Partially covered run— best litter method

[Beer can]

I don't add anything to the runs, don't have to clean it if you don't add to it.
Coops are deep litter no poop boards. Add free dry tree leaves in the fall and free sawdust when I have it. Only clean the coop when I need some for the garden. Looks like dry powdered dirt no smell. Gets a pile of frozen poop under the roost in the winter but come when it thaws out the birds rake it up and mix it in and it disappears into the litter pretty quick.

 

[Birdsong 82]

Deep litter in the coop doesn’t affect your wood For the floor? I’m just really curious about all this because deep litter method sounds so much easier But when I used it in the run I ended up with mold

I don't add anything to the runs, don't have to clean it if you don't add to it.
Coops are deep litter no poop boards. Add free dry tree leaves in the fall and free sawdust when I have it. Only clean the coop when I need some for the garden. Looks like dry powdered dirt no smell. Gets a pile of frozen poop under the roost in the winter but come when it thaws out the birds rake it up and mix it in and it disappears into the litter pretty quick.

 

[Beer can]

Deep litter in the coop doesn’t affect your wood For the floor? I’m just really curious about all this because deep litter method sounds so much easier But when I used it in the run I ended up with mold

I have dirt floors and they stay pretty dry.
My dad had a large coop with a wood floor the deep litter never bothered it, stayed pretty dry. He built it over 30yrs ago, hasn't had chickens in many yrs but it still is good, uses it for storage now.

 

[Carolrich]

i thought I’d try deep litter in the run, but after huge thunderstorms rolled through yesterday afternoon, the pine shavings were SOAKED on the unroofed portion of the run and damp from blowing rain on the covered portion.

We have sunny, dry weather the majority of the year but we do have some monsoon activity in July and sometimes snow in the winter. Should I continue with deep litter knowing during those times it may not work as well?

Also, in my coop, there’s no good way to add a poop board or hammock, so I’m thinking of switching to sand and PDZ, which I can just scoop daily. Are there any significant drawbacks to this?

Thanks for always helping this chicken newbie out with suggestions!

How many chickens do you have? If you have no more than a dozen, here is what works for me: We have 9. I have pine shavings in the coop with some zeolite sprinkled in. If it gets a little wet from driving rain, I remove it right away. A poop board is not easy for me to handle so I simply pick up the poop every day with a gloved hand and put it in a bucket that then goes into a compost area. The chickens are in the coop usually just at night so poop is concentrated under the roosts. They go out to the run and yard during the day so there is not much other poop in the pine shavings. This takes me about 5 minutes each day. I top off the shavings every so often with fresh and clean the whole coop out twice a year.
The run has large pine bark nuggets on the ground. It is uncovered so it washes itself clean every time it rains. The nuggets decompose into the ground. The yard is very large and is a wooded natural area so I do nothing to it. It takes care of itself. In both the yard and the run, I placed several small covered "stations" around if the girls are caught out in a storm or rain.

 

[ChickenMamaC]

I probably have to rake it out more often then I would using something else as bedding but with shavings would just get soaked and gross. Depending on whether we have a rainy week or if they happen to be in there run without free ranging for a day or two. Every 2 to 3 weeks or so. I remove big stuff when I see it but they are free ranging most of the day every day. Unless it’s raining or something they’re really only inside there in the morning and then after Sun goes down which is bedtime. It might be more difficult if they didn’t free range all day

Yeah, mine will be a in 200 sq ft run most of the day. We work and kids are at school. They will get some morning and evening free range time.
They will only be in their actual coop for sleep or if they’re seeing shelter.

 

[ChickenMamaC]

How many chickens do you have? If you have no more than a dozen, here is what works for me: We have 9. I have pine shavings in the coop with some zeolite sprinkled in. If it gets a little wet from driving rain, I remove it right away. A poop board is not easy for me to handle so I simply pick up the poop every day with a gloved hand and put it in a bucket that then goes into a compost area. The chickens are in the coop usually just at night so poop is concentrated under the roosts. They go out to the run and yard during the day so there is not much other poop in the pine shavings. This takes me about 5 minutes each day. I top off the shavings every so often with fresh and clean the whole coop out twice a year.
The run has large pine bark nuggets on the ground. It is uncovered so it washes itself clean every time it rains. The nuggets decompose into the ground. The yard is very large and is a wooded natural area so I do nothing to it. It takes care of itself. In both the yard and the run, I placed several small covered "stations" around if the girls are caught out in a storm or rain.

This sounds interesting and doable to me. It’s dry here the large majority of the year— if we did go with something like the pine bark, would you recommend hosing it down on occasion to help everything break down?

 

[lazy gardener]

I have DL in coop and run. My run is mostly NOT covered. We've been having record wet weather. Yes, the DL is sopping wet now. But, no matter what was in the run at this time, be it grass, sand, or DL, it would be soaked unless my entire run was covered and any breezes would be prevented from blowing through the run.

Wet happens. A good DL has a variety of materials. Naturally, the finer materials will sift down to the bottom of the matrix, while the looser materials will stay at the top. Just like in a forest floor. Shortly after a rain storm, if you go into the forest, you will find that the loose material laying at the top is actually quite dry. But, if you dig down a bit, you will find that the underlying material is damp, like a sponge.

That's what DL does. It grabs and holds that moisture to prevent either extreme: too wet or too dry.

A bare soil run, in a sudden monsoon deluge will turn into a mud pit, with rivers of fecal laden water running off to contaminate the surrounding ground. While a little nutrition is a good thing, too much N and P (uncomposted manure) is an environmental pollutant.

I am convinced that bare soil is NOT a healthy state. God designed things differently. If you observe the world around us, you will rarely see naked soil unless man has made it so. After a wild fire, weeds quickly spring up to cover and protect the soil. In a forest, the litter is constantly being renewed by the tree canopy and the understory plants. The tilling practices of the grain belt have given rise to erosion of FEET (not inches) of top soil, as that area marches towards desertification.

The following paragraph may seem like a totally unrelated topic, BUT... it is one more example pertaining to the benefit of keeping the soil covered.

I have been doing deep mulch in my gardening practices for the past 40 years. Even without use of cold frames or other climate enhancement, my garden grows produce earlier and later in the season (by at least a month on the front end, and at least 2 - 4 weeks on the back end of the season.) My soil is loose and friable while the soil of my neighbors is still frozen, or so wet and compacted that they can't work the soil.

 

[Birdsong 82]

I wish I could perfect lutter method. I think I just don’t get enough sign back there to be able to dry it out without getting mold. I don’t mind cleaning it out it goes right into a compost pile that gets added in once a year. It’s pretty broken down by that time. I use a deep litter kinda of In the fenced in area for the goats. They have wooden walkways and grass very little bear soil but as far as all the hay they spell kind of goes in the back and works itself into the soil. There’s a lot more sun in that area of my property

 

[Birdsong 82]

Pineneedles sounds like a pretty good idea. I have tons and tons and tons and tons of Pinetree’s. If I can get those needles before the goats do I may try that. Sometimes in the summer we will mulch up leaves and grass if it’s going to be dry weather for a few weeks and use that in the run. It’s especially nice if they have those off days where they don’t get to free range they still get their delicious green stuff. They free range almost 100% of the days but there’s the occasional day where no one will be home till after dark. Then they stay in their run those days.

 

[Susan12]

I like sand in my small run.we rake it it's easy to scoop.dries fast.