Many questions about dirt floor coop and Deep litter/pests

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mgharris30

Songster
Apr 27, 2021
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East Texas
Hello again. I'm new to chickens and this site has been a Godsend for me!!
We want to convert an old shed into a coop. It has 55 square feet of floor space and is nearly 7 feet tall inside. It is a metal shed on dirt floor. I currently have 4 2-month old chicks and 7 chicks in a brooder (because chicken math). I plan to deep litter in the coop, but I think also doing deep litter in the run might be a bit much for me (and my back during cleaning).

Is it possible to do deep litter in coop and not run? What do I put in the run when the grass is gone?

I know that I need to put hardware cloth around my coop and run. I do NOT want to put it on the floor of my coop. I'm not sure if a "skirt" of hardware cloth means to bury some or leave a few inches around the outside. (Pictures would be helpful)

The main predators in my area are roaming dogs and hawks. However, EVERYTHING likes chickens, so I want to make sure my birds are protected from anything they may attract.

Thanks in advance.
 
I to am also not a fan of the “DeepLitter” method. I understand that it’s easier and cheaper to clean it out once or twice a year but it seems lazy to me and it seems that all the chickens will be doing is digging around in their own poop. I can’t see how it’s beneficial to them.
I’ll probably just continue to take out all the hay, clean the earth s bit and sprinkle “DE” and a coop deodorant then replace the hay every 5days or so.
The poop composts down and along with the other litter materials creates a rich and stable soil under the run. That's beneficial to the keeper (especially if they garden) and everything that lives in and around that soil.

If done properly odor and dampness stays controlled without need to add anything extra other than the usual litter materials. I can crouch down in my run and smell nothing.

If you've tried it and had poor results, there could be other factors at play (drainage issues, wrong mix of materials) but if you're satisfied with your current set up, then continue to do what works for you.
 
To me the key is drainage. If the coop or run get wet and stay wet it's probably going to stink and could be unhealthy. If it stays dry you usually don't have a problem. Of course there are other factors like chicken density but wet or dry is key.

Is it possible to do deep litter in coop and not run?
Yes, very possible. Technically deep litter is turning your coop floor into a compost pile. Lots of different ways to do that. For stuff to compost the microbes have to have enough water to live and reproduce but you don't want it to get so wet it starts to stink.

When I built my 8' x 12' coop (closed off the end of a shed with a dirt floor) I hauled in a few inches of clay dirt to raise the level above the outside. I also put in a berm and swale on the uphill side to divert rainwater. The coop has great ventilation so if it gets a little wet it dries out pretty fast but it also keeps rain out pretty well. It doesn't stay damp enough for those microbes to grow so it is technically not deep litter. If I wanted it to compost in there I'd have to occasionally water it. My bedding is wood shavings.

I have droppings boards under the roosts to collect the poop which goes in my compost pile. Depending on how many chickens I have in there and how dry the atmosphere is I might scrape that every week or every 6 weeks. If I wait too long to scrape it then it will stink. I've gotten pretty good about knowing when to scrape it to avoid that.

I have good weather so the chickens are outside practically all day every day so there is very little poop in there. I clean that bedding out once every three or four years, not because I have to but because I want that stuff on the garden. If I wasn't so lazy I'd do that more often. It's somewhat traditional on small farms to clean the coop in the fall and dump that on your garden and maybe till it in. By springtime it has broken down when you are ready to plant.

What do I put in the run when the grass is gone?
My 12' x 32' main run is on a bit of a rise and I put that berm and swale on the uphill side. The run is also covered. When it sets in wet rain blows in from the side so it does get wet, but it's not too bad. It's high enough it drains some. That's mostly bare dirt but I toss some stuff in there that I don't want to go in my compost pile, mostly flowers like morning glories, marigolds, or zinnias because of the seeds and obnoxious weeds, again for the seeds. It's not that much and only at certain times of the year, the run is still mostly dirt.

