The Best Bedding for your Backyard Chicken Coop

The right coop bedding makes all the difference in the comfort and health of your backyard flock. High quality coop bedding or ‘litter’, insulates your birds - keeping them warm in winter and cool in summer. Coop bedding also provides a soft layer to walk on, and absorbs moisture from droppings. 

According to Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, coop bedding should have these qualities:

inexpensive

durable

lightweight

absorbent

fast-drying

easy to handle

resists packing

has medium sized particles

low thermal conductor

must and mold-free

non-toxic

organic

Pine shavings are the first choice for many backyard chicken owners, but they can get pricey compared to other coop bedding options. You’ll save money with straw bedding, just be sure it’s well chopped ; un-chopped straw will quickly compact into a thick matting that doesn’t absorb droppings and makes for a messy clean up. Chopped, fluffy wheat straw is best, and it’s even better with stalks and cobs mixed in.

 If you’re lawn isn’t treated with toxic chemicals, try using dried grass clippings as a high quality, free coop bedding. 

But avoid the temptation to try other free or dirt cheap materials like dried leaves, rice hulls, peanut shells, and shredded paper. These mat too easily to make good coop bedding, and require more frequent replacement than pine shavings or straw. 

In order for bedding to insulate your birds from extreme weather, the idea is to give your backyard chickens enough litter so they can burrow down into it and get warm and cozy on icy winter days, or protect themselves from the scorching sun during the summer. Four-inch-deep bedding is ideal for chicks, but mature birds will enjoy up to 8” of coop bedding. Use a bow rake to break up compacted litter in areas around feeders, roosts, and doorways, and replace saturated coop litter with clean, dry bedding.

A simple and fun way to keep your coop bedding from becoming compacted is to scatter a handful of grain, and watch the melee as your backyard chickens scratch and stir up their litter, hunting down every tiny morsel of food. 

Hated by Wildlife, Loved by the Hanks Family

Like any organic garden, the Hanks family started theirs with high hopes. But storm clouds soon rolled in over their sunny daydreams of harvesting fresh produce, when their garden became a feeding station for neighborhood deer and rabbits. But is was the betrayal of one of their own - the cucumber and tomato scarfing family dog - that stung the most. 

 

But that’s all in the rearview mirror, now, and there’s a new sheriff in town. Their new organic garden will no doubt be just as appealing to hungry deer and rabbits, but they’ll have to appreciate it from outside a sturdy, 8’ tall enclosure. This robust fortress, framed with rough sawn red cedar 2”x3” lumber and wrapped with 1/2” galvanized wire mesh, will easily repel the most spry buck in his prime, let alone armies of rabbits or that rascally family dog. 

Hanks Family's Greenhouse and Enclosed Garden from Microfarm Organic Gardens on Vimeo.

 

A single, sturdy door allows access for gardeners with thumbs, and centered within the enclosure, a U-shaped raised bed stands ready for the next growing season. The 18” tall raised garden bed is made with eastern red cedar, and measures 8’ long on the outer sides. It’s filled with a ‘soilless’ blend of pine bark fines, mushroom compost, and Stalite PermaTill, that has excellent drainage and aeration, and will never become compacted over time.  

A generous application of Espoma’s iconic Plant Tone organic fertilizer will ensure vigorous plants, and an automated 1/2” drip irrigation system will free up more time for the Hanks family.

 

Dwarf citrus trees are also on the family's wish list, and those will grow in style by the swimming pool, all summer long. And when the nights get cold again, the citrus trees won’t mind moving into their cozy, new 8’x8’ cedar-framed greenhouse for the winter. It’s framed with 2” thick eastern red cedar lumber, and glazed with 8mm twin-wall polycarbonate. We chose Polymatte material made by Polygal ; a high performance greenhouse glazing with an opaque finish that diffuses sunlight and helps prevent scalding to plants on bright, clear days.

The structure is anchored to a base built with interlocked red cedar timbers and filled with a three inch layer of small glacier pebbles to create a comfortable floor with excellent traction and drainage. Two vent windows open automatically to help maintain an optimal temperature inside the greenhouse. 

 

Understandably, The Hanks family loves their new enclosed garden and greenhouse. The sun is shining on their new garden projects, and this time, there isn’t a rain cloud in sight. And what do the deer and rabbit communities, and the family dog think about the new enclosed garden and greenhouse? They don’t have the same enthusiasm, but they can still admire the garden... from a distance.

