Results from First Year with Deep Litter Method

[Beekissed]

Not this one, but the last coop I had was elevated even higher than that and I never had frozen litter. I even had open ventilation of a foot square at the floor level and the litter never froze...same temps.

Could be maybe you had moisture throughout your bedding material instead of mostly underneath the dryer layers. Too much stirring, scratching through all the layers maybe? Or not enough ventilation to move the moisture from the composting up and out? A couple of years ago I had some freezing of the bedding when I had more shavings than leaves but it didn't last past the subzero temps of that week...I think it had more to do with too much moisture throughout the bedding due to having my coop buckled down too tightly. I adjusted to allow for WAY more ventilation after that episode and had even colder temps last year but didn't have an ounce of freezing.

Both times I've had an issue with either mild frost bite or freezing of bedding in the past, it was due to not having enough ventilation and using more pine shavings than any other kind of bedding...when I had more venting than most folks have on their coop. I just needed even more. Found out I couldn't really have too much when it comes to this DL and found that having all of one kind of bedding leads to problems.

 

[RonP]

Not this one, but the last coop I had was elevated even higher than that and I never had frozen litter. I even had open ventilation of a foot square at the floor level and the litter never froze...same temps.

How deep was deep?

Mine froze solid, but coop constraints only allows for 14 inches max deep litter inside. I couldn't get a fork in it...and my coldest temps don't even compare with yours.

Coop design also allows, and has, >1 square foot ventilation per bird, very well ventilated and draft free.

Sorry for these questions, I'm just trying to figure out where I went wrong.

Fail, and I have to wait a year to try again...

 

[Beekissed]

You can probably get an idea about the DL depth in my coop by looking at that vid but I've never had it any deeper than maybe 10-12, if that. Usually hangs around 6-8 in. on average, with dips even lower in the summer months when the composting really kicks in high gear.

I can understand the questions as I am constantly learning about this DL too. I would consider last winter my most successful winter yet with the DL and it was after I had changed many things in my coop. I have a hoop coop, so ventilation is always pretty good but I provided even more with this last coop tweak and it was also the very first winter I didn't use a single bale of wood chips. Eureka! The increased ventilation at certain points in the coop and the very minimal existence of the wood chips were important. I thought I had made a mistake by putting down sawdust at the lowest levels under the roosts but that turned out to be a happy accident...they served to hold moisture in the bottom levels there, while the leaves and such seemed to ride on top. In the vid you can see that I had to really dig to get that level up to the surface, so I know the chickens can't disturb it.

Before last winter I thought I had great ventilation....but after doing a winter with the whole top of the coop door being open to air and various large spaces at all levels open to air, even in -17* weather, I was simply amazed at how much more warm and dry the whole coop and, especially the DL, could be. So much so that I took my old reliable Coke thermometer and hung it next to the roost so I could see what the temps were at roost level at night. I was amazed! I think that additional ventilation took the warm, moist air from the DL and just constantly moved it up past the birds and out the top of the coop. I could feel an immediate difference when stepping from outside into the coop and I never had that experience before.

I think it all comes down to opening up various large areas of ventilation at all levels of the coop and then just adjusting them to get the right airflow going at any given time. Then choosing materials that are more likely to keep composting even when temps are extremely cold. I never even saw frozen poop this past winter, but in previous winters I would come to the coop in the morning to find the poop had frozen on the DL or even chunks of frozen DL(mostly the pine shavings) and even frost on top of the leaves in the bedding. Last winter was our coldest yet and none of that was in evidence. Nice and moist underneath, dry and light on top, 10 degrees warmer at roost level all night long. That DL was even warm enough to keep my fermented feed from freezing...when we got down to -17* I was having problems of it freezing in the trough before the birds could eat it, so I just took to putting it directly on the DL and never had a bit of frozen feed after that. That was really cool.

I'm still marveling over it and I finally feel like this DL is working well...so well, in fact, that I could finally remove well composted material out of the coop after 3 years of accumulation. Three years I've never cleaned it out, but now it's making compost like crazy....I screened out a couple wheelbarrows full this spring and will be doing the same this next week. The larger particles get returned to the coop, the fine composted material will go on the garden.

 

[mommacoop25]

@Beekissed will the deep litter method work on a coop that is being built like a Woods open air coop? it will have a wood floor with a roofing sealant over it. We are just getting ready to get the chickens from a friend. The run is being finished now and bringing there current hoop coop to the house and then building a woods style coop. Any suggestions for litter ect would be wonderful. I believe he has about 16 chickens.
thanks

 

[Beekissed]

A Wood's style coop would be perfect for doing DL ! That's how I tried to style the tweaks on my hoop coop last season, so it would more mimic the airflow in a typical Wood's style coop and it made all the difference in the world. I placed my roosts in the back like the WSC and had the bulk of my ventilation in the front of the coop, though mine didn't extend all the way down the wall in the front I had left many wide cracks down that wall to allow air flow through that it. I left the top portion of the front of the coop open air, with a way to adjust this if the winds were blowing directly into the coop.

Because I couldn't do the high windows over the roosting area like the WSC, I had to come up with other ventilation in that area that would help the air flow move in a similar manner and managed~somehow~to get it to happen. I believe God helped me with that one, as I'm none too smart about physics.

I think the WSC is an ideal type coop for management of DL, though it would be even more ideal if the floor were on the soil instead of made from wood.

 

[mommacoop25]

i wish we had the soil floor but we have existing big deck out where the coop and run are going to be located so we shall give the DL a try! In the run do we do the same thing? Also for the "floor" of the run we need to put wire down right?

 

[Beekissed]

I don't know why you'd need wire in the floor of the run....can't imagine that you'd need it. Yeah, the run is much like the coop except you don't have to worry about ventilation and you usually get plenty of moisture, depending upon your climate. In the run you can build it deeper, as you won't have to worry about losing head space, and you can throw stuff in willy nilly, whenever you feel like it, to keep it to a good depth. I've heard of people throwing all their corn shucks and stalks in the run~I do the same in my coop~any weed stalks, flower trimmings, sticks, stumps, etc. The deeper the better in the run, but try to avoid doing it all with one kind of material if you can help it....you'll want good air spaces and good drainage in the litter pack to promote good composting.

 

[mommacoop25]

i may have to ask you questions regarding hoop coop once we get his over to our house. They will be housed in it till new one built.

 

[Beekissed]

 

[Bridebeliever]

I hope I'm asking a very simple question here because my BRAIN is about to EXPLODE from all the reading I've done on deep litter!! I'm starting a new coop, 9 chickens, 8x17 space. The floor is cement. What do I put on the floor and in what order? Right now I have many black garbage bags of mostly dry maple leaves. It rained, so there's a little moisture in there but I dug down and got the driest leaves. Here's the area I am deep littering:

It's still a little under construction but we are
Almost there!