Rock bedding?

[Catbutts]

Is rock bedding a good idea? I have never seen people talk about a rock bedding before. Is this type of rock going to work for the coop?

 

[svh]

In my experience, yes it does work, BUT, it is a royal PITA !!!

I originally built my coop on gravel, (NEVER AGAIN !) and do the deep litter method, but cleaning out the area is difficult, and if you are planning to use the compost in the garden, it gets full of rocks that will need to be screened out before use.

As I said, removing soiled bedding, and any kind of poop removal is difficult, labor intense, and really not very effective.

A dirt floor, or ANY OTHER floor would be way more efficient. I wish I had never used the gravel, and just left the natural dirt floor.

YMMV !

 

[Catbutts]

In my experience, yes it does work, BUT, it is a royal PITA !!!

I originally built my coop on gravel, (NEVER AGAIN !) and do the deep litter method, but cleaning out the area is difficult, and if you are planning to use the compost in the garden, it gets full of rocks that will need to be screened out before use.

As I said, removing soiled bedding, and any kind of poop removal is difficult, labor intense, and really not very effective.

A dirt floor, or ANY OTHER floor would be way more efficient. I wish I had never used the gravel, and just left the natural dirt floor.

YMMV !

Ohhh I see. I never thought about a cleaning part. Thank though!

 

[aart]

I never thought about a cleaning part.

Bedding choice is all about manure management.

What kind of bedding you use may depend on how you manage the manure.
This is about cleaning, but covers my big picture

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.
-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.
- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.
-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).
There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.
That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 5 years.
.

 

[3KillerBs]

While gravel would provide excellent drainage in a persistently wet area, poop would wash down into the gravel and become a permanent fixture -- stinking any time it got wet.

People who use sand have to aggressively manage the manure -- scooping it frequently and keeping the sand perfectly dry.

The advantage of deep litter is that the manure and the litter material compost together for a system that is odorless when well managed and yields garden gold at cleanout.

Any time you put gravel anywhere you need to remember that GRAVEL IS FOREVER -- you can never get rid of it if you decide to repurpose the area. *grumbles at the former owner of this property who put a gigantic pad of gravel down in the place where I most want to have a garden.*