Deep litter wins!

[Wise Woman]

Were just building our coop and run and was going to use sand in both. Could I ask why you don't like the sand? So many people speak so highly of it. Would like your take on it. Thank

For years we used a deep litter method in our coop. Never had a problem. There was no smell and the chickens thrived. Then I read all the glowing reports of how fabulous sand and poop boards were, so when we moved in 2012, I decided that we should switch over to both. Within a couple of months, I regretted it. In order for it to stay clean, I have to be out there every single day scooping poop. At the time I had 19 chickens. My coop is a 10' by 6' walk in coop and so this is not a 5 minute a day job. The chickens throw pine shavings from the nest boxes out into the sand, they throw their sunflower seeds, oyster shell, scratch, treats and feed into the sand and poop all over it as well. Apparently, mine did not get the memo to only poop when on the roosts so it falls into the poop board. They don't scratch around in the sand like they used to do in the shavings, so It is always a mess, unless you clean it every single day.

I have a chronic Lyme disease co-infection and so going out and scooping poop every single day is not a fun nor easy thing for me to do. So then it piles up and those poop boards are just so gross. Yes you can get a good look at their poo, but frankly, it grosses me out so much I can barely stand to clean it off. It was so much easier with the pine shavings/deep litter method. The chickens did most of the work turning the shavings and so forth and when it was time to clean the coop, I just raked it all up and it went out into the run where the chickens continued to turn it and it soon disappeared. It wasn't gross and I never saw piles of poop anywhere. I cleaned my coop out 2 to 4 times a year depending on how many chickens we had and I could have the whole coop cleaned out in less than half the time I now have to spend every single week cleaning out my coop. Even if I wasn't ill, why in the world would I want to scoop chicken poop every day of my life? What was I thinking?

And then there is the dust. We have never had so much dust before, even with twice as many chickens. When I come out from cleaning the coop, I am covered in it. I never experienced that with the shavings, even though I only cleaned the coop out every few months. Also, the sand is very cold in the winter and if it gets wet, it doesn't dry out. We had a waterer get tipped over and a large portion of sand had to be removed because it didn't dry out. Had that been pine shavings, I could have had the wet stuff cleaned out in a matter of minutes. With the sand, it just seems to spread and there was wet sand under dry sand and it was difficult to get all the wet stuff out. In my other coops, the litter seemed to provide a layer of insulation. Combined with good ventilation around the top of the coop, they did very well. The sand does not provide that.

I don't know if this is a coincidence or what, but since moving to sand and the poop boards, I have lost more chickens at younger ages. Now, I do not know if one thing is related to the other, but in the 2 years since we put in the sand and the poop boards, I have lost 6 chickens. One was old, one was a rescue chicken and we didn't know her age and the others were all under 3. They were fine one day and then boom, we would find them dead for no apparent reason. Prior to this we had chickens living as long as 11 years with most of them reaching 8 or 9. We have also had our first cases of bumble foot since putting in sand and I don't know why that is either. Our current coop is well ventilated and nicer than any previous coop we have had, so I can only assume that the sand and poop boards have something to do with this. Maybe they built up better immunities with the deep litter.

Once our new coop is built, I will go back to deep litter and cleaning the coop out as needed and let the chickens do the work. I am sure there will be many that disagree with what I have written, but this is my experience. I have had chickens for almost 15 years now and have had 4 different coops so far, so I do have a little experience under my belt. There are many different ways to keep chickens and so we each have to do what we feel is best for our birds. Hope this helps you make your decision.

 

[jenshens412]

Thank you, I will plan on the linoleum and hope for the best!

 

[Wise Woman]

If your coop is raised and has a plywood floor, what goes down first? I was told to put down linoleum, but not sure that would work with the deep litter method.

Our current coop has a wooded floor and we painted it with something called Blackjack. It is some sort of roofing stuff. It seems to be holding up very well. We knew we would eventually be moving the chickens out of the current coop as it is a large shed and my husband wants it back for a workshop, hence the reason we are building a new coop. My new coop will be a raised coop with a covered run and we will again use Blackjack on the coop floor and then we are going to put down stall mats from our goat house and put the pine shavings on top of that. The only reason I am using the stall mats is so I can hose the coop out a couple times a year. My run will be dirt and I will put all the litter from the coop into the run as I have done in the past. Easy peasy for me.

