Am I letting my deep litter go too long w/o turning?

[3KillerBs]

I've been wondering about this part because we're having a fairly heavy rain with some intermittent lightning and thunder today. I was thinking we might just go through some scratch into the coop and keep them in there until the storm passes. Are there no sanitary issues here if they are stepping around in their poop / scratching for food in it?

One of the things with the deep bedding is that because you have so much of it the poop will quickly dry out and become harmless.

I've never managed to convince my birds to stay out of the rain completely. They go in and out and sometimes look half-drowned, but they're always OK.

This thread might be reassuring: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wet-hens.1442537/

I've even seen my birds out foraging in their run between rain bands during tropical storms.

 

[YolkFolksHome]

3 killers has a great article. I love this deep bedding method.
I put up a poop board under roost since that's where the majority of the poop ends up.
Otherwise I turn bedding about once a month mostly to fluff it up during the cold . It never smells I change once a year in spring.

Hi, im new to chicken keeping, they'll be here in April and I plan on doing a deep litter bedding with Hemp and am wondering if you can explain your poop boards under your roosts for me please? What are they and how and how often do you clean a poop board

 

[ChickyCh00k]

Hi, im new to chicken keeping, they'll be here in April and I plan on doing a deep litter bedding with Hemp and am wondering if you can explain your poop boards under your roosts for me please? What are they and how and how often do you clean a poop board

If you're using a poop board, it would likely be difficult to also do deep litter, since the deep litter method is dependent upon the droppings for the composting process. Typically, I think folks choose one or the other.

A poop board is situated under the roosts to catch the overnight droppings (if you search the term, you'll find MANY examples throughout the forums). Most, but not all, people put a substrate on the poop board so the droppings can be sifted out like cat litter (sand, PDZ, or a mixture of the two are popular). I use recycled coffee ground bedding on mine and I clean it/scoop the poop daily (replacing the grounds every few weeks).

If you're doing deep litter, I don't think you'd want a poop board. Also, if your coop has a floor (i.e. not placed directly on dirt), it's called "deep bedding", not deep litter, and that is a bit different system. Here is @3KillerBs article on deep bedding: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

 

[3KillerBs]

f you're using a poop board, it would likely be difficult to also do deep litter, since the deep litter method is dependent upon the droppings for the composting process. Typically, I think folks choose one or the other.

Yes, if you're talking true deep litter, a moist, composting method, that's hard to combine with a poop board unless the chickens are cooped constantly.

But many people combine a poop board with deep bedding.

 

[Happy hen lover]

Hi, im new to chicken keeping, they'll be here in April and I plan on doing a deep litter bedding with Hemp and am wondering if you can explain your poop boards under your roosts for me please? What are they and how and how often do you clean a poop board

I use deep litter on coop. My poop board consists of a 4"tall x 12" wide x40"long wooden box " crate" like structure setting on 2x4s about 9" under roost. It is lined with 2" of mini pine shavings (same as coop bedding) . I'm trying something new lately , I 'm laying scraps of landscape fabric on top of bedding (that lets the wetness of poop be absorbed by bedding) but makes cleaning poop easier as I just roll up squares of fabric and dump poop off. When bedding is too nasty I just change it out.
PDZ is 12.00 a bag here and pine shavings are 5.00. We are not a humid climate here as some folk on here are. I clean poop board every 10 days - ,2 weeks or so. Cat litter is too dusty and pricey too. It works for me . Hope that answers your question.
Raising poop board gave me more coop floor square footage.

 

[YolkFolksHome]

I use deep litter on coop. My poop board consists of a 4"tall x 12" wide x40"long wooden box " crate" like structure setting on 2x4s about 9" under roost. It is lined with 2" of mini pine shavings (same as coop bedding) . I'm trying something new lately , I 'm laying scraps landscape fabric on top of bedding (that lets the wetness of poop be absorbed by bedding) but makes cleaning poop easier as I just roll up squares of fabric and dump poop off. When bedding is too nasty I just change it out. PDZ is 12.00 a bag here and pine shavings are 5.00. We are not a humid climate here as some folk on here are. I cleaned poop board every 10 days - ,2 weeks or so. Cat litter is too dusty and pricey too. It works for me . Hope that answers your question.
Raising poop board gave me more coop floor square footage.

Thanks so much for explaining it for me.

 

[Happy hen lover]

No problem good luck to you.

Thanks so much for explaining it for

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

my chickens don't seem to be turning the litter themselves.

Toss a handful of scratch in there and they will turn it for you

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

General question: my chickens don't seem to be turning the litter themselves. Is this normal? They don't spend all that much time in the coop (yet? I bought them as pullets and they haven't started laying) because they spend most of the day free-ranging. At sundown they come into the coop and roost on the bars, and then their poop piles up in straight lines under the roosting bars. Should I be expecting them to do more turning or am I supposed to do most of that myself?

I turn it over myself in my coop, weekly. During the summer months I find that my girls prefer staying outside, so I do all the work myself. In the winter they are more likely to hang out in the coop and do a lot of the turning over themselves, but there are particular areas they don't get to. I still turn it over myself in the winter, but less frequently. I have a poop board under my roost, which I scoop every other day, so there's only a very small amount of pooping that actually happens on the floor of my coop. Since you don't appear to have a tray to catch the poop, you may need to turn more frequently.