Deep Litter Method with Large Flock

[Humble Shack Farm]

I have two chicken coops that I want to try the deep litter method with over this winter. I'm mainly concerned with the large coop (40+ birds) and how often I would need to add fresh bedding and how expensive that might get. The chickens have an outdoor run and free range for half the day so they don't spend all day in the coop but they do regularly take naps inside the coop in the afternoons.

How often would I need to add fresh bedding? I can get pine shavings and sometimes straw for the bedding. Here's a picture of the inside of my coop.

 

[3KillerBs]

Have you looked into getting wood chips from a tree-trimming service to use as bedding?

This is what I did with my small coop, some parts of which would certainly scale up and other parts would need modification: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

 

[deidreg]

Also check with your town. I got free woodchips last year. They happily give it away from the trees they cut down and chip each year.

I do deep litter and with an occasional refresh, they lasted a year. In order to compost, they need contact with the bare ground.

 

[Humble Shack Farm]

Also check with your town. I got free woodchips last year. They happily give it away from the trees they cut down and chip each year.

I do deep litter and with an occasional refresh, they lasted a year. In order to compost, they need contact with the bare ground.

Hmm. My coop has a wood floor covered in old feed bags to protect it from moisture, so no contact with the ground for composting. Does this mean composting won't work in my coop?

 

[3KillerBs]

Hmm. My coop has a wood floor covered in old feed bags to protect it from moisture, so no contact with the ground for composting. Does this mean composting won't work in my coop?

That's the difference between Deep Bedding and Deep Litter.

Deep Bedding is a dry, non-composting system and Deep Litter is a moist, composting system.

It's hard to do a composting system inside the coop because you have to have some degree of moisture to get the composting going -- while still keeping your chickens dry. But Deep Bedding is odor-free and can last a long time between changes.

 

[MrsYardbird]

Deep Bedding is what I need I think. Is there more information you could help me with? I have 21 birds in 8x10 space. Roosting bars on one wall 4x8 area. I have 15” deep litter started under roosts but with all the birds I can’t control the ammonia.
the coop is a converted shed with 4 windows for ventilation but I suspect there may not be enough air or the litter area which is boxed in is too deep. I’m about ready to go back to a drop board and just deal with scraping all the time. Igh

 

[rosemarythyme]

the coop is a converted shed with 4 windows for ventilation but I suspect there may not be enough air

How big are the windows? Are those the only open vents?

If they're more typical windows you're probably short on ventilation, and/or need more vents up high to more effectively let ammonia out.

 

[3KillerBs]

Deep Bedding is what I need I think. Is there more information you could help me with? I have 21 birds in 8x10 space. Roosting bars on one wall 4x8 area. I have 15” deep litter started under roosts but with all the birds I can’t control the ammonia.
the coop is a converted shed with 4 windows for ventilation but I suspect there may not be enough air or the litter area which is boxed in is too deep. I’m about ready to go back to a drop board and just deal with scraping all the time. Igh

Here is the article I wrote on Deep Bedding:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

21 birds in 80 square feet is about right, being just barely shy of 4 square feet per bird, but 21 birds need 21 square feet of 24/7/365 ventilation, which I doubt that 4 windows deliver.

Even more importantly, normal shed windows almost never provide the top-level ventilation that's necessary to remove ventilation -- because heat (carrying moisture), and ammonia both rise to the roof.

This diagram is from an article on cow barns, but the principle is the same:

Can you show us more photos of the interior and exterior of your coop and all the ventilation so that we can make recommendations?

Another reason for problems with Deep Bedding is the inability to keep it dry. Inadequate upper-level ventilation can contribute to this because the moisture rises with the warm air, condensates on the underside of the roof when it can't escape, and drips back into the bedding.

What flooring is under the bedding?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

^^^^ ditto. 3KillerBees is the expert.

You can't have deep litter too deep. You *CAN* deep litter on boards/wo ground contact, but it takes a lot longer to get started - just as you can put a mulch pile on top of a tarp and, eventually, it will start decomposing as it should. Ground contact is absolutely best, but as my recent cleanout demonstrates, you can get composting started even on a "floor" of concrete board suspended 3' in the air.

Your dimensions are boardline, based on the thumb rules, for your quantity of birds - and the fact that you can smell ammonia confirms that some part of your system (because a hen house is a system that needs to work together) isn't working as it should. Either the litter, or the ventilation, most likely. With 15" of litter, and only four widows, I strongly suspect the ventilation is the issue - not uncommon with converted sheds.

Pictures would help.

As to what to fill it with, particularly in a large coop??? I use straw in my nesting boxes. Moderately cheap, dry, free of sticks, good padding. WAY too expensive for large areas, can mat down, and trap moisture. My coops, underneath them, and even in the run, I pile leaf litter from the woods surrounding my property (no Chip drop here). The birdsa aren't nesting in it, so the sticks don't matter, and the irregular size and shape keeps any straw from the nesting boxes from matting together.

Free, except for my labor. Seems like I dump 7 gorilla cart loads+ (about 2 cu yd) into each of my hen houses quarterly, and scrape out the raised hen house twice a year, to join the deep bedding on the ground level (where my ducks nest). They don't mind the sticks and twigs, and their shells are SO SO much harder than a chicken's, there is no risk of breakage.