How often do I need to clean my coop?

[ChickForLife]

No, you will have to clean the coop more often than you would like to still, but not as often as if you used a shallow bedding

What if I cleaned to poops every day? Also, if I use the deep litter meathead, how often will I have to clean out the coop?

 

[rosemarythyme]

True deep litter? You'd clean it out when you want to harvest the compost.

Difficult in most coops to do deep litter as ideally you'd need moisture and direct contact with the ground in order for the composting to happen. More moisture means more ventilation is required to compensate.

Deep bedding (as the name implies, it's just a thick layer of bedding) is easier in most coop builds.

 

[iwltfum]

Here are some excerpts re: deep bedding from my poultry bible: Pastured Poultry Profits, Joel Salatin

"The deeper the bedding, the better. The composting action is warm, which reduces the need for heat. It's an even heat too and extremely comfortable for chicks... The deep bedding grows natural antibiotics through mold and fungi, grows a tremendous number of little bugs that offer protein for the birds, and gives off warm, moist heat very much like a mother hen's. The composting reduces the overall mass of the bedding, so that when cleanout is necessary the total material is a fraction of what was originally put in. Common shrinkage is 30-50%. To be sure everything is correct, scoop up a handful of the bedding from deep down and make sure it smells like sweet, fertile soil or moldy leaves. It should not smell like raw manure."(p38)

"...Again, the benefits of deep bedding come into play, except that with the layers, who scratch deeply and aggressively, the aeration can come directly from the animal without my having to do anything. Sprinkling some whole grain on the bedding will encourage deep scratching. As long as I keep enough carbon (hay leavings) going into the system, the birds will aerate the bedding and maintain the composting program for themselves. Of course other carbonaceous materials can be added like straw, leaves, wood shavings, and sawdust. Reasearch conducted in the 1940's indicated that if the bedding is at least 12 inches, it will supply enough bugs to give the birds all the animal protein they need...That is an idea we are attempting to verify now"(p.260)

"The death knell of the [laying hen] house is capped bedding. This occurs when the manure load exceeds the birds' capacity to scratch it into the bedding. Our experience indicates this occurs at the 3sqft per bird level. At 5sqft per bird, capping is not a problem at all. Offering that much floor space is expensive..."(p.330)

Now Salatin has a way of making everything sound way easier than it actually is, so take his casualness with a grain of salt, but these are the principles of deep bedding that I have learned and I follow this method in my laying coops.

 

[ChickForLife]

Now Salatin has a way of making everything sound way easier than it actually is, so take his casualness with a grain of salt, but these are the principles of deep bedding that I have learned and I follow this method in my laying coops.

What does this mean?

 

[iwltfum]

Now Salatin has a way of making everything sound way easier than it actually is, so take his casualness with a grain of salt, but these are the principles of deep bedding that I have learned and I follow this method in my laying coops.

What does this mean?

The author of the book I quoted from in my last post is a workaholic and makes everything he talks/writes about sound easy when it's actually a decent amount of work to manage deep bedding.

 

[ChickForLife]

The author of the book I quoted from in my last post is a workaholic and makes everything he talks/writes about sound easy when it's actually a decent amount of work to manage deep bedding.

That makes sense, but I still don't understand when/how often I should clean it? Thank you!

 

[iwltfum]

That makes sense, but I still don't understand when/how often I should clean it? Thank you!

There's really no black and white answer to that unfortunately. With deep bedding, you should clean your coop out if there is capped manure, an ammonia smell, if the bedding is soaking wet, if you are having a problem with chickens getting sick (if this is the case you should have cleaned it out before this starts happening), or if the bedding is too deep (ie spilling out over the sides) and you want to build your compost pile. I may have missed a few reasons to clean out, but generally it's common sense - If it's nasty, clean it out.

 

[3KillerBs]

There is a difference between deep bedding, which is useful in your nice, dry, off-the-ground coop that has a floor of some kind and doesn't get moist, and deep litter, which is out in the run in contact with the dirt and getting damp (though hopefully never soggy), from the rain.

