Does anyone not deep litter method???

[Frost Homestead]

I don't, but I'm in Central Texas and it rarely gets very cold here. my chickens free range too, so they're only in the coop to sleep and lay eggs

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I've never done the deep litter method. I started with shavings which I'd replace once a week. But switched after several months to sand and will never go back.

But then I also only have a few chickens and live in CA where it's pretty mild in the winter. I like being able to scoop, scoop, scoop each morning and know that they are in a clean house laying eggs during the day and not inhaling ammonia fumes from all their droppings.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

There are a lot of different ways to maintain a coop that work. I do want to mention that a deep litter coop should NOT smell like ammonia. If it does, you need to be doing something differently. Usually you only need to make simple changes, to fix it. I would encourage anyone that's having a problem managing their litter to post a separate message, to get help. I don't want to highjack this thread and turn it into a DLM thread.

 

[abundantwife]

I am not a fan of deep litter. I spread about 8 inches of pine shavings on the floor and I use a small stall fork to remove the clumps of manure (kind of like a modified kitty litter scooping). I have a droppings board under the roosts and I cover that with a thin layer of shavings and diatomaceous earth and scrape it off every morning with a wide scraper. My coop is 8X12 with 21 chickens and I only use a bag of shavings per month. This system only takes me 5 minutes each morning and my coop never smells

I clean my coop to the bare walls, vacuum all the dust and repaint the roosts about every six months.

 

[BirdMan32]

What is the deep litter method? We have had our chickens for around 7 months, so we are new to this.

I use pine shavings in a 8x4x4high coop. I have 11 chickens of which 1 is a rooster & change out the bedding around once ever 2 or 3 weeks. I then take the wood chips and compost them for my garden.

 

[silkielover5]

I knew someone who never cleaned her coop for 3 years. It was disgusting!

 

[Twiggers96]

You sand people - where do you get the sand from?
are we talking soft, beach sand or gritty sandblasting sand?

 

[citychickx6]

Cannot do it. I just cannot bring myself to let it go. I feel I must clean the whole coop anytime it has an odor. I am doing a full clean once a month right now and spot cleaning daily. That means I clean the droppings boards and any visible leavings.

I never liked seeing cattle standing in their own dung and do not want to do the same to my birds.

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[Rileysixchix]

I use hay inside the coop and clean it out every other weekend. I rake out all the dirty stuff into the wheel barrow, then sweep out anything else, and replace it with fresh hay

The floor of the run has sand/round stone and pavers with dirt underneath that the girls love to dig under too! Easy clean up outside with a quick hose down while the birds are running around in the bushes. I haven't hosed out the run because we put it away so it didn't freeze, now the girls just kinda circulate the rocks by scratching around for birdseed! Hope this helps!

 

[kateseidel]

North Carolina here - hot in the summer, cold in the winter - wet all the time!! My hens free range from 8:00 - 5:00, and are only in the coop overnight. Even so, I scoop the droppings boards every day (they are covered in stall dri to reduce smell). The floor is covered with a thin layer of pine shavings and I pick every other day or so. Every three months, everything comes out and is swept and replaced. The attached run is our natural ground - solid rock with about 3 inches of dirt top layer.