Deep litter method,or...Something else???

[ellie32526]

arent those pretty heavy to lug outside,wash off,&put back in place??

Not really they aren't that big and they are just thin pieces of plywood. He cut the length in half so I could do 1 at a time and it would be difficult to manage.

 

[ellie32526]

the wood floor is probably going to have linoliam kitchen flooring to make it "easy clean"

Good idea! That's what I went with too. Not that expensive, you can get a piece if you don't need it too big. Home Depot has a 6 X 8 (I think) for about $30.00. Or you can post on Craigslist - maybe someone has some they don't want or they are redoing their floor. You could get lucky - Just be careful about meeting people from Craigslist, never go alone and meet in a public place with lots of people.

 

[MikeBarnes]

I am new to keeping chickens but have read up a lot about the deep litter method and am trying it out now. I am using a mix of pine shavings, leaves and a small amount of straw (mostly leaves). It has only been about on month so far but all is going very well, no smell and the birds love it.
I also have a lot of ferns in the forest behind my garden. Does anyone know if using dried fern leaves is good? I have heard that they can keep away mites when used in the nesting boxes, but am a little worried about the fine pollen,dust that they give off...any comments welcome.

 

[ChickieG'ma]

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.

Oh, yeah, like that. I saw a post where the owner had made hers with a low lip on the boards so she could put a fairly good layer of PDZ then use a cat litter scooper to get the poop off each day or so. The poop boards really help keep the coop clean I'm thinkin'

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I have a fairly large sized tractor and three chickens. Last summer I used sand and I loved it. I let the gal's out of the coop and could scrape off that board in a breeze. When winter came, I moved to deep litter [yes, you can even do it in a tractor] and found that even easier as I wasn't scraping every day. I only needed to throw in some sunflower seeds to get the girls to mix up the litter or use a long handled garden tool to stir up the litter about once a week. I used pine shavings and leaves.

We're now building a permanent coop - 8 x 10 - and will be expanding from three to about nine chickens. I'm going to stay with deep litter. My amount of poo to scrape will triple and that's not considering the poo that doesn't land on the poop board. With sand, poo seems more visible and I'd be compelled to rake, scoop, and pick up every bit of it. With deep litter, throw in some BOSS and the girls will mix the litter up for you and the poo is suddenly gone. With good ventilation I've managed to keep deep litter dry and odor free in the tractor. I also use it in the run, which is protected from the elements, and it's doing well there, too.

 

[ellie32526]

I have a fairly large sized tractor and three chickens. Last summer I used sand and I loved it. I let the gal's out of the coop and could scrape off that board in a breeze. When winter came, I moved to deep litter [yes, you can even do it in a tractor] and found that even easier as I wasn't scraping every day. I only needed to throw in some sunflower seeds to get the girls to mix up the litter or use a long handled garden tool to stir up the litter about once a week. I used pine shavings and leaves.

We're now building a permanent coop - 8 x 10 - and will be expanding from three to about nine chickens. I'm going to stay with deep litter. My amount of poo to scrape will triple and that's not considering the poo that doesn't land on the poop board. With sand, poo seems more visible and I'd be compelled to rake, scoop, and pick up every bit of it. With deep litter, throw in some BOSS and the girls will mix the litter up for you and the poo is suddenly gone. With good ventilation I've managed to keep deep litter dry and odor free in the tractor. I also use it in the run, which is protected from the elements, and it's doing well there, too.

I used sand first and then added shavings when I moved from the brooder to the henhouse. Do you think the sand is cooler in the summer, shavings warmer in winter? I have 15 standards size breeds in a 6 X 8 henhouse.