Deep litter method

[AlienChick]

I, personally, prefer the shavings since it absorbs more moisture.
Keep the litter stirred up and do your best to keep things DRY and you should not have the ammonia odor.
If you've got some DE or PDZ Stall Dry, I would toss some in to help dry things up.

 

[aggiemae]

I need a little help. I am using deep litter method in an old coop using straw over earth floor. Have 29 free ranging birds, coop is 10x20. I keep getting an ammonia smell. I have been taking away the poop-caked straw every morning (just off the top) and turning the whole mess daily. Seems when it rains the soil wicks up the moisture from outside and I end up with ammonia smell. Should I turn to pine shavings instead of straw or add zeolite or DE to the floor? A few of my girls have had swollen shut eyes, weird sores on the eyes that get big, turn black and then fall off. I suspect this is from ammonia. I'm not sure what my next move should be. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciate

Get your chickens out of there ASAP the ammonia is killing them and it sounds like your coop is too damp.

Bottom line is that your coop needs a deep cleaning. Empty it out and start over an inch or two of "Stall Dry" (or similar) or even dry sand under fresh dry bedding.

Check the birds legs and tail feathers for parasites.with a magnifying glass and dust them all with wood ash or sevin if you see any bugs. And even if you don't treat the sours with vitamin E oil or grape seed oil. If you can't catch yor hens take a couple off the roost when they are sleeping and treat a few each night. It's a good time to look them over for parasites or injuries too. And since you have them and they are clam consider oiling their combs and legs too.

Once the coop is clean consider adding more ventilation as you should never be able to smell ammonia. I know it sounds like alot but one square foot of venting per bird is best to keep the air quality safe and the air dry. . A coop as large as yours should have at least 15 square feet of ventilation even if it's freezing outside because Damp air causes frostbite.

 

[Leahs Mom]

It's been a long time since I've been on here! Have been reading to catch up and wanted to comment on a couple things.

Quote: I have a piece of vinyl flooring over the wood floor. I brought in dirt from the garden and put that down to get things started then build from there. It's working very well.

Since its a beautiful 60 degrees today I spent some time cleaning the coop. I took about 3 garbage cans out of the small doll house coop since its so hard to turn in there. Plus it was so high it was only about 6 inches from roost.

Here is what my deep litter looks like in my enclosed 4x8 run after I turned it.


And here is proof the DL is doing its job. I found this worm this morning while turning the DL. Now remember we have been in a deep freeze the last month or so and ground has been frozen but e dirt under the DL is still soft hence the earth worm.

I know this is an older post but I LOVE it and wanted to say so!!!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Y'all may have already seen this but wanted to post it here just in case. I'm copying a post I had in a different thread.
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Here's a link about the Deep Litter. It was the first information I ever read on the topic almost a year ago before I was on BYC. The writer quotes a article of Kennard and Chamberlin at the Ohio Experiment Station from the Golden Age of deep litter, published in 1949. http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html

Thought it might be useful to someone. Interesting the info they stated about small amounts of ammonia and cocci. While I found the article interesting, it mentions using lime which, I personally, would not use. Note the article states using lime can be caustic to the feet of the chicks!

I tried to read the original article in it's entirety by Kennard and Chamberlin, but you have to have a paid subscription to get the full text...I found that at several sites - this is just one of them: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1949.tb53947.x/abstract

 

[Arielle]

Thanks Lees Mom for the links.

I'm left with trying to understand what I need to do to protect the wooden floors and plywood wall. Looks like this method will rot them. ANd it looks like I don't have to worry about having a bare floor. It can develop what it needs on a floor. THe prolem does seem to be the rotting of the floors and walls though.

Thoughts on how to prevent the rotting??

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm not sure what I'd do if I had the wood floors. I have a thought that it wouldn't rot them for a LONG time. But you might consider something as simple as stapling a tarp down that goes up the walls a little all around if your hen house is small enough to accomplish that. I know someone that used tarps like that and it worked well for them.

 

[Arielle]

I'm not sure what I'd do if I had the wood floors. I have a thought that it wouldn't rot them for a LONG time. But you might consider something as simple as stapling a tarp down that goes up the walls a little all around if your hen house is small enough to accomplish that. I know someone that used tarps like that and it worked well for them.

THanks Leahs Mom. THat's an idea worth looking at. I was thinking of some kind of sealant or paint, IDK.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
One thing I did was paint every wood surface in my hen house for that very reason - I wanted to preserve the wood and I wanted it to be easy to clean when the time came. If you have time for it to be painted and cure well before putting the birds back in there, that's what I'd probably do.

In the short term, the tarps would be a good start!

 

[CMYates]

I plan on using the deep litter method also. I was curious though, how much is needed for 6 inches in a 6x8 foot floor? I can get 5 cubic feet bags. Seems like I would need at least 3 or 4 of those. Am I right?

Also, in deep litter coops, do you mount feeders and waterers on walls? Or hang from above? I was thinking they would be unstable and messy on top of shavings.

6x8x.5=24 cubic feet. 5 bags.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
One thing I did was paint every wood surface in my hen house for that very reason - I wanted to preserve the wood and I wanted it to be easy to clean when the time came. If you have time for it to be painted and cure well before putting the birds back in there, that's what I'd probably do.

In the short term, the tarps would be a good start!
What kind of paint did you use to withstand the moisture??