[sherry in Maine]

It's getting cold, I have hesitated to put the dried leaves I've chopped up or anything else on the floor yet, except DE.
The reason is, it would keep me from scraping poop every day or so.

Pretty soon, the poop will freeze, and there'll be no choice but to leave it.
I will use chopped dried leaves, some pine flakes, and maybe some left over mulch wood chips.....
I would love to use sand, but it's a bear to drag in there, until the ground is frozen solid. I dont think it would make any difference in insulation, but I could be wrong.
I dont like hay or straw (for the floor, though I've used it before). I might buy some bales and line them against the walls, or maybe even those big bales of pine flakes. I did it with hay last year, and it worked ok, but it's a small coop, not a lot of room to stack it high, and besides it is expensive.

What do you guys do, in your very cold climates? What you do in Ky or TN is probably a bit different, due to the extreme difference of temps in winter here.

 

[Marilyn]

I start building layers for winter from the time I deep clean the coop in late spring. The chickens help keep the layers mixed, I add a fresh layer of pine shavings every couple of days, the gradual breakdown of manure, pine shavings, shredded paper, adds a minute amount of warmth to the coop, I believe, and we end up with some pretty amazing compost by the following spring.

 

[Ceilismom]

My coop has a concrete floor, so I start building the winter bedding up in September after a thorough clean-out. I know I'm not likely to get much composting action, so I'm looking for insulation instead.

P.S. This is what I did in NW South Dakota for the previous 3 winters, too.

 

[farmerDale]

I use straw, and I start putting it in when the weather gets so the hens do not emerge anymore, IE when winter settles in and daytime highs are below freezing. Here that usually occurs the 1st of November ish.

 

[aart]

I use an ever deeper(4-8") layer of bagged pine flake shavings in the winter and keep it fluffed up every couple days, they'll nestle down into it to rest during the colder days......but my floor, which is insulated underneath, and roost boards(with sand/PDZ) are lined with heavy vinyl sheet flooring and any frozen poops scrape off pretty easily.

 

[Lady89]

i start putting stuff down as soon as it hits freezing and use the deep litter meathead all winter. At the moment i am using straw but i have fee access to a barn full off old musty straw that need to be used up