Deep Litter Method in SMALL COOP??

[nao57]

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....

I wouldn't panic too much. Give it a try.

The truth is outside the US and in other places of the world, they do have to get them in closer together like this. And for some reason a lot of those places are fine.

And many guides do say 10 square feet per chicken, and you've said its 95 square feet.

So it might be interesting to see if it will work.

But a lot of the chicken guides say they'll not start laying eggs until about 6 months. So if you don't have them yet, it may be this reason.

 

[3KillerBs]

And the DLM still has to be tended to daily?

The advantage of deep bedding in the coop and deep litter in the run is that it does not require daily tending. I never scooped, ever.

The deep bedding keeps everything dry and decent until you reach the point that you cannot practically add more bedding (a once a week thing mostly for me), and it is all soiled. At which point you clean. For me this was 6-12 weeks depending on weather and circumstances.

In the run, because the deep litter is moist, you have the composting action breaking down poop and litter both. You never have to actually *clean* it -- just stir it around occasionally to break up any crusts or mats and remove the compost if the pile gets inconveniently high or you want it for the garden.

 

[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.