Inexpensive coop litter options

[LynnTXchickenmom]

Newbie here!
My son designed our coop with one wall that opens so we can sweep out the bedding easily into a wheelbarrow and cart to the compost heap. We were planning to put 3 in. of litter down in our 5 ft. x 8 ft. coop and sweep it out once a week. That could prove expensive though: It costs $12 for 10 cu. ft. bag of pine shavings at our local feed store, so that's $48/month in litter if we really need to discard it every week. (TSC is comparable, but I have to drive 30 min. to the nearest location. The local feed store does not sell chopped straw; I'd have to drive to TSC to buy that.) I looked up other options and read online about people using shredded paper, hardwood chips obtained from a tree service, or shredded leaves. (We have lots of leaves year-round from two huge live oaks in our front yard.) Thoughts on any of these? Sand won't work with the current design of the coop, though we could redo that some if sand is the best option. Or am I overestimating how often we will need to change the litter? $12 every 3-4 weeks is a lot better than every week!
--Deep litter method: I have read about it, but as is our coop is not designed for it. We could modify the coop so that 12 in. of bedding could be held in it. I'm worried it would be way too hot in N. TX where we live. Our temps can be over 90 three seasons of the year and up to 110 in the summer.
--Sand is cooler--Anyone use it on the wood floor of a coop raised off the ground?
Thanks, everyone.

 

[Percheron chick]

Stripping the coop every week will do nothing but make a compost pile of nothing more than solid shavings. It will take years to decompose fully. Most of us will clean under the roost only as that is where 99% of the poop accumulates. Most daytime poop is outside in the run. Personally, I strip my coop no more than twice a year. Once when I put the garden to bed in the fall and in the spring to jump start the compost piles.
Cheep and free bedding material is the only way to go. Leaves, dried lawn clippings, shredded paper, pine needles or wood chips. Sign up for chip drop if you are close to town and have tree services. Some counties and trash services who have Christmas tree and limb drop offs often give it away for free too.

 

[gtaus]

The deep litter method would work better if I had a bigger flock thanks!

Well, I don't think either deep bedding or the deep litter method really matters how many chickens you have. Both would work. But check out some YouTube videos for the knowledge, if nothing else. With only 5 chickens, maybe the pull-out poop tray would not be such a big issue.

I use the old bedding I have now to make compost just not in the coop.

I turned my entire chicken run into a chicken run composting system after my birds ate and pulled out all the grass down to the roots. Would have been a muddy mess if I did not do something with the bare dirt.

At first, I just put down wood chips in the run so the dirt would not turn to mud after a rain. That worked fine. But later I started adding grass clippings for the chickens. My riding mower has a 3 bagger collection system, so I just dumped all the clippings into the run on top of the wood chips. Our daily kitchen scraps chicken bucket would get tossed on top of the grass clippings, along with a daily portion of chicken scratch. Already, I could see how the chickens would scratch and peck through everything looking for good stuff to eat. Anyways, weeds from the garden got tossed into the chicken run, more good stuff to eat for the chickens. In the fall, I mowed up the leaves and tossed them into the chicken run. Everything gets mixed together by the chickens. With rain, things start to compost in place.

My old coop litter gets tossed out into the chicken run twice a year. I let it sit outside and compost in place for about 6 months before I harvest it for the gardens. I now have lots of black gold compost sitting in my chicken run ready to harvest anytime I want.

Another good thing about having all that organic material in the chicken run is that it is full of bugs and worms, which the chickens love to eat. They stay outside all day long scratching and pecking through the chicken run litter, looking for good things to eat, all the while turning and mixing the liter which makes everything compost even faster.

After I dumped my lawn leaves into the chicken run this fall, my run litter is about 18 inches deep. The winter snow and decomposition will bring it down to about 12 inches next spring. I typically harvest most of my compost in the spring right before I plant my gardens. Chicken run compost is great.

My chicken run compost is ready to use long before my pallet compost is half ready. That is because the chickens are constantly scratching and pecking at the run litter, whereas I never turn my pallet compost bins. I like to tell people that I have composting chickens that give me eggs as a bonus. Chickens and gardens are a natural combination.

 

[raingarden]

You don't need shredded leaves, just whole leaves. Most oak have small leaves anyway. A couple of trash bags of loose leaves will be plenty.

If they are kept dry, leaves take a long time to break down or get matted. Just look at your yard, lol

Scooping poop is not very efficient with anything except sand. With leaves or another loose bedding the birds will likely bury it by scratching before you come around to pick it up.

How often you change the bedding may depend as much on your filth tolerance as what is acceptable for the chickens. I am good at just ignoring it as long as there are no bare spots, it doesn't stink, and the birds do not have stuff stuck on their feet.

 

[aart]

So, chances are, if there isn’t dark clumps on the bedding, it’s not soiled?

Do you have a wet bedding issue?

I have 1 hen who sleeps in the nesting box. She poops there, so I clean that often.

You can break them of that habit.
Make sure roosts are higher than nests and that there is 12" of roost length for each bird.
Cover the nests an hour before roost time, then uncover when you lock up after dark.
She'll get the idea after a few nights.

 

[gtaus]

We were planning to put 3 in. of litter down in our 5 ft. x 8 ft. coop and sweep it out once a week.

OK, that's a great starting point for knowing how much depth you can have of litter in your coop. In the summertime, I use about 3 inches of wood chips or paper shreds in my coop and that will only be changed out twice a year.

