Questions about chicken litter and feed

[Nicho1]

Just about finished with the chicken coop so I need to find out what to put onto the floor. The coop is inside a barn...a converted horse stall. I've read that leaves are great for putting onto the floor but leaves are not available at this time of year. I have some old hay but it seems that would be harder to "stir" and harder to haul out to the garden but what would I know? So, the question is...what could I get to make a nice layer of litter on the floor of this coop? It is 8' X 8' and will start with 4 two-month old pullets. They will also have an outside run but they won't get into that for a couple of weeks while they make the adjustment to their new home. I'm planning on getting 2 Barred Rock and 2 Australorps. Also, what's the best feed for two-month old chickens? I know that when they start to lay, they will need some oyster shell. Thanks for the help, all of you poultry people. You are a wonderful resource. I'm so looking forward to having these chickens and I want to make sure I'm doing things right. I have a book on order...Raising Chickens for Dummies!

[IdahoMom]

I didn't care for the straw either, so went to the Feed store and got some White Pine Shavings. It was about $7 for a big bagged bale, it would probably do your floor at least twice..What I like is whenever I clean out the coop I throw it in the garden and it breaks down a lot faster.

Food - I went in order, there are 3 steps, maybe someone can chime in here. Something like baby food, one more, than layer mash..I let my girls forage a lot and keep a bowl by the sink for any fruit veggies or bread scraps. They love to see me coming with their treat bowl.

Congratulations on your chickens, we got ours about a year and a half ago and have really enjoyed them. They eat bugs, give eggs, and make fertilizer and are very entertaining. What's not to love? (Well, they do poop on everything.)

[Summerthyme]

Nicho... if you can, get started on a deep litter system... you're going to have plenty of room for 4 hens (64 square feet gives them a lot of room each, which is good).

I wouldn't use long hay for bedding unless I couldn't find *any*thing else. You're right about the fact that it will be harder to clean out- a lot harder.

What I'd do is try to find some sawdust for a base. If possible (it's going to take quite a bit) 4" of sawdust on the floor will give you a base for a FULL YEAR of bedding. Yep- I clean pens once a year (and I've got 20 hens in a 6' X 10' foot pen, although they have access to a big yard, too).

Then... add shredded papers (quite often you can get places like banks or schools to give you all you want, or ask friends and relatives to save their shreds for you), or CHOPPED hay or straw. You can use lawn clippings if you don't have a mulching mower... let the grass dry for a couple days, rake it up and add it to the pen. Basically, you want fairly fine, absorbant material. If hay is all you have, I'd spread out the flakes on a firm surface and run a lawn mower over them, or use a leaf shredder or chipper shredder to chop it up.

Then, when the leaves start falling (and it won't be all that long!), wait for them to be fairly dry, and add every leaf you can get your hands on to the pen. We fill ours literally to the ceiling... pack them down just enough so the hens can fit, and let the birds pack them the rest of the way. In a few days, they've got it reduced to a couple feet of leaves... and we do it again. Within a few weeks, though, they shred them and break them down enough that you end up with 8-12" of good bedding on the floor. That will last them through the winter if you have the amount of space per hen you do. For us, I end up topping it off a few times with more shredded paper.

I clean mine out once a year in early fall, right before the leaves are ready to rake up and use. There's literally almost NO odor, which if you've ever cleaned "conventional" chicken pens is amazing- and wonderful.

Feed.. you need to feed a "grower" ration for at least another 8- 12 weeks. When they hit 20 weeks, I'd start mixing it half and half with a layer mash. Layer mash has extra calcium in it... usually there is plenty of calcium to support health egg shells for the first year. If you feed scratch grains or some cracked corn along with the mash (I do, to "stretch" the mash, and don't really notice any lower production), you probably would want to feed some oyster shell, as insurance.

