What bedding do you prefer to use in your coop?

[chickenmadness7]

I've been using pine shavings in the coop and straw in the nest boxes with some herbs from the garden. It stays smelling fresh and clean. Sometimes I add a little straw on top mid-week to the coop bedding. It's what's working for me, though I have a very small flock.

 

[lelander12]

The best bedding I have found ws grass clip[pings from when you cut the grass. This works nicely. My four Easter Eggers eat the bugs from the clippings and it holds their waste nicely. Every two weeks i scoop it up with the droppings and put new grass. It is also great for their diet. Healthier eggs.

!!

 

[LakeMomNY]

I do what Beekissed does.

I was just giggling with my husband over dinner this evening about when people talk about A or B or XYZ being easy to clean.

Like Beekissed, I DON'T NEED TO CLEAN. Really. My chicken whole run is a lovely compost pile. I throw my leaves, weeds, grass clippings, table scraps, etc in the middle. The chickens spread it, turn it etc.

That's it. In the "henhouse" portion of my coop I use pine shavings (or whatever.) Once a month I push some old litter into the run and replace it with new litter. No smell. No flies. No work. Clean, happy chickens.

I can't imagine why anyone would do it any other way.

 

[Quackers Mama]

I do what Beekissed does.

I was just giggling with my husband over dinner this evening about when people talk about A or B or XYZ being easy to clean.

Like Beekissed, I DON'T NEED TO CLEAN. Really. My chicken whole run is a lovely compost pile. I throw my leaves, weeds, grass clippings, table scraps, etc in the middle. The chickens spread it, turn it etc.

That's it. In the "henhouse" portion of my coop I use pine shavings (or whatever.) Once a month I push some old litter into the run and replace it with new litter. No smell. No flies. No work. Clean, happy chickens.

I can't imagine why anyone would do it any other way.

Do you think it'll work the same with ducks?

 

[Messipaw]

Is DLM hard to accomplish?

 

[LakeMomNY]

Quackers Mama - I don't know much about caring for ducks or their behaviors, other than that they can apparently be messy. I would guess success would likely depend on how wet/dry your climate is and how many birds you have per square foot. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in?

Messipaw - For me it has been very easy. I was lucky to have done a LOT of reading before getting chickens. It was my 6 year old who wanted them. After three years of her unwavering heartache for chickens I decided to see if it was something I could get behind. I learned a lot and have the easiest chicken management anyone could wish for.

This is my set up:

Chickens: 9 hens, 3 each RIR, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock. We chose them for variety of color, strong egg laying, winter hardiness, reasonable carcass size if we decided to eat some.

Coop:
Modified, enlarged Wichita Cabin/Garden Coop.

Pop door between henhouse and run is always open.

LOTS of ventilation. (Henhouse has about 25 square feet of open windows in the summer, about 10+ in the winter. Winter window was placed and planned based on the Woods Open Air Coops.

4ft/hen in the henhouse
10ft/hen in the attached predator proof covered run.

Henhouse has a big door that opens into run to allow excess litter to be pulled right into run. (I pull out about 1/4 of what is in there once a month and then throw in a new bag of shavings. I could probably do it a little less often, but once a month works well for me as I can keep track and remember to do it.

Run is tall enough for adults to stand in, doors and foundation were planned to accommodate deep litter. I use mostly leaves I would say, but I put anything that I would put in a compost pile in there.

Feeder: I use this 5 gallon bucket feeder -http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/834227/make-your-own-no-waste-5-gallon-25-feed-bucket-feeder-for-about-3/300 I have no waste, no poop in the food and fill it less than once every two weeks.

Waterer: I use horizontal nipples on a 5 gallon bucket. No spilled water. No poop in the water. It needs to be filled every other weekend. BUT I fill it every weekend just to be safe.

I let the chickens free range from the time the kids get home from school (sometimes earlier) until they put themselves to bed, but they have enough room that they are fine confined to the coop and run.

I could go away for two weeks and have the boy who feeds the cats also collect eggs. He wouldn't need to go into the coop at all for anything.

This is my chicken care routine:
Daily:
Late morning:
Bring scrap bowl to chickens.
Check for eggs
Bring yesterday's empty bowl any eggs in.
Early to mid afternoon
Open door to let chickens out of run.
Dusk
Count chickens on roost and close door to run.

Weekly:
Fill water
Check food, fill if needed

Monthly:
Pull some litter from henhouse to run (by the way, the litter is clean and dry enough to do do this just by sweeping a couple of armloads out.) Dump new bag of pine chips in the middle of henhouse. Chickens will entertain themselves for quite a while with it.

For full disclosure, I (and my kids) like to spoil the chickens, so while what I listed above is accurate, there are some other things that we do when we feel like it...

I made up a 20%(ish) protein "scratch" (high protein nut based bird seed mix with standard scratch, BOSS, and dried mealworms mixed in. (Kids wanted to give the chickens more treats than was healthy. This was my solution.) Handfuls of this mix are periodically thrown into the coop and run.

I ferment (standard) scratch that I feed a little bit of along with the scraps. While this doesn't give the food conversation benefits that fermenting their ration would, it does get the beneficial bacteria into their gut and also let's me keep consistant with their bowl of "scraps" every day since sometimes we generate very few scraps.

When there is nothing green for the chickens to eat ranging I sprout clover, alfalfa, etc for them.

I feed a 20% all flock ration with oyster shell and grit on the side so that I don't have to worry about the scraps and scratch lowering their protein intake too much.

So...I guess this was more than you asked for, but yes. I find DLM VERY easy to manage. I pretend it is a compost pile, but let the chickens do the turning.