Deep litter question!

[gtaus]

Thank you for sharing that! I'll definitely look into paper bedding. I'm also definitely leaning more towards leaves and dried grass after reading some of these replies.

I live on a lake with 3 acres of wooded property. I can make more wood chips, cut more grass, and rake up more leaves than I could ever use with my chickens. But I know that some people may be on smaller plots of land, or in town, and free resources might be limited. That is one of the reasons I tried the paper shreds as coop bedding this past winter. I think most people can either make all the free paper shreds at home, or maybe work at an office and could take bags of shredded paper.

But, if you have lots of leaves and dried grass clippings, that makes excellent bedding as well and I have certainly used that in my coop successfully.

 

[One Lucky Momma]

Our 6x8 ft coop houses 10 birds. We use pine shavings - two compressed bales will fill the floor to a depth of about 6-8 inches when new and fresh. Ix6” boards at the people door and pop door keep the shavings contained. I don’t believe is adds to summer heat, and it does seem to contribute some coziness in the winter which here occasionally dips into single digits.

We don’t have poop boards, but each morning I stir the bedding to disperse the poop clumps. We’ve never had issues with moisture or odors. Over time the shavings and feces break down, so I add another bale of shavings about once every 6 months. I’ve felt compelled to completely clean out the accumulated mix only once and that was because I wanted mulch for the garden last fall.

I think this system works for us as well as it does for a number of reasons.
- the coop is very well ventilated (which is something you might want to evaluate as it sounds like you’re dealing with essentially a box inside of a box - potentially very secure but are there windows or vents?)
- the number of birds is appropriate for the space
- the birds are in the coop only at night and to get to nest boxes
- the waterer is covered and not inclined to leak or drip
- the bedding gets thoroughly stirred every morning

More birds in a smaller space with poor ventilation and a leaky waterer could give you a much different result, but under sensible conditions I think you could be very happy with this sort of setup for your girls. It’s really very little trouble.

It’s good of you to be thinking through this now. Good luck!

 

[cp2894_]

Our 6x8 ft coop houses 10 birds. We use pine shavings - two compressed bales will fill the floor to a depth of about 6-8 inches when new and fresh. Ix6” boards at the people door and pop door keep the shavings contained. I don’t believe is adds to summer heat, and it does seem to contribute some coziness in the winter which here occasionally dips into single digits.

We don’t have poop boards, but each morning I stir the bedding to disperse the poop clumps. We’ve never had issues with moisture or odors. Over time the shavings and feces break down, so I add another bale of shavings about once every 6 months. I’ve felt compelled to completely clean out the accumulated mix only once and that was because I wanted mulch for the garden last fall.

I think this system works for us as well as it does for a number of reasons.
- the coop is very well ventilated (which is something you might want to evaluate as it sounds like you’re dealing with essentially a box inside of a box - potentially very secure but are there windows or vents?)
- the number of birds is appropriate for the space
- the birds are in the coop only at night and to get to nest boxes
- the waterer is covered and not inclined to leak or drip
- the bedding gets thoroughly stirred every morning

More birds in a smaller space with poor ventilation and a leaky waterer could give you a much different result, but under sensible conditions I think you could be very happy with this sort of setup for your girls. It’s really very little trouble.

It’s good of you to be thinking through this now. Good luck!

Thank you so much! That's very helpful. Right now there's not much ventilation and I need to measure the exact square footage of the coop but we plan to cut two long windows covered by hardware cloth to add ventilation. Hopefully that will be enough. The coop also seems to be bigger than store bought coops I've seen for 5 chickens which is good. They'll also only be in there at night or to use the nest boxes so that should help. I'm trying to work through every potential issue we may have to ensure our girls are happy and very healthy

 

[gtaus]

One more question, how often do you turn the bedding? I've read something that said everyday but then read something that said every week/couple weeks.

I use dry deep bedding in my coop. I don't have to turn it. Most of the time, the chickens will turn it over themselves, which makes the dried poo work its way to the bottom while the fresher litter works it way to the top. If I think any area needs more attention, I'll throw a handful of chicken scratch in that area and the chickens will be sure to scratch and peck that area until everything is turned.

The only area of my coop that gets any poo build up, is directly under the roosting bar. In the summertime, I'll just throw some chicken scratch over there and problem solved. In my northern Minnesota winter, when the poo freezes hard as concrete, I have to throw some fresh litter under the roosting bar maybe twice a month. Just enough to cover it. I clean out my coop bedding in the springtime, after the snow melts, and everything gets tossed into the chicken run.

Other than cleaning out my coop maybe twice a year (spring and late fall), I don't ever have to turn my coop deep bedding. Keep reading up material on deep bedding topics. I think you will find many of us on the BYC community have discovered that the chickens will turn over the litter themselves. Well, that is what I have found in my setup.

 

[cp2894_]

I use dry deep bedding in my coop. I don't have to turn it. Most of the time, the chickens will turn it over themselves, which makes the dried poo work its way to the bottom while the fresher litter works it way to the top. If I think any area needs more attention, I'll throw a handful of chicken scratch in that area and the chickens will be sure to scratch and peck that area until everything is turned.

The only area of my coop that gets any poo build up, is directly under the roosting bar. In the summertime, I'll just throw some chicken scratch over there and problem solved. In my northern Minnesota winter, when the poo freezes hard as concrete, I have to throw some fresh litter under the roosting bar maybe twice a month. Just enough to cover it. I clean out my coop bedding in the springtime, after the snow melts, and everything gets tossed into the chicken run.