I looked up other options and read online about people using shredded paper, hardwood chips obtained from a tree service, or shredded leaves. (We have lots of leaves year-round from two huge live oaks in our front yard.) Thoughts on any of these? Sand won't work with the current design of the coop, though we could redo that some if sand is the best option. Or am I overestimating how often we will need to change the litter? $12 every 3-4 weeks is a lot better than every week!

Unless you have a large number of chickens in that 5X8 coop, you should not have to change out your litter but maybe a couple times a year.

I advocate using whatever free litter you have available. I have used free wood chips from our local county landfill, dried leaves from our yard cleanup, and most recently have been using paper shreds which I make from our junk mail, light cardboard food boxes, newspapers, office paper, etc... Free is the best, IMHO.

I never had luck with using sand. It needs constant cleaning, and it always smells, or, at least it did in my setup.

I used straw for a few years, but like sand, I found it needed constant replacing or the straw would get wet, moldy, and smelly in little time.

Wood chips work great and I great success using free chips from our landfill. If you chip wood at home with a chipper, let the wood chips dry out before you put them in your coop. I put fresh green wood chips in my coop and I noticed mold grew in some spots.

Dry leaves work great and I have a big yard with lots of trees. The only thing I did not like about dry leaves is that they break down over time and become very dusty. If I used dry leaves again, I think I might clean out the coup maybe every 3 months instead of every 6 months like now.

I now prefer to use paper shreds. They are dry, have no smell, are not dusty, and are considerably lighter to shovel or broom out when I do clean out the coop. Also, paper shreds will compost much faster in your compost bin than wood chips, shavings, or even dry leaves. In my case, I dump all my old coop litter into my chicken run and let everything compost in place. Works better for me that using my pallet compost bins. Also, I don't like to turn my compost bins, so it just works better for me to let the chickens constantly turn the litter in the chicken run.

Of course, you can always mix and combine whatever free litter you have available. The chickens don't care. I used wood chips, added dry leaves, and tossed in paper shreds during one period of time and you know what? - everything worked just fine. It all ends up getting composted and mixed into my garden maybe next year. Don't limit yourself to thinking you can only use one type of litter. I suggest mixing and combining any free resources you have available and don't worry about it.

--Deep litter method: I have read about it, but as is our coop is not designed for it. We could modify the coop so that 12 in. of bedding could be held in it. I'm worried it would be way too hot in N. TX where we live.

Deep litter uses moisture to create a hot composting environment. Most people on this forum use Deep Bedding, which is dry litter, and does not heat up. Nor does it compost in the coop. I use paper shreds deep bedding and clean out the coop twice a year. In the summertime, I only have maybe 3 inches of paper shreds in the coop. Most of the chicken poo from my 10 chickens gets automagically turned under into the paper shreds, dries out, and disappears.

They spend most of their days outside, so it's really only under the roosting bar that any poo accumulates overnights. I don't use a poop board that needs daily cleaning. I just let the poo fall to the floor on the paper shreds litter, and it just seems to dry out and disappear on it's own.

If I see an area that needs more attention, I'll just throw some chicken scratch on the top of that area and the chickens will peck and scratch for the treats, turning over the poo into the litter, refreshing the litter for a while longer.

-Sand is cooler--Anyone use it on the wood floor of a coop raised off the ground?

I live on a lake, but I never had very good luck using sand. It's heavy, needs constantly cleaning, and smelled bad all the time. At least it did for me. I don't recommend sand if you have other free alternatives.

I have also used junk mail shredded in a cross cut shredder which was fluffy and free. But it gets into the nest box and cemented to the eggs.

I had great success with free wood chips as litter my first 2 years with laying hens. Last winter I switched over to using free paper shreds that I make at home. I prefer the paper shreds to all my other types of litter. However, I use pine shavings in the nest boxes because I too found that the paper shreds would get cemented to the eggs and took me more time to clean the eggs.

As long as your chickens only use the nest boxes for laying eggs, you do not use very much pine shavings. I bought one bale of pine shavings about 10 years ago and still have half the bale. It does not take much pine shavings to line a nest box.

 

[gtaus]

My next coop will will have 1" hardware cloth on the floor so poop falls thru the mesh .

Is a wire floor bad for a chicken's feet? I had rabbit cages with wire bottoms, but the wire was 1/2 by 1 inch, and a rabbit's foot is much bigger/wider than a chicken's foot.

I can imagine the benefits of a wire bottom in a coop for some locations, but where I live, I really need a thick layer of litter to keep the floor insulated from our cold winter temps. It's not uncommon for use to get -35F to -40F for a week or so in the dead of winter. I don't think an open bottom wire floor would work where I live.

 

[saysfaa]

My next coop will will have 1" hardware cloth on the floor so poop falls thru the mesh .

You might mock up a section to see if the poop will go through that consistently. I've seen posts here from people who tried it and said enough lands on the wires or where they cross that it builds up.

 

[Hanathehappyhen]

You don’t need to swap out the bedding every week. If you clean up the poop daily (ish) the bedding should last you around a month, maybe longer, depending on the size of your flock.
I like straw. (Not chopped, regular bales spread around the coop floor) I know a lot of people prefer other substrates, but I’ve never had any problems with mites, mold, or respiratory problems. I would experiment with different beddings and see what works for you!

 

[rosemarythyme]

For the coop, I primarily use wood chips, which is free. I do pay for is hemp under the roosts, for easier sifting/clean up. I'd try any free options first, and see how they do in your set up.

A 5x8 coop shouldn't need full weekly cleanouts unless you have a lot of birds in there. I spot clean under the roosts to extend bedding life, and find that 1-2x a year cleanout is sufficient for me (6x10 coop, 10 birds).