Deep Litter or Sand

[13hens]

Hi All!
I have my first girls since I was a kid. My girls are 7 weeks old and will (hopefully) be heading outside next week. I haven't decided if I want to do sand or pine shavings. Should I do deep litter until spring then clean it out and do sand? Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[rosemarythyme]

There's no one solution that fits all needs. What is your climate like? What is your soil like? Is the run covered or uncovered?

If you're doing deep litter, no reason to do it part of the year and then sand the rest of the year - an unnecessary amount of extra work, and it never allows the litter to reach full potential by building up beneficial bacteria.

You also mentioned pine shavings. Pine shavings only? That's deep bedding and not deep litter, which really is a mix of organic matter and not just one material.

 

[eikome]

I started with wood mulch in the run, and pine shavings in the coop. The mulch didn't work out for my set up (stayed too damp for my liking), so now I have deep sand in the run and still the pine shavings in the coop. It's working pretty well so far.

I say try your least expensive/easiest options first, and change it up until you find what you like best for your style of chicken keeping.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
Sand seems to work best in dry warmer climates, covered runs, and with few birds and daily poop scooping. It will still get stinky over time, because it's not possible to get all the poo out of it.
Bagged shavings, mulch, and dried leaves, with some hay or straw, depending on what's available, works great here, and for many of us, with up to two or three clean outs each year, or sometimes very few clean outs. With humid or freezing conditions and more than maybe four birds, it's much better for most people.
Having good coop ventilation, plenty of space, and deep shavings, makes life easier for the chicken keeper, and more comfortable for the birds.
Mary

 

[aart]

What kind of bedding you use may depend on how you manage the manure.
This is about cleaning, but covers my big picture

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.
-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.
- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.
-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).
There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.
That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 5 years.


Oh, and....Welcome to BYC! @13hens
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[paintedChix]

Welcome to BYC!

There are many threads on DLM and sand in the run...

I myself have large acreage that is already already sand and I HATE IT in the coops/runs. So we purposely are working on changing it into workable soils. We use DLM. We aren't perfect. At times our DLM gets a bit thin, then doesn't "get layered right", etc. But over time it all works and comes together...

My responses -

Anyone use SAND in their ...
Muddy Smelly run (sorry) # 14
Composting Chicken Run # 109 and several others - #95, 97, 98, 100...
Help what to put in run #25
Terrible Coop Situation! #4

AND I see AART already provided her instruction on posting where in this great, green world you are...

 

[chickens really]

I use pine shavings in my Coops and sand in my Runs. I have a hand tiller tool that I use once a week to turn the sand and mix in the poop.
My Runs are covered Also so the sand stays dry.
Winter I just rake because the ground is frozen.

 

[13hens]

What kind of bedding you use may depend on how you manage the manure.
This is about cleaning, but covers my big picture

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.
-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.
- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.
-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).
There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.
That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 5 years.


Oh, and....Welcome to BYC! @13hens
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!
View attachment 2016749

Thanks! I'm in Western NC we are in the mid 40-50s on average right now.

 

[13hens]

Thanks everyone! Hearing all this makes me realize what we did growing up was totally NOT deep litter!

 

[Rshumpal]

So I'm debating this right now as well. It has been pretty much raining here for the last 8 weeks. My yard going to the group is pretty much flooded non-stop. I think we've had 10 days since the first part of January that my poor babies could be outside (they don't get any unsupervised out of run/coop time after Dec 14th).

It so wet here that I added pine nuggets to the run on top of the sand/peat moss/shredded pine combo so it would at least not be puddles. The coop is just moist because the humidity is literally constantly dripping out of the sky.

My bedding in the coop is about 4" deep. Do I make it deeper for DLM, or should I just change over to sand? I have my converted shed 6 in a 6 wide x 8 long coop all open with nest boxes off the ground on one end and one roost going across the other.

Only my adopted girl is laying, but MPC sent me an email Tuesday that they are 25 weeks so be ready. Mostly they just throw out the bedding in the one nest box Serena won't use.