Deep bedding materials for chickens

Long winter days means the chickens spend a lot more time resting (and pooping) on their roosts.  As a result, I refresh the deep bedding more often, a task that is as simple as opening a bag of autumn leaves my mother kindly collected from her suburban curb, then scattering the high carbon bedding on top of the manure.

As you can see from the photo, when I run low on autumn leaves, I sometimes use storebought straw, although straw isn't quite as high in carbon and thus doesn't use up as much manure.  In his amazing new book The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, Harvey Ussery recommends using any kind of high carbon bedding that's cheap and easy for the chickens to scratch through.  His coops are bedded with oak leaves but Ussery also recommends kiln-dried wood shavings, wood chips, and sawdust.

From my own experience, I highly recommend stockpiling your bedding right beside the chicken coop.  We've yet to get our act together, so manure often builds up on the coop floor before I get around to hunting down some fresh bedding to add on top.  In the winter, a bit of exposed manure isn't such a big deal, but in the summer the manure stinks and draws flies while letting some of the precious nitrogen escape into the air.  Remember --- a properly  managed chicken coop should be a pleasant environment for both you and your birds!