Deep Litter

[eculver]

Ok new to raising chickens and so glad I found BYC lots of ideas and have really helped....but started following the thread of deep litter and not sure I follow so you DON"T clean the coop weekly? I clean it several times a week because I thought I read you should keep the nesting area clean....Here is a picture of our coop and I keep shavings in the nesting and day area. We are getting new water and food containers because the ones we have the water gets all over the place and makes a huge mess even though I try to keep the shavings out of that area....there is a little lip between the day area and where I keep the water/food dishes. OMG am I even making sense here ha ha ha. I am learning new stuff daily and really appreciate everyones comments and ideas. Sorry don't mean to be so naive.

 

[joan1708]

This does not look like a good set up for deep litter to me. All your litter would fall out and your coop/run is too small IMO. Sorry

 

[eculver]

No thank you for your honest opinion I wondered if it was too small....since we are just starting out we didn't want a coop to big but told the hubby last night this summer he needs to add on and make it a condo

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Ok..how many chickens? Large fowl? Bantams? That looks like a great pen for a small bird...like a parakeet perhaps. Chickens usually need more space, grass and dirt to scratch in, access to bugs, frogs, etc..... What are the limits and restrictions of your town or area?

 

[yyz0yyz0]

I have a 4x8 coop that houses 7 birds. I put the young birds in it this June and a bale of pine shavings, the way it's looking I'm not expecting to clean out the shavings till next spring. I do have poop boards under the roosts so most of the poop gets scooped out every couple days. The small amount that does get deposited in the litter just gets turned under as the girls scratch around in it. I'm really amazed at how clean and odor free the coop is staying. The poop boards make all the difference.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

I have done deep litter now for a whole year in their new coop. It is an 8x10 section with a concrete floor. I use straw only....and no other additives. They poop in the straw, I add more straw as needed. It usually just dries out...and they dig it around when they are looking for tidbits in the straw. I cleaned it out one time ...it went from October to April. I just scooped it all out and put it in the compost pile. I then added fresh straw. When we got the 6 weeks of rain this past summer, I had to completely remove all of the straw because when it got wet, it started to make the ammonia build up. So, I opened up the coop as much as I could, scraped it all off of the concrete floor, hosed the remaining poo and ammonia off of it. I let it dry for 2 days, no fresh bedding added till the floor and coop were dry. Now we are back to just adding straw as needed as the dropping pile up. Hopefully, I won't remove the DL till springtime of next year. It worked great last time!