What flooring?

[Capto Veritas]

I have a small chicken coop sitting on plain dirt. Should I put pine shavings, wood chips or keep it dirt for the floor?

 

[CluckerFamily]

Is it positioned at the bottom of a hill, on a raised area so that it drains well?

 

[Capto Veritas]

Is it positioned at the bottom of a hill, on a raised area so that it drains well?

It is positioned at the top of a hill with a drain in the middle of the coop (just got lucky)!

 

[3KillerBs]

You can keep it as just dirt for a bit, but the poop will start to build up and then you'll want some bedding.

My primary bedding for the coop is coarse-flake pine shavings but I also use a bit of pine straw, dried lawn clippings, and occasionally straw.

My primary litter for the run is pine straw -- because it's free for the raking on my property and because the place where the run is has to go back to grass once the Chicken Palace is finished. I have wood chips waiting to use in there once they destroy the grass.

 

[Capto Veritas]

You can keep it as just dirt for a bit, but the poop will start to build up and then you'll want some bedding.

My primary bedding for the coop is coarse-flake pine shavings but I also use a bit of pine straw, dried lawn clippings, and occasionally straw.

My primary litter for the run is pine straw -- because it's free for the raking on my property and because the place where the run is has to go back to grass once the Chicken Palace is finished. I have wood chips waiting to use in there once they destroy the grass.

I actually have pine shavings. I heard that you can just keep adding more and more and never have to remove the old pine shavings. Is that true?

 

[Capto Veritas]

I think it is called something like the deep litter method?

 

[3KillerBs]

I actually have pine shavings. I heard that you can just keep adding more and more and never have to remove the old pine shavings. Is that true?

Some people do manage to achieve the perfect balance of poop, litter, and moisture to create compost conditions that break everything down at the perfect rate.

I wouldn't actually want to myself because I want to be able to harvest compost for my garden.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My coop(s) - both of them - are above sandy clay - or clayey sand, with the ground sloped away to encourage drainage. Doesn't take long for the poop to accumulate. I use leaf litter (free from my acres) to deep litter/slow compost. Same in the run.

In my raised coop (one of the two), I use the same - plus straw in the nesting boxes) as deep bedding - which eventually joins the deep litter on the floor, once a season or so.

 

[3KillerBs]

I think it is called something like the deep litter method?

Deep Litter *may* never have to be cleaned out at all -- if you get that perfect balance.

Most people end up having to shovel it out after a long while when it's piled up high enough to start spilling out the doorframes.

 

[Capto Veritas]

Some people do manage to achieve the perfect balance of poop, litter, and moisture to create compost conditions that break everything down at the perfect rate.

I wouldn't actually want to myself because I want to be able to harvest compost for my garden.

I have been adding more shavings every week for a month now and it has been working out well. They just keep turning into soil and then the shavings on top turn into soil and so on.