No smell in my Coop

[9Catsz]

I love those pellets. I raise mice and rats and you can imagine the smell....I started using those pellets and it knocked down the smell at least 75%!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
WOW-- good point!! Would the chickens eat the wood pellets? My turkey ate a rhinestone that fell off clothing this morning.. I think they'll eat about anything. The layer pellets ... well, they would look just like the wood pellets, right?

 

[Coos NH]

I burn wood pellets so its easy to steal them from my pile. Home depot, lowes and Tractor supply all sell them, prices range from 3.40 to 4.50 a bag. bags are 40 lbs, the chickens DO NOT eat them at least mine never have. I fill mine about 8 inches full ( thats important) and then I let them go except for raking them around about every three weeks. No cleaning, no changing ( once a year in the spring I will change them ) and above all..........no smell. Its the best system I have seen, everyone who has seen my set up has switched to wood pellets. Remember they need to be a minimum of about 8 inches deep to compost and thats the secret. They will break down into saw dust but just keep turning them over, add a few bags every three months of so to make it smell like fresh cut wood and just keep turning it over if your birds dont scratch enough. Compost, compost, compost. All for the garden in the spring !

Coos NH

 

[bairo]

Ive heard from a couple people in my area that they really like them. The # 1 complaint from them seem to be the fact that the pellets break down to sawdust and it is more difficult to muck out. Of course if you can get by with twice a year...then it might be worth the effort anyway.

I have considered pellets as well as sand and everything in between; in the end I decided to stay with cedar shavings on bottom, pine on top, and just a bit of PDZ sprinkled around. I have a poop board that gets quickly (2 minutes) wiped off every eveening. My bedding then only needs changed 4 times a year, you could probably get by with 3 times though. Before I get crucified for the cedar part let me explain. I have 150 sq/ft in the coop. I use only one bag of ceder (size from TSC) on the bottom. This amount is not measurable in terms of even an 1/8 inch if spread evenly. Then I use 3-4 bags pine on top of that (TSC brand/size) I believe that amount of cedar helps tremendously with the flies and probably with the mites as well, yet is not enough to effect my chickens. Many old timers around here grew up with chicken coops and used a 50/50 cedar and whatever else they had...and they swear by it. I have been doing it a year now and not had a problem.

 

[bairo]

ps about those toms...turkeys will eat anything they see dropped on the ground or anything that looks like their food. They would probably try to you if you fell, LOL

Its funny they are like that considering they are the only animal I know of that will starve to death with food in the pen when they are hatchlings, if no one shoved their beaks in it to show them.

 

[MadChickensVT]

Good point about needing a tall threshold on the door, I'll remember that as I'm building my coop.

Great tip about using pellet stove pellets! I haven't found bedding pellets around here yet, but there's pellet stove pellets everywhere

 

[Marcymom3]

This sounds like something I would like to try, but if it needs to be 8" deep it will fall out the chicken door and go into the nest boxes. Both are built right at floor level.

What do you think of getting hubs to put an 8" piece of board divider that would slide out, just out from the roosts? that way the pellets would be where they would do the most good and wouldn't fall out.

Most of the poop in the coop is right below the roosts. Wondering now...with pine shavings, is it better to just rake it into the pine shavings or rake it out? This is what I have been doing (raking out poop) and I add another fresh layer of shavings afterward. Sorry to go off your topic.

These are the first chickens I've ever had and I am learning by doing and from this forum.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

 

[pinkwindsong]

Quote:
marcy mom you asked the same question I was thinking of.. I use shavings now and do a deep litter and then I strip it every month and refresh. I dont have any odor either but I havent been through winter yet either.

Pink in SC

 

[snazzyboots]

do you all have something between the ground and the wood pellets or do you just put them right on the ground? i have a moveable coop now that hubby wants to make larger and stationary. i was thinking we need to build a base to accomodate the 8 or so inches of pellets. also what about the rain? won't the pellets disintegrate? ours is a hoop coop with a tarp on top of 2/3 and the rest is open. thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Coos NH]

Using deep liter from what I have read and experienced doesnt work well if you dont let it build up and compost. It doesnt compost if you take the poop out ! I rake my pellets around every three weeks or so and dont remove any poop at all. The reason I would go with pellets ( as I did ) instead of chips is they are more absorbent, less expensive and they seem to hold their wood smell better than chips. Thats been my experience. I do have a friend who retro fitted their coop to do deep litter and all they did was added a board at the bottom of the door jamb and at the run door to allow the pellets to be built up without spilling out. Its been a good retro fit / works well for them. My only complaint is having to collect feathers every few days. I'm al little OCD so the feathers building up make me nuts and I rake them out and throw them over my bank......lol

Coos NH