- Thread starter
- #21
charlotte-and-the-bees
Songster
Oh yeah I should say I’m being a bit dramatic about the drainage. My clumps that get wet it’s been very few spots, mostly when the wind aggressively rips some of the blockers aside slightly and rain gets in and I don’t turn it fully. We have had a lot more heavy rain than normal this month with some bad storms, so even the spots in my yard that are well equipped for draining are pooling. Not ideal all around.I have two spots on the back of my house that when it rains, the sand gets wet and there is no sun to dry it. One spot I dont do any maintenance on, it is just sterile. I would have to shovel out all the organic material if it were wet.
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The second spot on the back of my house also gets wet, but i built this light weight, movable platform on legs that is easy to clean and i can put a plastic sheet over in the rain to drain the water away. Some baby chicks sleep there now, and i also isolate sick birds on the top.
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Im just wondering that if you have a problem with wet sand that won't drain and won't dry, how can composting decaying organic material that wont dry possibly be better?
Your setup sounds like it has ideal drainage materials already, but the drainage isn't working because either the terrain isn't sloped properly or there is nowhere for the water to drain. Some type of platform like i built may work for you.
Deep litter is intriguing, but i don't have the materials to try it, and it would not solve my problem. I am building more platforms above the sand as soon as i can.
Typically the coop stays very dry on top, but occasionally with a deep clean I can find small pockets deeper down that are wet, and worry about pulling them to the surface. But I imagine the habit of turning deep litter constantly (versus just scooping the obvious poop daily and intermittent deep cleans) would work fine with the amount of rare water spots that get in. I just don’t want to risk any disease or mold etc. Ultimately sounds like deep litter is lower risk than sand though?