Storey's 'Must-Have Features' for a Chicken Shelter

“Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens” has long been the undisputed authority on the subject, and every backyard flock owner should own a copy.  This indispensable resource has the correct answers for everything from breed selection to bedding. Chapter three covers shelter in detail, and it gives the determined and patient reader enough useful material to move forward with confidence. And for the busy would-be chicken owners out there - rapidly skimming the pages for a quick grasp what’s involved with a backyard chicken coop - the book has generously provided this simple checklist. But whether you’re raising dozens and dozens of chickens out in the country, or three hens in your suburban backyard, you’ll be wise to check off each one of these ‘Must-Have Features’ from the chapter on chicken shelter.

-Provides enough space for the number of birds. Overcrowding causes all sorts of problems in a chicken coop, from foul odor and disease to bullying and cannibalism. 

-Good Ventilation. This introduces oxygen-rich fresh air, and helps remove moist, stale air from inside the coop, which often contain unhealthy levels of carbon dioxide and ammonia. Consider a coop design with good airflow that allows dust particles and airborne, disease-causing organisms to dissipate.

-draft free. Blocking cold drafts on the north side of the coop makes a huge difference in keeping your hens comfortable during the winter months. 

-maintains a comfortable temperature. An ideal site for your chicken coop would be shaded during the hottest part of the day during summer, and allow maximum sunlight to reach the flock during winter. Choose a coop design that has both excellent ventilation and protection from cold wind gusts.

-protects the chickens from wind and sun. Build your chicken shelter where it will be shaded during the hottest part of the day, and consider planting shrubs as a windbreak to help mitigate exposure to prevailing winds. 

 -keeps out rodents, wild birds, and predatory animals. A chicken coop should have a sturdy frame capable of easily thwarting large predators like dogs and coyotes, and galvanized steel mesh covering every possible point of entry to keep out smaller bandits like wild birds, snakes and rodents. The hardware cloth should be buried about 12” deep around the entire perimeter of the coop to keep out nocturnal digging predators like raccoons.

-offers plenty of sunlight during the day. Consider a design like the Garden Coop, that has  tinted clear polycarbonate roof panels that allow lots of sunlight inside the coop during the cold months when the hens need it most, and still help block the intensity of bright summer days.

-has adequate roosting space. Give your hens a couple of roost branches placed at different heights so that the peck order can be easily maintained inside your coop. Live branches  about 4” in diameter allow your birds to roost more comfortably than smaller diameter dowel rods or a milled pieces of lumber.

-includes clean nests for the hens to lay eggs. Nothing spoils the fun of harvesting your backyard eggs like finding them covered in poop. If possible, try to have at least one nesting box for every three or four hens.

-has sanitary feed and water stations. Make sure your feeder and waterer are the right size for your flock, and hang them so they’re accessible for every bird, but still far enough from the ground so they aren’t constantly soiled with scratched bedding. 

-is situated where drainage is good. Note where stormwater flows when it rains, and either site your chicken coop to avoid the runoff altogether, or if this isn’t possible, dig a swale or ditch to channel stormwater away from the coop. 

Simple Steps to Pruning Fruit Trees

It seems like it was just last week that you planted those spindly looking, bare-root fruit trees. But you did everything right in the beginning - from careful selection of tree varieties and pollinators that thrive in your area, to site selection, spacing, and planting - so now you’re enjoying baskets of fruit from full-sized trees. Take the time to prune your mature trees each year, you’ll help them remain strong and productive. Proper pruning technique helps preserve the right balance between fruiting growth and non-fruiting growth, and while some potentially fruit-bearing buds will be cut away during this process, the buds that remain will be far more vigorous. Once pruned, your fruit tree will produce a burst of new fruit-bearing growth and also nurture young fruits that are just beginning to develop. The ideal time frame to prune your fruit tree is from late fall until the tree blossoms in in spring, but avoid pruning a tree during periods of extreme cold.

Check for Disease and Damage

With a saw or loppers, carefully cut away any damaged or dead branches where they meet the trunk of the tree, or prune them back to healthy tissue. Inspect the tree’s branches carefully for signs of disease - especially dark, discolored areas - and for the tiny black specs which indicate the presence of harmful fungal spores. Prune away any diseased branches at least 6” back from the blighted area. 

