Washingtonians

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Hey Washingtonians!!!!

It's great to see peeps in Washington State who love raising backyard chickens come together, but over 80,000 replies in one thread is bogging down the server when we do updates. For this reason we're starting a new Washingtonians thread.

Please continue all of your great discussions here.

Thanks to all our Washington friends for being (chatty) members of our wonderful community!!!!

Once we see that peeps are migrating to the new thread we'll close this one.

Thanks for understanding the need to keep a clean shop.
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Sounds heavy handed to me. Why not have the thread self eliminate posts that are more then 90 days old? Every forum I go on does it that way. To start a new thread is silly. We will lose some posters and BYC will lose some customers. I guess they're rich enough they don't care?
BOO! and that ain't for the coming goblins.
Seeya all, then again, maybe not.
 
My coop's not so big, so I use a sand box under their roost for easy poop scooping. I haven't had chickens long enough to have formed a real opinion on a lot of things, but I am trying the deep litter method in my run, which has a dirt floor, and so far it's working great, I fluff/stir it up and add some shavings once a week. I just pulled an all-nighter writing a paper, so I'm in explaining/rambling mode...so here's my take on the science of why deep litter works and why I chose to try it for myself.

First, a little background. I have a lot of fish and I've noticed fish and chickens have one thing in common...both make a lot of ammonia and ammonia is bad for them. In my fishtanks, what keeps the ammonia from harming my fish is my filter, and what the filter provides is water flow over an aerobic space for beneficial bacteria to live. These bacteria convert the ammonia to nitrites, then other beneficial bacteria turn the nitrites to nitrates. The bacteria can live in both water and land (but need a surface to attach to), and will naturally populate a filter over time as long as they have a little ammonia to feed on, a sponge to cling to and proper oxygen flow (provided by the moving water). If I were to change my filter media every week, my fish would quickly die of ammonia poisoning unless I also did daily water changes to manually remove the waste they're secreting. Big pain in the butt..with the bacterial conversion, the colony grows to a size the ammonia can sustain, so it's self regulating and my ammonia and nitrite readings are always zero, but it does take about a month to get this bacterial cycle established which is one reason so many people have dead and sick fish when they first start keeping them. I still need to change the water periodically to remove the nitrates, but I can do that once or twice a month without the fish taking any damage since it's a much less harmful substance (and why fishtank water and chicken compost make plants grow well...straight ammonia burns, but once converted to nitrate, it's great fertilizer.)

I see my chicken run as a similar biological system. The chickens are providing a constant source of ammonia, and if I keep the bedding fluffy, those bacteria have a nice aerobic place to live and convert the ammonia to less harmful substances as it's deposited, so if I stick my face down in the bedding (ended up that way last week trying to make the run more secure) there's only an earthy compost smell. I refresh the bedding to help keep it from getting compacted, and if water were to spill, I'd pull that out and add fresh dry stuff...but I always leave enough of the old bedding to help inoculate the new with the good bacteria so the colony doesn't have to completely start over, just play a little catch up. If I were pulling everything out every week, a few bacteria in nature would try to start over every week on a sterile bed, and given the length of time it takes for the bacteria to establish a good colony, it's just not gonna happen so the run gets stinky and has to be sterilized week after week and in the meantime the chickens are stuck breathing it until I have the time to catch up on the cleaning. I figure why make extra work for myself when nature has a better handle on waste management than I do anyway?

So yes, so far, it's working for me. Also, I live on top of a hill with good drainage, my run has great ventilation, and between my weekly additions the chickens do a pretty good job of keeping things stirred up, so those are some factors that help keep it from getting muddy and gross. Also, knowing that it takes some time to get the bacterial colony going, if I were to try it in a coop with less ventilation, I'd be concerned about an initial ammonia build-up. To counter that I'd probably do a modified version at first, pulling out at least half of the bedding and replacing with new (I'm thinking at least weekly or as needed...if you can smell the ammonia, it's needed) to try and keep the ammonia levels down for the girls, but leaving enough of the old that the bacterial colonies have a chance to keep growing, and then once there was no trace at all of the ammonia smell shifting to full blown deep litter.

Just my thoughts, I know different folks have different strokes and that's fine too.

Very helpful, thank you!
 
Sounds heavy handed to me. Why not have the thread self eliminate posts that are more then 90 days old? Every forum I go on does it that way. To start a new thread is silly. We will lose some posters and BYC will lose some customers. I guess they're rich enough they don't care?
BOO! and that ain't for the coming goblins.
Seeya all, then again, maybe not.
Well i think its easier to ask the administrators the whys and whyfors before thinking what may or may not be true....doncha think????????????????????eliz
 
I do think it should be noted how long the WA thread was the #1 state thread and that we even had several peeps from other states who frequently posted here and were included in our discussions and that all were welcome to join in any time. R.I.P. my old friend. Gonna miss ya but tis time to put one foot in front of the other and move on (with the NEW thread)!!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/717207/washingtonians-come-together-washington-peeps
 
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Hey Washingtonians!!!!

It's great to see peeps in Washington State who love raising backyard chickens come together, but over 80,000 replies in one thread is bogging down the server when we do updates. For this reason we're starting a new Washingtonians thread.

Please continue all of your great discussions here.
 
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