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litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:14 am
by ChickenLittle
So starting out on this journey I didn't even think about litter to be honest. But the more I look at forums and Facebook pages the more confused I get!!! Deep litter, turning, shavings, hay, pellets, oh my! Our coop is almost ready (we had a surprise freeze that halted the run building). What are your recommendations for a newbie? Definitely hay for our nesting boxes but what for the ground? We converted an outbuilding that has electricity and is 10x7 feet so not huge. Planning to start with 10 hens. My hubs grew up on a chicken farm with about 1000 meat birds at any given time. He doesn't seem to think it matters so much but ours are going to be layers and I am a bit obsessive so worried about bubble foot etc etc etc. And also looking for something that will compost well. Planning on putting a couple containers under the roost to catch the night poop and preserve the litter a bit. Thanks in advance!!!

litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:17 am
by WLLady
I would sooo love to use flax but cannot find it anywhere around here

litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:37 am
by XBRIT
Please read the info at the following link. Good luck.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/0 ... itter.html

Yes my vote goes to sand, it is good in the hatcher also.

litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:04 pm
by windwalkingwolf
With only ten chickens, any one of those will work fine, and it will come down to your management style--how often you clean, what ventilation is like inyour coop, etc. Only thing I would add is to use straw rather than hay, because with hay, chickens will peck at the green bits and eating hay can cause crop problems. Wood pellets should be misted with water to expand them (otherwise they look like food) which might not be great for winter

litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:47 pm
by Happy
My coop is roughly the same size as yours (8x10) Raised wooden floor. I have 12 in there right now. I've used wood shavings since I started. Thin layer in summer then build up to deep litter for winter. I love deep litter in winter because I know the coop is warmer that way. I have poop boards so a lot of the waste never hits the floor. What I HATE about wood is the dust. Chickens themselves are very dusty then you add that fine sawdust floating around. As much as I hate it I have 3 banties that seem to suffer from it. They get Sneezy when they are cooped up for too long. I've recently been considering painting the inside of the coop so it's easier cleaning and switching to sand floor just to cut down on the dust.

Re: litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 6:14 pm
by muffin57
XBRIT we are switching to sand. Here is another link from the chicken chick on the reasons not to use straw in chicken coops.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2017/0 ... ng-in.html

Re: litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 7:42 pm
by Jaye
Flax bedding, all the way, for as long as I can get it here. Very forgiving in the cold months, plus it's easy to spot clean.
I don't like sand because it holds moisture and smell, and is cold in the winter.
Plus, it needs to be renewed - I believe Chicken Chick does it annually - big heavy lifting job, shoveling all that sand out, and where do you put all that disgusting spent sand anyway? I would not use it in my coop in this climate. JMO.

p.s. I use straw in the run.

Re: litter help for a newbie!

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:19 pm
by ChickenLittle
Thanks all! I almost forgot I posed this question. We decided on pine shavings. Cheap, easy for me to shovel into the tractor bin and nicely decompose. Pretty happy so far.