When it does set in wet for a while it can get muddy, but it doesn't stink that bad. I've dumped a few bags of pea gravel in a few certain areas so I can walk around in there without getting bogged down in mud. I also have an area about 45' x 65' inside electric netting that keeps grass in season and stays pretty dry in winter. That's where they spend most of their daytime so most of the poop is scattered out there.
 
The deep litter method has never really appealed to me, it seems like a lot of waste but that's just me. In the past I'd use a plastic sheet in the coop, let them poo on it and once it would build up a bit remove the whole sheet, roll it up and dump in in the bin.
I find things stay dryier and less dusty like this. No added waste either.
I suppose you don't garden? For gardeners, deep litter is far from wasteful - it can help use up waste from your yard and garden, and in return you can generate a lot of fantastic compost to feed back into the garden.
 
I to am also not a fan of the “DeepLitter” method. I understand that it’s easier and cheaper to clean it out once or twice a year but it seems lazy to me and it seems that all the chickens will be doing is digging around in their own poop. I can’t see how it’s beneficial to them.
I’ll probably just continue to take out all the hay, clean the earth s bit and sprinkle “DE” and a coop deodorant then replace the hay every 5days or so.
I decided to do deep litter because Studies actually show it reduces disease relative to other methods. Poop beaks down quickly and composting microbes outcompete disease carrying bugs. I was skeptical it would work but no smell - I can’t find any poop. No flies. I use leaf litter. They are originally jungle floor birds so they love it.
 
I deep litter both the coop (which has over 100 sq ft of floor space and the original run (like 800-900 sq ft of "floor" space, I wasn't very straight or square with the T posts). The only maintenance it takes is removing some shovels full of composted litter from around the coop door periodically, and throwing more litter at it each quarter. Admittedly, its a LOT of litter to cart over from my surrounding woods, 7 cu ft at a time... Hard to argue with the cost, however. Needs to be done again, sadly.

My second run is much larger still, and still mostly green - even with the goats in it. I'm leaving it natural for now, since deep litter would only kill of the green, like deeply mulching a garden.

If rainfall is managed so it doesn't get muddy or flooded, and the soils are suitable for it, you can leave the run as native sands, then rake periodically.

Truly, your run maintenance needs are determined by flock density. Lots of birds in a small area, lots of maintenance. Few birds in a large area, nature will do most of the maintenance for you. Just know that "lots" of space is LOTS of space. 30 birds in the original 800-900 sq ft run, even free ranging during most of the day, together with a month of no rainfall (unusual for us, but not unheard of) was enough to destroy every living thing in it, apart from a single badly beaten shrub. Part of why I built the second, larger run.
 
I plan to deep litter in the coop, but I think also doing deep litter in the run might be a bit much for me (and my back during cleaning).

Is it possible to do deep litter in coop and not run? What do I put in the run when the grass is gone?

Here is my article on Deep Bedding: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

In my opinion, this is much easier than trying to do a lot of daily maintenance, but it will be important to have good tools and a thoughtful design.

Poop boards can help stretch out the life of the bedding at the cost of more frequent maintenance.

As for the run you will almost certainly have to put something down in there after the green is gone -- unless you want to do very frequent raking/scooping to remove the poop from the dirt in order to prevent odor and flies.

As @U_Stormcrow has pointed out, a well-balanced Deep Litter system in the run is almost totally maintenance free -- just take out garden compost as needed and add more wood chips or whatever else you plan to use. (Coarse wood chips of the kind you get from a tree trimming service are usually considered the gold standard for run litter because they are absorbent, long-lasting, and do a great job of combating odor in the composting process).

With generous space in the coop and run the maintenance will be minimized. :)
 
Poop boards can help stretch out the life of the bedding at the cost of more frequent maintenance.
I just installed a poop board about two weeks ago. I thought it would be an improvement, and I was right. What I didn't realize was just how much bedding (pine shavings) I had been taking out with the poop before the poop board.

I use a cat little bucket and a cat litter scoop to gather the chicken poop. Nearly all the stuff I gather is right under the roost, on the poop board. Now, what I dump in the compost bin is almost all poop. Before, it was about 2/3 pine shavings.
 

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