Help with bedding

[Juleen Greeff]

Hello,

When you talk about putting in bedding, is it only for the coop part itself, or do you need to put stuff down in the run area? How is the best way to clean?

Thank you, Juleen

 

[TooCheep]

Depends on your setup, but a common setup is to have bedding in the coop area and just grass/dirt in the run area.

Chickens put out 1/3-1/2 of their poop at night and you want something to help with absorbing the moisture and make it easy to clean out regularly.

 

[3KillerBs]

Bedding serves the same purpose in both coop and run -- absorbing liquid to keep odor down and chickens dry and comfortable.

Out in the run, once the chickens have destroyed the grass, adding bedding keeps it from turning into a mudhole at every rain. Opinions vary as to the best bedding for either coop or run and there are many threads you can look up.

I like deep bedding of shavings in the coop and deep litter of mixed materials in the run. Aged wood chips make a good foundation with shavings, straw, pine straw, dry leaves, etc. mixed in -- it absorbs moisture, stops odor, and composts down into wonderful garden enrichment material.

 

[Juleen Greeff]

Depends on your setup, but a common setup is to have bedding in the coop area and just grass/dirt in the run area.

Chickens put out 1/3-1/2 of their poop at night and you want something to help with absorbing the moisture and make it easy to clean out regularly.

Thank you!

 

[Juleen Greeff]

Bedding serves the same purpose in both coop and run -- absorbing liquid to keep odor down and chickens dry and comfortable.

Out in the run, once the chickens have destroyed the grass, adding bedding keeps it from turning into a mudhole at every rain. Opinions vary as to the best bedding for either coop or run and there are many threads you can look up.

I like deep bedding of shavings in the coop and deep litter of mixed materials in the run. Aged wood chips make a good foundation with shavings, straw, pine straw, dry leaves, etc. mixed in -- it absorbs moisture, stops odor, and composts down into wonderful garden enrichment material.

Thank you!

 

[aart]

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.
-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 5 years.

 

[Flockincrazy]

Hello,

When you talk about putting in bedding, is it only for the coop part itself, or do you need to put stuff down in the run area? How is the best way to clean?

Thank you, Juleen

Depending on your set-up most just have bedding in coop and grass/dirt ,sand or mulch in run i use straw in my coop and have sand and uncolored mulch in my run and I only clean clean my coop 2x a yr once in spring when everything thaws and once in the fall before everything freezes