Deep litter method

[microchick]

Cutting holes in the exterior walls pretty much out of the question, but I can add a hardware cloth screen to the door. The north wall to the coop divides the shed in half. The back half is the chicken coop, the front half is an overhang with storage space. My venting is in the area of the wall where it joins the ceiling. There is also 2 small open hardware cloth covered windows on the south side.

What is strange, is that the only place I'm finding ammonia buildup is under the roosts. One thing different is that the hens like to hang out on the upper roost during the day so they have the fan blowing on them which means there is a higher degree of poop being dropped under the roosts during the day. The solution may be to discourage the hens from hanging around the coop so much and motivate them outside more.

 

[Molpet]

Cutting holes in the exterior walls pretty much out of the question, but I can add a hardware cloth screen to the door. The north wall to the coop is a divides the shed in half. The back half is the chicken coop, the front half is an overhang with storage space. My venting is in the area of the wall where it joins the ceiling. There is also 2 small open hardware cloth covered windows on the south side.

What is strange, is that the only place I'm finding ammonia buildup is under the roosts. One thing different is that the hens like to hang out on the upper roost during the day so they have the fan blowing on them which means there is a higher degree of poop being dropped under the roosts during the day. The solution may be to discourage the hens from hanging around the coop so much and motivate them outside more.

in the bad weather they will be inside , so might as well try to fix it before then.
also did you add any soil? the mircrobs are needed to get the litter cooking and compost up the waste. also need a mixture of things to compost right. .. I had bad luck with shavings..leaves, short dried grass and such worked better for me... those shavings from last winter are just sitting in the unused part of the garden not composting well yet

 

[microchick]

in the bad weather they will be inside , so might as well try to fix it before then.
also did you add any soil? the mircrobs are needed to get the litter cooking and compost up the waste. also need a mixture of things to compost right. .. I had bad luck with shavings..leaves, short dried grass and such worked better for me... those shavings from last winter are just sitting in the unused part of the garden not composting well yet

Until now I have had fairly good luck with pine chips. Plenty of break down. I generally clean twice a year. Spring and Fall. The composted bedding goes directly from the coop to the manure spreader and my husband immediately is out applying it to the pastures. That stuff is black gold. Our pasture is a flying field for RC airplanes and helicopters. The grass where the composted manure has been spread is lush and thick.

The floor of the coop/shed is concrete. No soil added. I've added brome grass hay to the bedding but haven't lately as my last bale is moldy in places. Tonight I worked a half of a bucket of wood ash into the wet areas under the roosts and then turned everything again. Hopefully that will adjust the PH a bit and cut down the ammonia smell, and tomorrow I'll get out and take out about half of the bedding.

The hens set on their top roost pole like a bunch of old women critiquing my work. I told them to not utter one cluck. It was because of them I was out at 9 pm turning bedding and running an extra fan.

I'm really starting to think that the hens spending more time inside and on the cooler top roost bar is adding to the problem.

 

[Beekissed]

Hi guys!

This summer I moved my flock to a roomy 9X12 coop with a concrete floor. Once again I am using the deep liter method that I used with my smaller coop but in spite of regular turning and the hens digging around, I'm getting ammonia smell coming up from under the roosts. I do not use a poop board. As a rule I keep 8 inches or more of bedding in the coop, but the hens are good at moving it to the roosting area and no where else.

I would like to avoid a poop board.

The summer has been wet, humid and hot here. I run a ceiling mounted fan for the flock and have what I thought was adiquate ventilation but now I'm starting to wonder.

I'm planning to remove the bedding under the roosts tomorrow and move it to the compost pile. I'll put down a bale of pine chips.

Any words of wisdom? Would adding more ventilation help? I'm getting ready to put new exterior siding on the east wall so now is the time should I need to do that. Would it help to put a small ventilation fan in one of the grated ventilation ducts that I have up around the ceiling?

More ventilation~especially at floor level~ and stop turning the bedding. At most, just lightly flip the top layer of manure deposited at night into the bedding below or throw a thin layer of bedding from elsewhere in the coop onto those deposits. Just as long as it's covered, but it doesn't have to be deep.

Stirring it just releases the ammonia from the decomposing going on beneath the surface and you'll want to keep that moisture down there. Best bet is to layer dry material over the wet....thin layers as needed, like lasagna gardening. I'd move away from shavings and start incorporating more variety of materials and different particle sizes. This will allow air pockets to exist inside the litter pack that will encourage decomposition. Nice, large woody things helps like weedy stems, corn stalks, corn shucks, etc. Those discourage the chickens from digging into those lower layers and releasing that ammonia. Covering the poop each morning with a layer of dry litter helps with ammonia levels as well. Doesn't have to be much, just a fork full or two of dryer bedding on top of the poop to trap the moisture and smells below the surface.