With the deep litter system, you need to have some way to keep the feed and water above the litter. Feed is easy- just get one of those hanging feeders and hang it at a height the hens can reach (basically, have the feed opening at the level of the top of their backs). Water can be tougher- the main drawback of the nice fluffy bedding is they scratch it up constantly, and will fill a water pan with bedding in short order. We usually put one of the big "self waterers" up on an old wheel rim, which does work fairly well. In winter we just use open 3 gallon rubber pans, because the water freezes daily, and it's easy to knock the ice out of those without ruining the pan.

Summerthyme

[Little RedRidingHood]

It lasts much longer and the hens stir it daily and keep it fluffed up. With hay or straw it gets chicken doo on it and clumps and then packs down. That is why leaves are great, when and if you can get them ... They stir around thus add air and dry better.
I buy a shavings bale once every six months, add the whole thing and then add another in another six months. I clean the hen house once a year right before winter and rebed the whole area.
But, where I live it stays warm nearly year around and it only gets cold in late January to early February. We get rain off and on, and usually only one or two snow falls of an inch or so twice a year average. SO ... the way I have my chickens with an open sided shed on three sides due to the 105+ during the summer is not for Northern raised chickens by any means. I have to have open sides so any, even a slight, breeze can reach those poor hens in the heat. They have a three sided nesting and roosting area that goes right into their outside area.
They average 7-9 eggs every day and are excellent hens which I've raised from day olds last September.
Mine also get all excited when the back door of the house opens and I walk down the stairs and head toward the coop! I'm always carrying kitchen scraps and they know it!!
Happy hens make great eggs which keeps us happy ... another form of a circle!!

[GrayGal]

If you are putting the litter on the compost pile later, the pine shavings may not be the best thing for the compost pile, although, that might depend on the soil you are amending. If you had friends with grass catching mowers and asked them to save you the lawn clippings, that would be good litter.

Chickens will eat just about anything and when they are laying protein and calcium are good additives. They will eat meat scraps as well as vegetable scraps, grains, bread crusts, small animals like baby mice, they love insects such as centipedes, etc. Chickens are very opportunistic eaters and will convert almost anything into eggs for you.

[Nicho1]

Thanks, everyone, for the good suggestions. Now I'm looking forward to having leaves fall! A good friend of mine has a wooded lot so I'm sure she'll be glad to have a "depository" for her monstrous load of leaves. Meanwhile, I'll look into some pine shavings to get me to the leaf season. I think I've read that it takes a lot of nitrogen in the soil to break down the wood. But, then again, chicken manure is high nitrogen so there may not be any problem with that. My garden has done so well, I don't want to mess that up, if you know what I mean.

I can't wait to have some of those "home grown" eggs! These little peepers are going to be fun. I'm not getting a rooster right now but plan to get some fertilized eggs in the Spring to let them set on them, if they will. Then, I'll have to see if I want to keep a rooster. My experiences with roosters has not been good, even remembering as a kid how our rooster would run at me. Scared me to death!

Thanks again for the help. I knew my TOL friends would share their knowledge with me.

[natty threads]

Peat moss is super-absorbent and breaks down great for compost.

$7 a bale for shavings...I am so jealous.
They're nearly twenty dollars a bag here.

Bless up,
Natty

[daisy_dukers]

I use wood stove pellets in my coop, when they get pooped on the puff up into sawdust and absorb any liquid.

I rake them around a bit every 3 days or so, and sawdust/chicken poop composts down really well. I also sprinkle a shovel full or 3 on any grass clipping that get added to the compost pile to speed up the breakdown of the clippings.

[juststartn]

We use the bad hay. The chickens do stir it up (especially when it is fresh), and we've really never had a problem cleaning out the place. Our soil is really clay-ey, so we add everything we can to it. I'm saving the ripped up brown paper sacks from the dairy store (when the condensation gets on them, they rip really easily when we're unloading them)...those go out on the garden too, as a light/weed blocking mulch...

Anyway, we use straw, with no problems.

Rachel