Flooring with woodchips?

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Thank you so much everyone! And thanks for the pics! We will probably try to get it done before we leave for late summer vacation. As far as maintenance goes, do you rake some of the poop out, or is it fine on its own? We'll have 6-8 chickens in our run which is around 9x12.
We are adding poop boards to our coop soon. We have sand, but we'll probably mix in some PDZ. We use pine shavings in the coop right now but it gets dirty very quickly and smells badly sometimes as it's pretty small - not ideal. I think the poop boards and woodchipping our run, which is right now bare dirt with a few logs and a little garden mulch, will improve both a lot. Thank you!
 
mountainchickens said:
We don't have a covered run, but that would be OK, right?
Click to expand...

I don't have a covered run, either. Seems to work just fine for me. If you find you have a muddy run after a rain, then maybe put up a tarp on part of your run to cover it and compare that to the uncovered part. Years ago I made a temporary roof out of cheap OSB board covered by a tarp. Lasted for 5 years and then I did not need it anymore. If I find my uncovered run gets too wet or muddy, I think I'll just put up another cheap OSB sheet and cover it with a tarp. That would at least keep one section dry.
 
mountainchickens said:
We are adding poop boards to our coop soon. We have sand, but we'll probably mix in some PDZ. We use pine shavings in the coop right now but it gets dirty very quickly and smells badly sometimes as it's pretty small - not ideal.
Click to expand...

The smaller the coop and the more birds you have mean more cleaning. I don't have poop boards, but I'm trying to use the deep litter system so, in theory, the poop should fall into the deep bedding and get mixed in there. I am trying hard to avoid any daily, weekly, or even monthly cleaning if possible. I'll just have to see how well the deep litter system works for me.

FYI, my coop is 6X12, I have 10 pullets, and the deep litter is about 4 inches deep right now but I designed the coop to hold as much as 12 inches of litter. From what others have told me, I should not have to clean out the coop but maybe once or twice a year. I guess the smell will tell.
 
mountainchickens said:
We are adding poop boards to our coop soon. We have sand, but we'll probably mix in some PDZ. We use pine shavings in the coop right now but it gets dirty very quickly and smells badly sometimes as it's pretty small - not ideal. I think the poop boards and woodchipping our run, which is right now bare dirt with a few logs and a little garden mulch, will improve both a lot.
Click to expand...
Yes, it will.
How big is your coop, in feet by feet?
Dimensions and pics are always helpful .

Doesn't matter if run is not covered, drainage should be good tho.
I use straight PDZ on my poop boards, thin layer - less than ~1/4", and sift it all every day.
 
aart said:
Yes, it will.
How big is your coop, in feet by feet?
Dimensions and pics are always helpful .

Doesn't matter if run is not covered, drainage should be good tho.
I use straight PDZ on my poop boards, thin layer - less than ~1/4", and sift it all every day.
Click to expand...
The coop is 4x4 and a few inches and it's 4 and a half feet tall; we have 2 roosts in there each spanning the length of the coop. Will post pics soon :) We also have 3 nesting boxes sticking out the side of the coop, so they're not included in the dimensions. Just found out run is 10x12.5 - so a little bigger than I thought! :D
 
mountainchickens said:
The coop is 4x4 and a few inches and it's 4 and a half feet tall; we have 2 roosts in there each spanning the length of the coop...
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good setup for 3 to 4 chickens if you follow the 4 square feet per bird minimum recommendation for the coop. If you have more chickens than that, you could expect to be cleaning the coop more frequently.
 
aart said:
So coop floor is the poop board?
How many birds?
Click to expand...
Yes, until we get the actual poop boards up. We have 4 birds right now and are looking into getting a few more come fall.
gtaus said:
Sounds like a good setup for 3 to 4 chickens if you follow the 4 square feet per bird minimum recommendation for the coop. If you have more chickens than that, you could expect to be cleaning the coop more frequently.
Click to expand...
Yes, we did need to clean a lot more frequently when we had 7 in there than when we had 4. It's not quite as big as I'd like, but they never have problems as far as roosting space in there. They are hardly in it except for nighttime because they have a nesting box outside, too, which they seem to prefer to the indoor boxes.
 

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