Rake or Not to rake Deep Litter?

[JoD2Tall]

Hi, I'm attempting the deep litter method in my 6x6x9'tall coop, and in my 10x12 fully covered run.

In my coop I have a wood floor, covered with interlocking gym mats to cushion their landing. They roost really high. The litter layers are approx. 6" deep now. It doesn't smell bad at all. There are a lot of feathers as my 5 girls are 4 1/2 months old. I'm brand new to all of this so forgive over explaining.

The run has a dirt floor, very rarely gets wet, even if it rains quite a bit. I have several inches of different bedding covering the dirt. Neither smell bad, just earthy. No ammonia. So, I think I'm doing it right. Really don't want to compromise their health with my learning curve.

My main question....I like to rake their bedding into piles to give them something to organize and occupy their brains. Is that defeating the purpose of deep litter, or is it helping in adding oxygen to break down? They seem to like reorganizing the bedding. I can't free range, though I really want to, because I live in the Rockies and we have lots of predators.

My next question, is knowing when to swap out the bedding? Because of the raking and their activity, no poo builds up anywhere. So, I'm relying on smell and their happiness.
They seem to enjoy the raking and have just begun going into the nesting box, making all kinds of new noises. No eggs yet, but I'm soooo excited, and really don't want to screw up their health and productivity.

 

[jbj25]

I use a deep bedding system in my coop, but the difference is that I use mine on a dirt floor. I keep it around 6-8 inches deep. I also don't use any bedding in my run. My run is well drained. I never really have any smell to mention from either the coop or run.

So, you wanted to know about the raking. The raking will not hurt it at all. I don't usually turn mine because the chickens actually take care of that pretty well. If you see a spot that they ignore than it is a good idea to turn it yourself every so often, but other than that you shouldn't have to. But, doing it anyway shouldn't hurt it at all.

I don't ever change my bedding because as I said I have a dirt floor. I add to it when it needs it, but that is usually no more than once a year. I think since you are not using a dirt floor that you may need to change it at some point. If no one else comments on that part then you can do a search on deep bedding systems on the site. You should find a wealth of info. on here about deep bedding system on floored coops.

Edit to add: I also use poop trays under my roosts so I don't get all that much in the bedding.