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It's also helpful that you confirm the depth of litter that builds, as being about a foot. I'll need to create a barrier to hold it in at the doors but that shouldn't be hard to do.
Well, you need to keep in mind that my chickens live in their coop for the snow months - almost 6 months here in northern Minnesota without going outside. I built my coop to hold up to 12 inches of deep bedding. So, I toss on a thin fresh layer of shreds when needed and pace it out over the winter to end up with 10-12 inches by springtime.
There is nothing magic to the 12 inches in my setup. That's just the capacity I prebuilt into my coop design. If I wanted to remove some shreds during the winter, I could do that and keep maybe just a nice 3 inch layer of shreds in the coop. I only clean out my coop twice a year. I'll let the deep bedding litter get up to my 12 inch capacity between clean outs.
The leaves I want to dry out are not drying at all and the hay in the greenhouse (ready for use) feels damp, whereas all this scrap paper is lovely and dry.
Because it gets so cold where I live, I don't want to add any moisture to my coop litter. I like the paper shreds because they are easy to make, are pretty much dust free, and are bone dry. If you live in a warmer climate, then all that damp litter might start to grow mold. Unless you plan on building a deep litter system in the coop, dry litter is better.
I had good success with using dry leaves in the coop as litter, but they were very dusty compared to either wood chips or paper shreds. Any free resource for coop litter is worth considering.
Also, nothing wrong with mixing whatever free resources you have for litter. One point in time I had wood chips, leaves, dried grass clippings, and paper shreds all mixed together in the coop. As long as everything is dry, it seems to work just fine. Nothing really starts to compost until I toss it outside in the chicken run where it gets rained on.
I'm reassured by your idea of 'bringing the free-range to them'
I live on a lake and we have hawks and Bald Eagles overhead all the time. Anyone who free ranges their chickens around here are known as former chicken owners. So, I made a nice big run for the chickens and fill it up with grass clippings, leaves, and other stuff. My chickens are safe and seem plenty happy.
I'd wondered about the time it would take for paper and card to break down.
I checked my shredded paper coop litter that I tossed out into the run at about one month, and you could still see the shreds, but about 2 months outside and it was pretty well composted. Of course, things like adequate rain will speed up the process.
If we don't have any rain in a week, or so, I'll hit the chicken run with a lawn sprinkler to encourage composting. Dry litter does not compost much at all, so I pay attention to the moisture of the litter in the run. Also, I encourage worms and bugs to live in the chicken run compost litter and they need that wrung out sponge consistency in the litter.
My chickens will spend all day outside in the summertime, scratching and pecking in the compost, looking for those worms and tasty bugs.
One additional thought, if you use paper shreds as coop litter and then later toss it out into the chicken run, you might want to either cover the paper shreds with some grass clippings or leaves, or maybe dig a trench and then cover the shreds. If you don't cover those shreds, they will blow around the yard. Been there... did that.
This spring I dumped the shredded paper coop litter into the run and covered it up with fresh grass clippings. Covering the shreds kept everything inside the chicken run and gave a nitrogen boost to the composting in place. I don't mind the looks of paper shreds in the coop, but I do prefer to look at grass clippings in the chicken run covering the shreds.