wood pellets

[Ol Grey Mare]

How often do you have to change the shavings? I only change the pellets about once every four to six months. It's like cleaning a really big litter box. I use a cat litter scooper to scoop the chicken poop every morning and I have no fly issues. When I used shavings, I had to hang fly traps and use fly predators to keep the flies under control. I just find them cleaner and so much easier to deal with.

In the stall or coop, lol.
Our stall is more of a run in than a functioning/used stall (it *can* be closed up for confinement but we only do that about once a year after bathing for fair) so it requires minimal cleaning. This also factors into my dislike of the finer consistency of pellets once they break down and they tend to blow around a lot with the way we use our stall/barn. LOVED the convenience and ease of the pellets, just don't work for our setup. I do a "deep litter" approach in both the coop and stall. The stall gets stripped a couple times a year and I imagine the coop will be the same - done as needed (only been in use a couple of months at this point). I use poop boards in the coop, so the mess in the actual bedding is minimal anyway since they spend very little time actually in the coop on the floor....preferring to be outside and coming in mostly just to roost at night which puts them over the poop boards.

 

[RonP]

I used the pellets last year and will not use them again.
I keep the litter on the coop floor 8 to 12 inches high, pine shavings.
I clean out the coop every fall.
I turn the shaving every week or three to keep them fluffed.
When using the pellets last winter, they packed down terribly.
I had to fluff every day, and still held too much moisture in the litter.
First time i ever smelt ammonia.
This never happened with the shavings.