Use Proper Pruning Technique

A time-tested technique for  pruning larger limbs, is to cut a branch to about 12” in length, then make a small cut into the underside of the branch, before completing the cut by sawing from above. Finish by cutting off the stub, leaving the existing ‘collar’ intact,  which will help the tree heal faster. Shorten sagging branches, and remove any spindly shoots growing downward from the bottom of the limbs.

Thin & Shape Branches

All those lanky, fast-growing, vertical branches are called water sprouts, or ‘suckers’, and they tend to yield anemic-looking fruit, and they also block sunlight to more productive branches. Cut off most or even all of the suckers, leaving a few only if needed to help protect the tree from sun scald. This is usually only necessary if there were a large amount of suckers, and removing them all at once would expose to intense, full sunlight, parts of the tree that had previously been shaded.

 Fruiting Spurs for Apples and Pears

The stocky little nubs on pear and apple trees are called spurs, and these are where these two tree species will yield most of their fruit. When pruning apple and pear trees, prune off any of the weak-looking spurs, so that only the hardiest remain. And thin out areas with overcrowded spurs so that there will be plenty of space for fruit to reach full size. Try to picture a full-sized apple or pear in pace of each spur - If it seems impossibly tight, do some thinning.

Stephanie Chen's 8'x12' Cedar-Framed Greenhouse

Stephanie Chen’s gardening hobby had gotten serious. What once fit nicely under a sunny windowsill, grew into a monster that swallowed up a big chunk of the patio, and then overran her husband Tom’s workshop. Grow lights, and fans gobbled up every outlet, and a horde of  potted plants crowded every surface. It was time for a greenhouse, and luckily there was a perfect site for one - right outside Tom’s workshop.

 

The little nook faces south and is neatly enclosed with a 5’ wall,  and has a gate with access to  the backyard. A maple tree in front of the greenhouse, will protect it from harsh UV exposure in the summer, while the bare branches will let sunlight through during the cooler months when the greenhouse is used most.

 

The first step with this greenhouse was to create a strong, level, 8’x12’ base using 6”x6” landscape timbers. The dimensions outer dimensions of the greenhouse frame are 8’x12’, making it absolutely essential that the outer dimensions of the base be perfectly square and exactly 8’x12’.  At Stephanie’s request, we installed a French drain within the greenhouse floor that channels water to an existing drainage system nearby. Once the drain was in place, we covered it with several inches of #78 crushed gravel ;  a hardworking greenhouse floor material that lets water pass right through, and compacts over time, making a comfortable, extremely durable, non-slip surface.

 

The next step was to assemble the cedar frame and anchor it securely onto the base. Whenever possible, we cut and dry fit greenhouse frame pieces in our own workshop, then transport the partially assembled frame components to the site. This minimizes noise and and time at the job site, and helps the installation process go smoothly.

And when it comes to the greenhouse frame, we believe the strength of the frame is just as important as the type of glazing. After all, what good is a greenhouse with costly glazing if it collapses during the next wind or ice storm? We cut choice pieces of red cedar, crafting stout rafters and a burly ridge pole that don’t even notice high winds and heavy snow or ice loads.

 

With the walls and rafters securely in place, we then framed four roof vents, including special baffles to help keep out rainwater. 

 

Once the walls, entry doorway, and four roof vent windows framed, it was time to cut and install the glazing. For this greenhouse, we used 8mm twin-wall polycarbonate - a durable, high performance greenhouse material with excellent insulation value. Unlike glass, polycarbonate is extremely difficult to break and virtually shatterproof, making it an ideal choice for greenhouses with trees nearby, or where children or seniors may be working inside. And to help balance the intensity of the sunlight inside Stephanie’s greenhouse, we used a special type of polycarbonate with an opaque finish, called Polymatte. This special greenhouse glazing made by Polygal diffuses sunlight, helping to prevent scalding damage to plants on clear, sunny days.

 

With the entry door and automated vent window openers installed, it was finally time to put the greenhouse into action, and it’s hard to say who was happier ; Stephanie or Tom. At long last, Tom got his workshop back, and Stephanie’s plant diversion finally got a home of its own. But it was actually Stephanie’s congregation of plants were the happiest of all - all nice and cozy in their new cedar-framed greenhouse.