Hello! The old shed will work just fine. Deep litter method uses pine shavings, I have read about it but I am going to use sand. Sort of like a big kitty litter box. I will scoop out the clumped poos and only swap out the sand every six months. I am using play sand right now. Poo shelves (dropping boards or poop boards) are just a flat board under the roosts to catch the poos at night while chickens roost. That way it doesnt fall into the litter/sand and mess it up quicker. tree branches will work fine for roosts. The chickens won't know the difference. You will need to secure the doggy door at night or predators might get inside and kill your chickens. I am using a guillotine style door that I saw on here. Good Luck.the coop is going to be an old shed we are re-building/enforcing with pallets,it does/will have a wood floor,aaaaannndd......i dont know what im doing.Deep litter method?? poo shelves?(or whatever their called) the roosting poles are going to basically be tree branches(re-inforced of course),and we have an old door with a doggy door in it to let the chickens out when we want them to be. thats about all i know.ANY help would be helpful!
This is a pic of my dropping boards. They are actually stacked on top of each other in this photo. I have two pieces so I can remove and replace them easier. I can take out the dirty one (s) and scrub the poo off. I was going to sprinkle PDZ on top for the smell in the summer.I personally like deep litter method but it really has to be kept dry. I "fluff" it up every few days and it does pretty well. If it gets too damp you get ammonia smell and that's not good for the birds.
I have read some posts from people who use poop boards and would really like to try that along with my deep litter. Maybe someday...
