The weather has warmed and it was time to clean out the coop over the weekend. We did a lot of looking online and reading on The deep Litter System for chicken coops before winter. You don't completely clean out the coops all winter and just keep putting fresh bedding on. It worked great throughout the cold temps and kept the coop and the hens nice and toasty from the decomposing litter underneath. But I am really reconsidering doing this again. It was way to much work to clean it out in the spring, I think we hauled 5 trailers full of bedding! I like a nice freshly cleaned coop. In the summer our coop is spotless, so I don't know if this deep litter thing is for us. There is nothing better than walking into a nice clean coop with the scent of pine bedding!
Do you do a deep litter system in the winter? What are your thoughts, do you Like or dislike it?
The chickens love to scratch around in the old bedding.Pretty gross but fun to watch them
The sheep with their new baby lambs hung around all day with curiosity to what we were doing. They are so darn cute!
I do the deep bedding thing, I think it's gross too though. New coop is being built, going to try to keep it cleaner!
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I think it is waaaay too much work in the spring. I prefer to clean as I go. The only advantage is that you have some great compost for the garden once it's cleaned out.
ReplyDeleteTrue, I have started a compost area for the chicken bedding. But I can still add the chicken manure with the clean as I go plan :0).
ReplyDeleteWe just got our first chicks last weekend. I was planning to do the deep bedding method as well. Yours is the first real negative I've heard about it. Hmm, now I'll have to think....
ReplyDeleteJudy
LOL Well I do like it over winter. We only had to use a couple heat lamps because It was so warm in the coop from the bedding decomposing underneath. Like a little compost pile. But I didn't think it was very sanitary or clean. Birds are dirty animals already, So I like my coop to be really clean because of that. But some people Prefer the deep litter system. I just don't think it's for us lol. If we do the deep litter system ever again. I will clean it a couple times instead of waiting all winter. Plus we have a lot of chickens. If you only have a small flock I would say go for it. It wouldn't be bad at all.
ReplyDeletedeep litter may work better on dirt floor. then the old litter turns into dirt and you just have to take off top layer
ReplyDeleteThat is True. I would love to have a dirt floor on the chicken house. But we have mobile coops. I do use barn lime which helps a lot with moisture, And It's cheap!
ReplyDelete