Deep litter method

[paneubert]

It’s just that they put dot dot dot in am desperate for help cause one of my girls is now lethargic and she isn’t laying and doesn’t poop and is only slightly drinking water. I’m just scared.

If you want help with a sick bird, dont post about it in a 200+ page topic related to using wood chips for a flooring.... I am not trying to be harsh. I feel for you. Best suggestion I can make is to post your problem over in the correct sub-forum:

"Emergencies / Diseases / Injuries and Cures"

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures.10/

I highly doubt you posting here is going to get many replies. It would be like posting about your water heater leaking in a forum dedicated to stamp collecting.

So head on over to....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures.10/

for some help!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

I've been doing deep litter in my current coop and run for the past 18 months, when the coop was built. We've been improving the run this weekend and I was stunned when we moved one paddock wall and exposed where the deep litter had been accumulating for the past 18 months. We've used straw, leaves, mulched grass, and debris from the garden. This is the run so it gets both sun and rain. The picture below shows what has built up in the pen during that time. The straw on top was placed there within the past 2 weeks as we had a heavy rain.



That's several inches of the most beautiful black compost that I've ever seen under that straw. I'm in the clay-belt of Virginia and the picture below is where my husband threw a hunk of our regular soil that he pulled up with his post-hole digger and threw it on top of the composted litter that is under the straw for comparison.



I'll be pulling this compost out of the run and putting it where our tomatoes will go next year and will then begin the deep litter in the run again. No more buying bagged compost or hauling horse manure for us!

 

[Beekissed]

Folks try to scare newbies to chickens with that medicated feed claptrap but I've never used it for chicks in the past almost 40 yrs now with chickens. In all that time I've had one chick with coccidiosis....arrived from the feed store in that condition and was put down as soon as it was discovered. No other chicks contracted it.

Intestinal health is key and using an antibiotic on young animals is usually not the way to get it. And, yes, no matter how they slice it Amprollium, by the way it works, is most definitely defined as a type of antibiotic. That's why the feed is called "medicated"....

Whatever you feed as a chick starter is not going to insure you have sick or well birds by the time they are large enough to take to a 4-H/fair this summer, so feel free to make a more informed choice than the one being pushed on you by the 4-H leader. Read up on it, make your own decision~decisions made from fear are usually not rational ones~and do what you do.

Fermenting your feed will help your chicks recover their intestinal health after it's been affected by the antibiotic usage anyway, so either way you go, if you ferment their feed from day one it will help them become a healthier bird. As will cultivated deep litter.

A good way to inoculate them against the coccidia that may be in your soils is to give them a hunk of sod~with grass intact~in their brooder, where they can ingest the grit and soils, consume some grasses if they want, and even play on the new "jungle gym". A combination of the DL, the FF and the exposure to the soils on which they will be living will help get them on the right track. Any chicks that sicken and die in the brooder stage would not have been healthy birds anyway and it's just a natural culling system. Those that thrive and survive are more likely to thrive during their lifetime and be healthy specimens to take to the show.

 

[Beekissed]

Thought I'd post a vid about DL here so that folks can get a bird's eye view of what it looks like after a winter of birds being confined on it due to deep snows. Pardon the amateur video skills...it is what it is.

 

[jvls1942]

I also get my wood chips from a tree service that comes around every few years and trims for the power company.
I take all they will deliver. usually about 4 good truck loads.
I have a big tractor and loader and I turn the pile a couple of times during the summer.
I use those chips for lots of things.
like filling in a hole where I removed a large stone. banking along the house foundation where the water drips off the roof.
dump a load in the dog kennel to keep it dry.
I also do not tell any locals where I get the chips from.. I don't need that kind of competition ..

 

[sweetater22]

Deep Litter that is 6-8 inches deep will let the water filter down to lower levels of the bedding and not stand on top. You need the added moisture at lower levels to promote the breakdown of the materials and the manure. If you have a drainage problem you can fix that by diverting the water away from you coop and run with a ditch. The run can have a border such as a piece of tin around the perimeter to hold the deep litter in and act as a wind break for your flock. If you will try to make your bedding as close to the forest floor as you can that will provide the most healthy bedding you can provide your flock wood chips, leaves, yard waste, garden waste limited straw etc. make good deep litter.

 

[jvls1942]

I have been doing chickens for over 50 years.
I am really old school.
what is referred to as deep litter today is not what I am familiar with..
we deep litter. and by that, I mean that the "bedding" on the floor of the coop is deep. it acts like insulation if kept dry.. when it gets soiled and matted down, we add more straw.
by spring it is a good foot deep.
I never throw table scraps down. it rots and stinks.
fo me it sounds like you folks today are trying to make compost in the coop.
when I clean out the coop in the springtime, then I toss everything onto the compost pile.
I would never put compost into my coop for litter..
..

 

[aart]

it sounds like you folks today are trying to make compost in the coop.

Yep, some are...some think they are...
...it does work well in some situations, if constructed and managed properly.
I, like you, use a deep dry bedding in coop.

 

[aart]

I figure the more different types of matter the better. Would that be wrong?

Yes, different materials are good, but some of those need to be bigger and slower to break down, like larger wood chippings and twigs.

Along with the carbon:nitrogen ratio, you need air to get into the mix.

More fragile materials will pack together in the wet and create an environment for anaerobic organisms(stinky). The larger, tougher materials create some air space for a healthier mix.

That's why that guy in the video mixes up the litter daily, to introduce air.
So either mixing regularly to break up 'wet packs' and allow air in...
...or use larger woodier materials.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I've got a few deep litter questions:

1) What's the other option if you don't do deep litter?
2) What is the cut off from something being "deep litter" and not?
3) I put in about 2 inches of shavings and rake / mix them up as the top gets soiled. After the shavings get pretty gunky I put a new layer of about 1 inch. When the top gets soiled I rake / mix the whole pile. After the mixed shavings get pretty gunky I put a new layer of about 1 inch and repeat the process. Is this deep litter?