough, and 2) a lot of behavior problems in the flock are cured by more space. 3) if you should start breeding, or buy another batch of "littles", or for a host of other reasons, at some point, you will need to separate some of your flock.

Bigger is almost always better in this case.

 

[coach723]

Premade coops almost always over estimate what they can actually hold. You will be OK for a little while, but I would start planning on a bigger coop, or figure how to expand this one. Often the most economical way to get a bigger coop is to convert a used shed. The more run space you have it can somewhat help with a smaller coop. Even if you don't get a larger number of chickens (and most of us get struck with "chicken math" at some point and end up with more than we planned, sometimes a lot more) any time you add or replace birds that's going to make for cramped integration and spats. Deep litter works in covered runs, as said, some moisture is OK, but wet and soggy is not, so heavy rains could leave you with a stinking mess. Basically, if you start smelling stink, then something isn't right. I use deep litter in my covered run, my coop has poop boards so I scrape those daily and clean the coop as necessary. My run can go much longer than the interior of the coop can for cleaning. My covered run is open to the coop, and open to their open, grassed, fenced area during all daylight hours, so they are outside most of the day unless it's pouring rain.

 

[DobieLover]

Hi! I'm Emily, and I have 5 12-week old pullets. They stay in the run most of the day, which is aprx 95sq feet. (fenced in because we live in the countryside-suburbs)
I have heard that the deep litter method can amount to up to 12 inches of compost, and I just don't know if there is enough space.
We currently have our nesting boxes blocked off because they were sleeping in them, and we haven't seen an egg yet.

Thoughts?
Here are some photos of the coop:
View attachment 2192460View attachment 2192461View attachment 2192462View attachment 2192463

Your coop design is not conducive to deep litter. You're just going to have to clean that out once or twice a week. It's awfully small for five birds.
Does the roof extend over the run? If it does that would be a very good thing. That will give them ample space to spread out in and if the run is completely predator-proof you can leave the pop door open all the time so they can just leave to the run as soon as I get off the roost in the morning. Then the small size of the coop won't be such an issue.

 

[3KillerBs]

When we got the coop, it said it would hold 6-8 chickens... I suppose it was wrong, what should I do? They are still small, so it’s not too crowded, and they always have access to the run during the day....

Unfortunately, commercially-made coops almost always say that they hold more chickens than they really should. They take advantage of beginners who don't know what they should look for.

You've already started to expand your run. In time you should work on expanding your coop too.

If your run is predator-proofed you can leave the pop door open 24/7 and that will help.

 

[paintedChix]

You can lift your combined coop & run off the ground onto a base of single cinder blocks or 2 cinder blocks high. That will give you the depth you would want/need to do the DLM in the run area (s).

Others have addressed building your coop larger, so I won't.

What state do you live in? What type of climate do you have?

I personally don't like sand - but due to lots of rain and humidity here in the "sandhills" of NC - sand with any amount of chicken feces stinks badly and attracts flies. No matter how much you are able to scoop it out (& there are lots of ways to make scoops that will get most of the poop out), small bits of feces remain behind in the sand. When wet, it will usually smell bad, though I've had some say it doesn't.

The main thing with DLM is to get varied and different sized materials. The same type and same size material will mat down and will also start to stink as it goes aerobic - blocking oxygen from moving through. It will also turn slimey and slick - posing slipping hazards for humans as well as undesirable conditions for the chickens.

We have used a variety of materials - some from our property and some brought in. Straw, hay, pine straw, leaves, veggie/fruit/garden waste, cut grass, cut weeds, wood chips, bills/junk mail/paper/cardboard that I shred or bring home already shredded. Pics of some of that here -

DLM

There are a lot of threads on sand, bedding and DLM on BYC.

 

[CatSeg]

I just want to make a quick thank you to those who replied to my thread. I have decided to go with only PDZ on the poop boards and pine shavings in the run. Hubby and I can make pine shavings quickly and with very low cost.
So... thanks for all the input.

 

[ejtalbert]

I don't think you will be able to use a deep litter system with 5 chickens in a coop that small.

The usual recommendation is 4 square feet per chicken in the coop and 10 square feet per chicken in the run. Five chickens would be healthier and happer long term with 20 square feet in their coop -- 4x5 minimum.

IMO, deep litter works best in the run -- where you have the moisture (not sogginess, but moisture), required to maintain the cold-composting process where the poop combined with the "brown" materials to create odor-free, garden gold.

In the coop I used deep bedding, which was perfectly dry but piled up over time so that I needed only clean it out once every 6-12 weeks.

When we got the coop, it said it would hold 6-8 chickens... I suppose it was wrong, what should I do? They are still small, so it’s not too crowded, and they always have access to the run during the day....