How often tshould I change bedding?

[wilkinsfarm2020]

I use pine shaving from Walmart I get for just under 10$ for 4.0 cubic feet. 14l bag... We have roughly a 6x6 coop for 12 chickens with a cement floor underneath. We will soon have nearly 40 in our flock. We will extend the coop once the new ones become of age to combine them with our adult birds.

My question is, is how can prolong/cut costs/ and keep upkeep costs at a minimum so raising these free range birds becomes less expense and more profit? I'm worried I'm spending to much in upkeep already to raise them compared to biteing the bullet and getting commercial on raised birds and eggs. 17-20 on a 50$ bag of all flock nutrena feed. As well. It doesn't last very long even though using preventative measures to prevent waste. I hear some people change bedding every week as well on a previous thread... I definitely would be cutting it close even when all my birds are laying and processing them for meat with upkeep I think

 

[paintedChix]

Cement flooring here in NC "sweats", so bedding has to be changed often! We tried not to keep birds in the area that had a cement floor (some of the free rangers would roost on the chain link kennels), but did keep dogs and ponies (they were chain link dog kennels set up in our carport - right off the kitchen door - great for foal watch!!).

As to reducing cost - use other types of bedding that is lower cost and/or free. Leaves, yard clippings after mowing (no herbicides or pesticides), pine straw, shredded paper/cardboard/junk mail (remove the plastic windows first). Wood chips/mulch from a tree company or chipdrop.com.

DLM

Check out this way of feeding birds - 25 chickens - 25 cents & they make a ton of compost

 

[rosemarythyme]

Amount of cleaning depends on a variety of factors. Do you know the size and layout for your new coop build yet? Actually I'd get to work on it ASAP, "doing it later" always turns into a race against deadlines!

With a bigger coop you tend to need less clean outs, if you have a poop management plan. Poop boards would be advisable in your new build with that amount of birds to manage.

I have 7 birds currently in 6x10. I clean out twice a year. My bedding in coop and run is entirely free: wood chips in the coop, more chips, dried leaves, grass clippings and garden trimmings in the run, all sourced off my lot.

 

[Folly's place]

Also, bagged shavings at a feed store will be way less expensive! Shop around Well, right now call around) for quantities and best prices. Our local independent feed store has them for about $6 for big bags, better than the smaller bags at TSC.
Some places give a discount for as few as five or ten bags at a time too.
And then there's the free stuff, as already mentioned.
You have a very crowded coop! I like over 4 sq. ft. per bird, including bantams, and much larger is better!
Having a concrete floor is really nice, especially for preventing digging predators. Love it!
We shovel ours out two or three times a year, and it's fine.
Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think I see two different questions. The first is how do you save money on feed with free range birds?

That one is hard to answer, partly because I don't know what your forage looks like or what your experience or expectations are. Also I don't know where you are so I don't know weather or other considerations. But I can maybe talk around that.

For thousand of years people like small farmer kept free range flocks that fed themselves in good weather. For that to work they need a pretty good variety and quantity of forage. A manicured back yard does not cut it. They need a variety of grasses and weeds plus places they can scratch for and catch creepy crawlies. It helps to have big animals like sheep, horses, or cattle they can follow behind. They can get a surprising amount of nutrients scratching through poop. They supplement food during winter, typically with things they grow instead of buy.

These people were not raising chickens for show. They did not raise the decorative chickens. They did not worry that much about breed, typically they were barnyard mixes that probably had a lot of game in them. The chickens were not huge and did not lay double extra huge eggs. They were designed to forage for themselves. Predators were a huge issue. People will tell you that you can't do this. Most of us can't because we don't have the right conditions. But those of us that grew up on farms like this or are still living like this understand it is possible.

I don't know what conditions you have with your flock make-up or your forage conditions. Typically you reduce costs by giving them as much quality forage as you can, giving them kitchen and garden wastes, and growing what foods for them you can. The farm like this that I grew up on we grew corn for the milk cow, plow horses, and chickens.

Now the question on bedding. You don't have to buy bedding. People are using dried grass clippings, dried leaves, hay, straw, wood chips, basically what they have free or cheap. Dad used a dirt floor in his coop.

There are issues with the coop. A wet coop is a problem. If you can keep your coop dry life is good and easier. If it is wet you have to work hard. So keep it dry.

Another issue is poop build-up. Part of this is chicken density. How may chickens do you have pooping in how big an area? If you have weather or other conditions so your chickens can spend all day every day outside they are not pooping in the coop. Depending on your weather free range can really help with that. If they spend a lot of time in the coop poop can build up. Same thing can happen if you have a small run.

They are inside at night and they poop a lot at night. They are not moving around so the poop can really build up under the roosts. You probably need to manage that poop. As always there are different ways to go about that. Some people use a version of the Deep Litter Method and turn their coop (or run) into a compost pile. That poop gets mixed in with the bedding and composts. Some people clean out under the roosts when it gets bad. Many of us use some version of a droppings board, put something under the roosts to make it easy to get the poop out from under there.

Some people manage this by changing bedding on a regular basis, maybe weekly, especially people living in suburbia with a small number of birds in a small space. You do the best you can with what you have to work with. As you can see from the above responses some go a lot longer.

I use droppings boards to remove poop from under my roosts and put that on my compost pile. I keep my coop so dry it doesn't even compost. I use wood shavings, topping them off when the chickens have pretty much scratched them to powder. Mine are never in the coop except to lay eggs or sleep. About once every three or four years I empty my coop floor into the garden in the fall, by spring it has broken down enough to not be a problem at planting time. I'm at an extreme, I probably should do this every fall for the good of my garden but I can be kind of lazy sometimes.

The bottom line is how often you need to clean out your coop floor depends a lot on your management but also other considerations. If winter keeps your chickens in the coop a lot you probably have to work at it harder. We all have different conditions.

 

[wilkinsfarm2020]

We live in puryear tennessee. For reference and have 13 acres. They roam about 3 acres of it. Sometimes they venture into the beginning of the wood line. I'll show pics of outside. There are TONS of bugs, and foraging for them.

We do have 3 dogs one of them being a pyrenees so predators are typically not a problem.

We made our coop put of a side of our barn that we dont use for ourselves.

My husband says he thinks its 6x12. It's got shelving prebuilt into it we just need to extend the opening of the coop that we have it at now to come all the way to the front. Hes built in roosting bars but the shelving they've also used as roosting.

It has 2 nesting boxes currently and both pullets we have that are already laying both use the same one

 

[wilkinsfarm2020]

Here's the beginning of the coop standing from inside of it.
Part of our yard. You can see the wood line. Moat of our land is woods we plan on taking a bit out of it and getting goats eventually.

 

[wilkinsfarm2020]

Toward the wood line that's not flat. It's a small hill.

 

[wilkinsfarm2020]

Here's a bit more

 

[wilkinsfarm2020]

My chickens love the swing