With deep bedding you just keep adding more shavings/whatever on top of the messy places until you reach a point where you begin to notice an odor or the poop-to-shaving ratio seems too high on visual inspection. Then you clean it out and start over.

With deep litter you keep tossing more of the dry, brown stuff in on top of the mess, occasionally mixing it up a little (the chickens will do most of the work if you toss a handful of scratch into the litter to encourage digging), and harvest compost from the bottom layers when the pile gets inconveniently tall or you need compost.*

The only time you really need to clean out the deep litter in the run is if you are keeping too many chickens for your square footage or if exceedingly vile weather has gotten it so soggy that you've developed an odor problem that can't be remedied by putting another 4-6" of shavings, pine straw, wood chips, leaves, etc. on top.

I let my nose tell me when the in-town chickens needed to have their coop or run tended to.

*Some people pull back the top layers of the deep litter to harvest compost from the bottom and use it directly where compost is needed. I preferred to fork out the dirtiest-looking sections and let it sit in a pile to age a bit before putting it on the garden since I was worried about burning tender plants with the hot manure.

 

[NatJ]

I have 10 chickens in a 8x6 coop. I was wondering how often I need to clean it? I am using pine shavings if that matters. Also, how much pine shavings should I pile up, and what is the deep litter method? Thank you so much!!!

Clean it when it smells a little bit bad. If it stinks really bad, clean it sooner next time.

How much pine shavings? A few inches deep, more if you want. The deeper they are, the less often you have to clean it. (More shavings can deal with more poop without stinking.) You can add more at any time.

If the shavings fall out when you open the door, either put a board across the bottom of the doorway to keep them in, or use less shavings.

I don't think deep shavings ever cause a problem by being "too deep," unless you count things like bumping your head on the roof (from standing on such a tall pile.)

Deep litter method is a specific way of managing the litter. It's also what people say when they really mean, "I just keep adding more bedding every now and then."

 

[ChickForLife]

There is a difference between deep bedding, which is useful in your nice, dry, off-the-ground coop that has a floor of some kind and doesn't get moist, and deep litter, which is out in the run in contact with the dirt and getting damp (though hopefully never soggy), from the rain.

With deep bedding you just keep adding more shavings/whatever on top of the messy places until you reach a point where you begin to notice an odor or the poop-to-shaving ratio seems too high on visual inspection. Then you clean it out and start over.

With deep litter you keep tossing more of the dry, brown stuff in on top of the mess, occasionally mixing it up a little (the chickens will do most of the work if you toss a handful of scratch into the litter to encourage digging), and harvest compost from the bottom layers when the pile gets inconveniently tall or you need compost.*

The only time you really need to clean out the deep litter in the run is if you are keeping too many chickens for your square footage or if exceedingly vile weather has gotten it so soggy that you've developed an odor problem that can't be remedied by putting another 4-6" of shavings, pine straw, wood chips, leaves, etc. on top.

I let my nose tell me when the in-town chickens needed to have their coop or run tended to.

*Some people pull back the top layers of the deep litter to harvest compost from the bottom and use it directly where compost is needed. I preferred to fork out the dirtiest-looking sections and let it sit in a pile to age a bit before putting it on the garden since I was worried about burning tender plants with the hot manure.

Clean it when it smells a little bit bad. If it stinks really bad, clean it sooner next time.

How much pine shavings? A few inches deep, more if you want. The deeper they are, the less often you have to clean it. (More shavings can deal with more poop without stinking.) You can add more at any time.

If the shavings fall out when you open the door, either put a board across the bottom of the doorway to keep them in, or use less shavings.

I don't think deep shavings ever cause a problem by being "too deep," unless you count things like bumping your head on the roof (from standing on such a tall pile.)

Deep litter method is a specific way of managing the litter. It's also what people say when they really mean, "I just keep adding more bedding every now and then."

So from what I understand, I using deep bedding, and can just pile when I see a lot of poo or it get smelly, and clean it all if it gets really smelly?