Deep litter method

[Beekissed]

Well, I don't think I have good ventillation....I'll have to add some more, but can't do anything until this weekend. Supposed to rain till then...one coop is too wet and smells like ammonia, even tho I'm turning under the roost every other day and leaving the door open as soon as they are done laying in the morning. I've added canning scraps, corn stalks, pine needle and leaves.
Do u think I should just clean it all out and start over? The good thing is that their roost is next to the door that has most of the ventillation and they are fine, no changes in anything with them.
Soooo....what do u think?

No, I don't think you need to clean it out and start over. Just stop turning it every day unless it's just to barely flip the manure under the roosts into the bedding below or flip a little dry bedding onto the night's deposits. Just lay a nice layer of dry over the too moist bedding and increase ventilation at the floor level....good air in the bottom, moves the humidity up and out the ventilation up above. Can't ever have TOO much ventilation, only too little.

I'd not add wood shavings...they don't absorb and they take forever to compost. They will just add to the ammonia. You can, however, add a light application of sweet lime to your DL to absorb moisture and improve smell, but, ultimately it will come down to ventilation....particularly at the floor level.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I find pine shavings to be very absorbent. They help dry up problems areas in our coops. Not sure why you'd say they'd add to the ammonia. The high carbon content helps to balance the nitrogen in the manure.

What is sweet lime?

 

[Beekissed]

Actually, it takes HUGE amounts of nitrogen to bind with the carbon in wood chips, 500:1 ratio.

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The only time I've ever had high ammonia smells in the coop was when I was doing deep bedding~not necessarily deep litter~with just pine shavings. I've never had that much ammonia smell when using other materials for bedding. I think the amount of feces one would have to accumulate in the coop to bind with pine shavings properly creates such huge ammonia gassing that it creates this affect.

Sweet lime is agricultural, or garden, lime...it's mild and doesn't burn your hands when using it like the caustic lime. It's often used to balance the pH of soil or compost and to absorb moisture in stables/pens/barns.

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[henless]

I've been using DL for 1 1/2 yrs now, and I truly love how easy it is. I know mine isn't perfect, it tends to be more on the dry side, but there is never any smell.

This morning I added some loads of leaves/pine straw to my 3 pens. I love the way the leaves/pine straw makes the coops smell.

I put 2 loads of leaves and 1 load of pine straw in the Creme Legbar baby coop.



I added 3-4 loads of leaves/pine straw in the egg layer coop and the Blue Orp coop. I usually just leave them in piles and let the larger chickens scratch & spread it all out. They love looking for little critters that get brought in with the leaves.



I'll add some more over the weekend and off/on through out the fall. When my large oak leaves fall, I will bag them up for winter use. I'll also start putting some in the runs to help with the wet weather this winter.

 

[Beekissed]

That looks so very pretty!!! I love how DL looks in the coop and run, compared to mud and poop or dusty floors and boards with flies and poop.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Actually, it takes HUGE amounts of nitrogen to bind with the carbon in wood chips, 500:1 ratio.

Poultry manure has a lot nitrogen. It doesn't necessarily take huge amounts of it. My resources say that softwood shavings have a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 225:1 and layer hen manure at 6:1. So it's about 15 lbs of pine shavings to 1 pound of manure to create a 25:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio.

But lately I have seen a lot of blogs with too much emphasis on creating the perfect hot compost pile in the coop, with a good carbon-nitrogen ratio and sufficient moisture to provide a heating effect.

Deep litter is not about compost. Good bedding is absorbent and dilutes and dries the manure. Does it decompose? Yes, but it's a slow process. Fast, hot composting generally contributes to ammonia because you can't make the pack homogeneous enough for those perfect ratios. How do you find the ammonia generating areas in deep litter? You use a thermometer. The hot spots blow off ammonia. You can finish composting it after you clean out the coop by adding moisture to the appropriate levels and aerating it.

Ag lime is not a good choice for poultry litter. The litter is already basic and the microbes that produce the enzymes that break down the litter to produce ammonia thrive at high pH levels. Adding ag lime only exacerbates that. Adding materials that lower the pH will better help to control ammonia generation.

Hydrated lime on the other hand can be useful and was traditionally used in poultry houses. Yes,it is caustic, but that's what makes it useful. It will raise the pH of the litter high enough to kill the microbes responsible for the creating the ammonia, and the oxide reaction with water creates heat that helps to dry the pack. As the litter buffers the lime though, the pH levels can drop over time and cause the litter to blow off ammonia.

It's worth noting that the National Organic Program doesn't allow the use of hydrated lime to "deodorize" manure because it can liberate nitrogen (in the form of ammonia), versus sequestering it, which is contrary to good conservation practices.

Better amendments would be citric acid or other organic acids (which lower the pH) or mined zeolite or gypsum which can bind the ammonia into the litter pack. I've used gypsum before and works well.

 

[henless]

That looks so very pretty!!! I love how DL looks in the coop and run, compared to mud and poop or dusty floors and boards with flies and poop.

I've wanted chickens for a while, but I did not look forward to the smell or poop management. The DL makes having chickens so much easier, it's almost effortless!

 

[Beekissed]

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Those sources are? And it sounds like you are encouraging more of a deep bedding than a deep litter method. A deep bedding method is dependent upon absorbency and piling mass amounts of wood shavings to mask the odor and moisture of the poop...and having to clean that out a couple of times a year before your head hits the ceiling of the coop.

What I create in the coop with the materials and manure isn't a system like that at all and it does create heat and does depend on moisture, and both are present in composting chicken manure. You really can't escape that, but you can work with it. I don't have to clean anything out of my coop unless I really want to do so and it took 3 yrs before I had to even contemplate it due to the compost building up. I haven't seen a fly in years and there is no smell except of earth.

What most people are looking for with this method is less work, less smell, less flies and less expense and my system has all those and all it takes is adding more natural materials and having adequate ventilation. What you are describing takes a lot of wood shavings, huge amounts of labor each year and money.

 

[armorfirelady]

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Those sources are? And it sounds like you are encouraging more of a deep bedding than a deep litter method. A deep bedding method is dependent upon absorbency and piling mass amounts of wood shavings to mask the odor and moisture of the poop...and having to clean that out a couple of times a year before your head hits the ceiling of the coop.

What I create in the coop with the materials and manure isn't a system like that at all and it does create heat and does depend on moisture, and both are present in composting chicken manure. You really can't escape that, but you can work with it. I don't have to clean anything out of my coop unless I really want to do so and it took 3 yrs before I had to even contemplate it due to the compost building up. I haven't seen a fly in years and there is no smell except of earth.

What most people are looking for with this method is less work, less smell, less flies and less expense and my system has all those and all it takes is adding more natural materials and having adequate ventilation. What you are describing takes a lot of wood shavings, huge amounts of labor each year and money.

I am like you Bee. I dont touch the coop from Spring to fall except to maybe add some grass clippings. ANd for winter I just add the free shavings I get, hay once in awhile and throw some scratch in so the hens turn it. Oh and some leaves since I bag what I can just to add during the winter. No smell no work. All year round.

 

[16 paws]

Agree,
Just keep adding natural things to the litter and you and the chickens will be much happier. Let nature do all the work.
Blessings all....
Marie