Deep litter method

[armorfirelady]

Rainy here so I was out turning the DL and added some leaves, pine straw and peat moss. I noticed the dog crate where I keep their food was in standing water so I grabbed a pitch fork full of DL from the coop to put on top of the water. As I was spreading it by hand I was pleasantly surprised to feel the warmth in the DL. Must be doing its thing that it's generating heat while the temps are in the 30s here

No wonder the girls love to hunker down in it when the temps are in the teens and below

 

[henless]

I have a DL question. As it gets deeper, do ya'll just let it pile up against the hardware cloth or do you put boards up along the bottom of the pen to help keep it in? I'm thinking like a 1" x 12" board?

 

[armorfirelady]

I have a DL question. As it gets deeper, do ya'll just let it pile up against the hardware cloth or do you put boards up along the bottom of the pen to help keep it in? I'm thinking like a 1" x 12" board?

I don't put up any boards. Very little gets out thru the hardware cloth.

 

[henless]

I don't put up any boards. Very little gets out thru the hardware cloth.

Thanks! I was really wondering about that.

 

[SavageDestiny]

So I have a couple questions about deep litter. How long does it take to start "working"? Or rather, when will I know if it is NOT?

I am a clean freak. I like my animals in clean, healthy environments. I have had my chickens (4 girls) almost a week now and just adore them. I like the idea of DLM because it seems more natural- good bacteria, bugs for the girls to eat, and it makes compost. My issue is that I really... REALLY... want to scoop the poop! I'm using pine shavings. The coop isn't stinky, there are no fumes, no smell at all really. I have added fresh shavings and stirred up the shavings a few times. I just feel like I should be doing... more! The clean freak in me says there is no way this can be so easy and still be okay.

I suppose I'm just looking for someone to reassure a paranoid new chicken owner!

 

[blucoondawg]

I tried deep litter for the first time this year, however I need to make some modifications, the way my roosts are set up I cannot have poop boards so the floor under the roost area accumulates a major amount of poop stalagmites, which due to my northern climate and my not heating the coop freeze like poop permafrost and will not be picked up or raked unless it is cleaned up early every morning, which I don't have the time for, so I will be rebuilding a roost concept to allow for some sort of poop board which can easily be scraped off. Other than the roost area I have liked this method as it is a time saver, I don't have the desire to have to do a deep clean on the coop and fully replace the bedding every few weeks especially in the middle of a cold and snowy winter.

 

[Beekissed]

So I have a couple questions about deep litter. How long does it take to start "working"? Or rather, when will I know if it is NOT?

I am a clean freak. I like my animals in clean, healthy environments. I have had my chickens (4 girls) almost a week now and just adore them. I like the idea of DLM because it seems more natural- good bacteria, bugs for the girls to eat, and it makes compost. My issue is that I really... REALLY... want to scoop the poop! I'm using pine shavings. The coop isn't stinky, there are no fumes, no smell at all really. I have added fresh shavings and stirred up the shavings a few times. I just feel like I should be doing... more! The clean freak in me says there is no way this can be so easy and still be okay.

I suppose I'm just looking for someone to reassure a paranoid new chicken owner!

It will be different for each coop/person depending upon the climate, the season, the materials used, the ventilation, the coop floor or lack thereof, the stocking rate, etc. You'll know it's not working if you are smelling ammonia....then you need to adjust something.

You'll have to start seeing the poop as something NOT dirty but more as an integral part of a working system..without the poop, no need for the system and the whole cultured composting aspect of it.

I'll be doing a little video of the deep litter in my coop here soon and hope it will show the clean freaks of the world out there just how wonderful a working DL really is....too bad we don't have smellavision. If you hadn't dealt with chicken poop for most of your natural born life, you couldn't possibly understand how wonderful this method truly is...cleaning out animal poop for that long would cure you of your need to scoop poop. My granny would have leaped for joy to have known about it! My mother (79 yrs old) is in constant amazement to stand in a chicken coop at the height of summer and not smell chicken poop nor see a single fly. And you'll not meet anyone who is more of a clean freak then my mother....she probably has bleach running through her veins instead of blood.

 

[armorfirelady]

Savage destiny I think if you can resist the urge in a few weeks you won't notice the poop except under the roost that with a quick turn of the rake disappears in the DL. Even in the midst of our arctic winter it was hard to see poop piles anywhere except under the roost. The DL deep in the coop is a rich dark brown that smells like good ole dirt like in the forest. I add more DL to mine at least once a month. It's breaking down wonderfully even in this cold.

My girls regularly dig down a few feet to the bottom of the DL looking for good things to eat. Pretty impressive when a few weeks ago it was 3 ft deep. It's broken down some more in spots to about 2 feet deep.

My veggie garden will be very happy this spring with all this good compost

 

[jstlitlome]

This was my first year with chickens. I switched to DLM from sand last october and it has been GREAT! I do think I'm going to throw it all in the garden and start over here in a few weeks. I'll see if I like it in the summer. I may be a DLM/Winter and Sand/summer person, but I'll try it first. The chickens have been doing well with the DLM, and it is MUCH easier!

 

[armorfirelady]

This was my first year with chickens. I switched to DLM from sand last october and it has been GREAT! I do think I'm going to throw it all in the garden and start over here in a few weeks. I'll see if I like it in the summer. I may be a DLM/Winter and Sand/summer person, but I'll try it first.  The chickens have been doing well with the DLM, and it is MUCH easier!

I empty mine in May and just put a thin layer of shavings in the coop. I rarely add much shavings during the summer. They are rarely in there except to roost so there is rarely any smell. Of course I also lift the side flaps once it's warm out so there is plenty of ventilation to keep it dry. Grass clippings are great for the spring/summer. I love the smell of fresh cut grass and it makes the coop smell wonderful as well.