Other than cleaning out my coop maybe twice a year (spring and late fall), I don't ever have to turn my coop deep bedding. Keep reading up material on deep bedding topics. I think you will find many of us on the BYC community have discovered that the chickens will turn over the litter themselves. Well, that is what I have found in my setup.

That's good to know. I'll keep reading about deep bedding. Do you use something different for your run? I was thinking of using sand.

 

[gtaus]

That's good to know. I'll keep reading about deep bedding. Do you use something different for your run? I was thinking of using sand.

I live on a lake, but I would not use sand in my run. From my experience, sand gets soaked with urine and poo and smells bad. When I used sand, I was constantly shoveling out stinky sand and shoveling in new fresh sand. That was a lot of work.

With my current chicken run, once the chickens ripped up all the grass down to the bare dirt, I put in about a 2 inch layer of free wood chips to prevent everything from getting muddy. That worked fine. However, a little while later, I decided to turn my chicken run into a composting system. So I started dumping in grass clippings, leaves, weeds from the garden, and just about anything else organic. In the fall, I can easily have 18 inches of organic litter in my run (lots of leaves that time of year). Currently, after our winter, my chicken run litter is down to about 12 inches. The chickens naturally scratch and peck the chicken run litter, mixing everything together, breaking everything down so it composts even faster. I have more compost ready to harvest for my gardens than I can use myself. It's a great system for me.

Here is a picture of my composting chickens hard at work, scratching and pecking for bugs and worms in the chicken run compost system. Provides them with hours of entertainment, and food, all day long. Provides me with better compost than I can buy at the big box stores.

My chicken run compost system never smells bad. After a heavy rain, it smells like a forest floor, very natural. I never have to do any maintenance in my chicken run other than harvesting compost when I need some. I just dump my grass clipping, leaves, etc... into the run and the chickens do the rest for me.

 

[NatJ]

One more question, how often do you turn the bedding? I've read something that said everyday but then read something that said every week/couple weeks.

As you've found, the answer is not the same for everyone.
My personal preference: if a specific spot is caked or matted or smelly, turn or mix that spot. Otherwise, just add bedding as needed and let the chickens deal with the turning.

The coop also seems to be bigger than store bought coops I've seen for 5 chickens which is good.

Store bought coops are typically too small for the number of chickens they claim to house.

I think the store bought coops are figuring the space wrong in one of three ways
1. They may be counting bantams, which need about half as much space as big chickens.
2. They may be figuring space for commercial chickens housed in large numbers, which causes problems when scaled down to small sizes for backyard use.
3. They may be counting the unsheltered run area as part of the space requirements, which works if you put the entire coop inside a big building, but not if you put it out in the weather in most parts of the world.

A general guideline that works for many backyard chicken keepers:
4 square feet per chicken in the coop (where they sleep, and spend their days in bad weather or if a new predator starts getting into the run)
10 square feet per chicken in the run (where they spend their days when they can)

Those numbers are for floor space, not space occupied by feeders, waterers, and nest boxes. If the nestboxes are mounted above the floor, and the feed/water in the run, they are not taking up floor space in the coop; but if they are on the floor inside, you should allow a bit of space for them too.

 

[aart]

I live in the midwest and the weather shouldn't get higher than 90 degrees at the most.

Where in the midwest? Do you get snow and cold?

Welcome to BYC! @cp2894_
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

I don't remember the exact dimensions and I can't check right now or take a pic because it's too dark outside but I can do that tomorrow.

That would help immensely, looking forward to seeing them.


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.
- Large flake 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 8 years.

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC.

This is my article on Deep Bedding: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

As others have noted, Deep Bedding is a dry system that does not actively compost.

I have Deep Litter in my open air coop but I do not manage it in such a way as to create a hot compost and it does not get warm at all.

Chickens are creatures of the forest floor and I believe that my cold composting Deep Litter system mimics their natural environment to the extent possible in the southeastern US instead of southeastern Asia.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I have 5 2-3 week old chicks and I'm planning everything for their coop and run. I've been leaning towards the deep litter method for bedding inside the coop using pine shavings and straw. However, I've read that it can get too hot during the summer. So, my question is, if I start the deep litter in June starting with 6 inches and building up to 12 inches, will it get too hot in their coop? I live in the midwest and the weather shouldn't get higher than 90 degrees at the most. If so, what do I do for bedding until it starts cooling off outside? When should I start the deep litter process if I wait?

I use deep litter method in SW Neb. Love it! My climate is :
in summer up to 100*
it's maybe 4-6 inches deep
in Winter down to -20's I go to 8-12 inches deep.
It won't be too hot. They will burrow in it sometimes, and no stink.
Remember chickens love to be outside in run. So coop will be only when sleeping on roosts, and locked up during storms.
I use only mini flake pine shavings then I scoop under roosts with metal cat litter scoop. You'll find when they're grown (on roosts) their poop will be in a line under the roosts .
I finally put in a poop tray type litter box to catch it now that they're hens but that's a way off.
Enjoy your little ones they grow FAST . I have 5 also, get them used to your touch and voice by giving them wetted feed out of your hand, while talking softly to them. Be patient, I do it once a day and that will help when you need to inspect them at adult age. Enjoy your little fluff butts your doing great learning lots now.