 

[JackE]

Our current coop has a wooded floor and we painted it with something called Blackjack. It is some sort of roofing stuff. It seems to be holding up very well. We knew we would eventually be moving the chickens out of the current coop as it is a large shed and my husband wants it back for a workshop, hence the reason we are building a new coop. My new coop will be a raised coop with a covered run and we will again use Blackjack on the coop floor and then we are going to put down stall mats from our goat house and put the pine shavings on top of that. The only reason I am using the stall mats is so I can hose the coop out a couple times a year. My run will be dirt and I will put all the litter from the coop into the run as I have done in the past. Easy peasy for me.

If you are going to be using Blackjack in your new coop, and want to hose it out, think about putting a drain in the middle of your floor. You could go to Lowes and pickup a plastic drain, and some plastic pipe, and make a slick drain set up so you won't have to mop the water out of the coop after you hose it down. Of course you would have some kind of cover for the drain, in between cleanings, so you don't totally clog it up with bedding. I thought about doing this with my coop, but decided I was never going to hose it out. So the plan was scrapped.

 

[Wise Woman]

Excellent point JackE. Now that you mention it, I am not sure why I ever started hosing out my coops in the first place. I think it all started with the very first one because it was painted white on the inside and it looked messy with the poop splashed on the walls. However, in our current coop, due to all the sand in there, I have never once hosed it out and it is just fine. I learned my lesson and don't have any rafters up high that they can roost on, so they all stay on the roost and the poop doesn't seem to get on the walls hardly at all.

I do go in every month or so with the shop vac though as the dust in there is just incredible. That can't be good for the chickens to breath in. Thanks again for the drain tip. I will have to re-think my hosing out of the coop plan as it may not be necessary. Come to think of it, I have never hosed off the goats stall mats either because the pine shavings I use in there seem to absorb everything and there really isn't anything to hose off. Why make more work for myself?

 

[Porch Chickens]

I"m getting a new coop built for my me soon and am trying to decide what method to use, sand or litter.
In our currant set-up, we have litter in the coop and I also throw litter on the dirt floor of the enclosed run when the weather is wet, so it doesn't get muddy (there's no roof over the enclosed run portion-- just chicken wire),
The new coop will be raised off the floor and have a roof over the entire coop and run to keep rain off. We were thinking of just using sand on the run floor and deep litter in the coop.
The main thing I'm wondering is how to keep the litter inside the coop, or the run. Most I've seen have chicken wire or hardware cloth right down to the ground on 2-3 sides, so doesn't it just come spilling out once it's deep? Same with the coop, but I supposed I can ask for an edge to keep it in when it's built.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

In the coop it's easy. Just install lips at the doors that are high enough to keep litter from coming out when you open the doors (this includes the chicken door). For the run, put boards around the perimeter of the run to hold the litter in.

 

[henless]

If your coop is raised and has a plywood floor, what goes down first? I was told to put down linoleum, but not sure that would work with the deep litter method.

Try Blackjack 57 like Wise Woman said. It's a black tar like sealant. You can get it at Lowes and should work better than the linoleum.

I"m getting a new coop built for my me soon and am trying to decide what method to use, sand or litter.
In our currant set-up, we have litter in the coop and I also throw litter on the dirt floor of the enclosed run when the weather is wet, so it doesn't get muddy (there's no roof over the enclosed run portion-- just chicken wire),
The new coop will be raised off the floor and have a roof over the entire coop and run to keep rain off. We were thinking of just using sand on the run floor and deep litter in the coop.
The main thing I'm wondering is how to keep the litter inside the coop, or the run. Most I've seen have chicken wire or hardware cloth right down to the ground on 2-3 sides, so doesn't it just come spilling out once it's deep? Same with the coop, but I supposed I can ask for an edge to keep it in when it's built.

I put boards across the door openings to keep it from falling out when I open the door. I don't worry around the sides. What sifts out, I'll just rake up and either put back in the coop/run or put it in my compost pile.

I love the DL. This is my 2nd year using it and it has worked our great! My first year, I did have a poop board under my roost. I used the top of my brooder as the poop board. I put linoleum on top and I had to clean it Every. Single. Day. Otherwise, it would start to smell. I would just rake it off into the deep litter, or when I got my compost bins built, I would put it in there. This got old fast!! I tore out the brooder and just built ladder roosts. Now they poop on the floor and I never see it. When I tore out the brooder/roost, that linoleum stunk to high heaven! Poop/dust got under the edges and it was nasty.