What's in the bottom of your coop?

[clemston]

Our coop has peel-and-stick linoleum on top of plywood (for easy cleaning) with several inches of hay on top. The run started with vines/weeks that quickly turned to dirt and is now also covered in hay.

 

[Princessfarmer]

Pine shavings and straw right now..... I'm going to try deep litter as soon as my de comes.....

 

[Tressa27884]

Quote:
Can you explain deep litter to me please?

 

[okieinalaska]

I plan on using the deep litter method with shavings for my coop. For the run I thought about using some year old wood chips I had dumped in a pile on my property. Probably mostly pine but no way of knowing. But like I said it has aged for a year so would that be safe for them?

 

[Donner]

Quote:
Can you explain deep litter to me please?

To summarize the way I do it. Put a lot of pine shavings on the ground. Let chickens poop in it. Stir it about once a week. Add more shavings as needed. Build up a mixture of shavings and poop that will start composting in place. That is where I am a now.

Around the end of July, I will dig out some near the bottom because I just planted everbearing strawberries and they will need fertilizer at about that time.

Then, next February, I will dig out a lot of the composted litter and fertilize the vegetable beds, fruit trees, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, and strawberries. Then, add several bales of pine shavings to start over.