New to deep litter and ammonia smell - start over or just add more pine shavings?

[kaybiegirl]

I have about 60 6-week old chickens. This is my first time having chickens. They moved to our coop when they were about 3 weeks old. They stayed in the coop for about 2 weeks while we finished their run (so all their poop was inside during that time). They have had access to the run for about a week now, so now spend most of the day out of the coop. I am using the deep litter method with just pine shavings currently (plan to add dry leaves etc before too long). When I turned the shavings over a couple days ago, the ammonia smell was very strong and seems to be lingering.
I'm trying to decide whether to ....
1. Clean it all out and start over, since they'll be pooping in it a lot less now that they spend most of their days out of it (and I'm also in the process of making a poop hammock for under their roosts, though they don't sleep on them much yet) , so maybe start fresh.

OR

2. Just add a few more of the 8 cubic yard packages of pine shavings onto the top of what is already there.

Any experienced advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you.

 

[sourland]

How large is the coop, and how deep was the bedding ? The deep litter system, for me, worked best when I could keep the bedding relatively dry.

 

[kaybiegirl]

How large is the coop, and how deep was the bedding ? The deep litter system, for me, worked best when I could keep the bedding relatively dry.

It’s about 8x10. We aren’t keeping all the chicks. Selling quite a few soon. It ranged from zero depth to 10” or so bc of the slope and bc they move it all toward one end. It’s deepest under the roosts.

 

[sourland]

Given the number of birds in that coop, it may be necessary to give up on the deep litter method until the flock is reduced.

 

[kaybiegirl]

Given the number of birds in that coop, it may be necessary to give up on the deep litter method until the flock is reduced.

What would be a better method until I get my flock reduced?

 

[sourland]

Frequent cleaning - especially under the roost area.

 

[Punkybrewster]

I would start over. Clean out the coop, new shavings and sprinkle a liberal amount of sweet PDZ to absorb moisture.

PDZ helps knock down dampness thus odors. Then be sure to scoop the poop piles out from under the roosts frequently.

 

[Folly's place]

If it's damp and smelly, clean it out and rebed it now. It's crowded, and that increased the poo too much even though the birds are still smaller.
Ventilation! If it's damp and smelly, your coop is likely not adequately ventilated. How about posting some photos here?
Twenty birds would be the maximum number for that coop

 

[kaybiegirl]

If it's damp and smelly, clean it out and rebed it now. It's crowded, and that increased the poo too much even though the birds are still smaller.
Ventilation! If it's damp and smelly, your coop is likely not adequately ventilated. How about posting some photos here?
Twenty birds would be the maximum number for that coop

I’ll get so

 

[kaybiegirl]