If you are in Texas ?

[Ilovemy3babies]

Please tell me your coop management/cleaning routines, specifically what you have in your coo/run too. I'm debating between sand and pine shaving.

We are just getting started with this whole journey of raising chickens. I'm in Magnolia TX, in a Deeded subdivision that allows us to keep one horse per acre but no chicken

. We have neighbors directly behind us, they pretty much keep to themselves, so we are hoping it wont be a problem with us,the coop is closest to them. I want to keep my coop as clean as possible, to lower the odor, the neighbors on our left gave us their blessing as long as we share with them (lol). and the ones on the right, well she's the neighborhoods newspaper, but she cannot see into our yard and the coop is far enough away, so not too worried about them as long as they don't know.

So I'm trying to see what works best for people here in our state, and please also share the breeds that seems to be the quietest/non agressive if you have any.

Thank you!

 

[slick4591]

We use pine shavings and as long as we're vigilant changing it out we don't have any odor problems. Haven't used sand so I can't compare.

 

[Darlagips]

I'm in Splendora, TX - just east of Conroe. I used pine shavings for the chicks when they were small, but when they went outside, I brought in a load of sand. Have not had any problems with odor - except if it rains, the feed gets on the ground and turns rancid. Raking the pen takes care of this. I also have a small chicken house/coop where I am raising some Amerucaunas. Half of the floor, I have covered in white sand (very dry) and the other half, with pine shavings. No odor in the house at all. I do have a fan blowing to circulate the air in the house though because it has gotten so hot already. The girls enjoy bedding down in the sand the best. But at night, they jump into the nesting boxes where there are pine shavings. Best regards.

 

[Jeanette56]

We recently moved from a community with a HOA - I feel your pain!
We could have chickens when we lived there but only six. However we Always had more than that and didn't have any problems. Like you we just tried to keep things clean & relatively quiet so we could stay under the radar. I have not used any particular bedding that I could recommend but I have heard very good things about sand and also using a deep litter system. Here is nice site link about it - http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html
As far as the noise issue if you are not going to keep a rooster that solves most of that problem. I would go with the heavier egg laying breeds to keep the noise down. In my experience Cochins are probably some of the quietest birds I've had. They are not Great layers but they are good and the eggs are usually good sized. Buff Orpingtons are another breed I could recommend.
I hope this works out for you! Chickens are so much fun to have. You might also look into the 4-H angle. In some areas you can get away with keeping chickens if it falls under the auspices of a 4-H project.

Jeanette
Montell, TX