 

[microchick]

Thanks Beekissed. So basically in trying to duplicate the action the hens used in the old coop, namely, churning things up, I've managed to interrupt the decaying progression of the deeper bedding.

Well, darn. That would explain why I am getting the ammonia smell when I fork through the bedding to loosen it up.

I did use hay and leaves before but stopped as they tend to clog up our manure spreader too much. The pine chips seem to be the right consistency and weight to work just right.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks Beekissed. So basically in trying to duplicate the action the hens used in the old coop, namely, churning things up, I've managed to interrupt the decaying progression of the deeper bedding.

Well, darn. That would explain why I am getting the ammonia smell when I fork through the bedding to loosen it up.

I did use hay and leaves before but stopped as they tend to clog up our manure spreader too much. The pine chips seem to be the right consistency and weight to work just right.

If the hay and leaves are fully composted, they should be small and light particles good for spreading. Maybe not letting them compost down enough? They make up the bulk of my winter litter and they get so fine it's hard to move them with a fork...by the time they are ready to take out of the coop I normally have to use a grain shovel.

A goodly mix of all these materials seem to make the best, though. Even ramial wood chips are great and compost down wonderfully while giving good body to the litter....got anybody dumping wood chips in your area? They usually have a wide variety of particle size and composting rates, so make for some really beautiful compost from the coop. They also tend to hold the moisture well underneath.

 

[microchick]

We live with timber around us on all 4 sides so we are never at a shortage when it comes to leaves, especially with fall around the corner. Hopefully I can gather up a few bags full and add them to the bedding and store bags to last over the winter months. mixed with the pine chips should give the birds something fun to do and help with the breakdown.

I resisted the urge to take out some of the bedding. Adding the ash last night does seem to have helped as far as the strong odor is concerned. One of the Amish farmers near us sells barn lime. I'll have to check on that. Also there are numerous Amish sawmills around us. I don't know about chips but they usually have a lot of really coarse saw dust that might be used to mix in with the bedding.

Question. Can pieces of dry wall be crushed up and sprinkled to help things along?

I did spend much of the day building a new hardware cloth screened storm door for the coop. I didn't get it hung as I'm still putting the piano hinge on and doing adjustments. I don't plan on leaving it open during the night but it should help with the ventilation a lot during the day. Since the coop is like a room within the shed, I should be able to leave it open during the day in winter also.

 

[Beekissed]

We live with timber around us on all 4 sides so we are never at a shortage when it comes to leaves, especially with fall around the corner. Hopefully I can gather up a few bags full and add them to the bedding and store bags to last over the winter months. mixed with the pine chips should give the birds something fun to do and help with the breakdown.

I resisted the urge to take out some of the bedding. Adding the ash last night does seem to have helped as far as the strong odor is concerned. One of the Amish farmers near us sells barn lime. I'll have to check on that. Also there are numerous Amish sawmills around us. I don't know about chips but they usually have a lot of really coarse saw dust that might be used to mix in with the bedding.

Question. Can pieces of dry wall be crushed up and sprinkled to help things along?

I did spend much of the day building a new hardware cloth screened storm door for the coop. I didn't get it hung as I'm still putting the piano hinge on and doing adjustments. I don't plan on leaving it open during the night but it should help with the ventilation a lot during the day. Since the coop is like a room within the shed, I should be able to leave it open during the day in winter also.

Not sure about the drywall, as I'm not sure about all the components in it...I think that's just gypsum and shouldn't be harmful in any way and usually makes a great soil amendment.

The sawdust will actually increase the ammonia smell as it breaks down, IME, so I'd avoid it if you can, though it's nice in small amounts in dry times as it holds moisture in the litter very well. Sweet lime is good for odors but too much can slow down your composting, so I'd use it lightly and sparingly....it can be had pretty cheaply at any garden center and goes a long, long way.

Dry bedding on top of the wet seems to work best and, of course, really good ventilation....that seems to be the best solution of all. That door you are building seems like it will be a really good addition to the coop...any way you can get some cross ventilation going with that door so that the stale air containing the ammonia smells gets moved up and out? Or will the door provide that for your already existing venting? If so, that would be hugely better for getting the humidity out of the coop.

 

[microchick]

I do have some cross air circulation going. There is a small window on the south side of the coop along with the pop door. There is also a small 8X8 in vent over the pop door. I'm probably going to loose the window at night over the winter months as it is by the roosts. I will probably also loose one of the vents near the ceiling over the winter months also as it is over their heads. During the day I can open things up but at night, well, our winters are too windy/cold/wet for that. So probably I'm looking at 10 hours or so of being able to have the coop opened so I can get some adequate air circulation inside.

Yep, dry wall is gypsum. Since out soil is heavy clay, we use it whenever we plant new trees or plants to help break down the clay.

 

[JoyceAnnieSmith]

what is DE?