The chickens continue to grow and are now 8 weeks old. We mowed and threw in some grass clippings into the coop. We are contemplating doing the deep litter method for the chicken coop. It’s a way to keep smells down, cleaning easier and you end up with compost in the end. You basically throw grass clippings, leaves, pine needles down and the chickens live on it. This has to be at least 4-6 inches deep. When you go to clean the coop out you have fresh compost underneath. Our chickens scratched and searched for bugs for hours. We will see how this method goes.
Love reading about the chickens! I would think the deep litter idea is the very best way…completely natural, sounds like the chix like it and you’ll have good fertilizer for your garden when the litter is dry. I think there is too much ammonia in chicken manure when it’s wet & has to be dried out to be good fertilizer.
We will keep you posted on how it’s going, but everything you said is our thoughts exactly!