Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Beekissed]

That's another questionable term. Some folks think of deep litter as just that....someone using a deep layer of bedding in their coop so that waste is lost in the thickness of the wood shavings/straw/hay until it just can't hold anymore without stinking and then they rake it all out and start again.

Some add a few inches when it it gets saturated, lets it get around 6-8 in. deep using this method and then cleans it out and starts again.

Others add new bedding now and again, keep the old bedding turned, letting it decompose and settle over time and rarely ever remove the bedding from the coop for many months or years. This takes really good ventilation and an understanding of what healthy bedding should smell like, look like, feel like. Deep litter purists subscribe to this method as being a true deep litter system as opposed to cleaning it out more often and before it has composted properly.

True deep litter that is well managed provides an environment for good bacterial/microbial growth that will prevent an overgrowth of more harmful pathogens in the coop environment...but it's easy to let that get out of balance if you don't know what you are doing and it can become a petri dish of harmful bacteria or excessive ammonia build-up when too moist, no ventilation, etc.

 

[cluckitall]

It seems like beyond the general usage and meaning of the word "cull," there is a deeper frustration underlying the argument for some folks with those people who are too squeamish to say, or even hear, that a chicken was "killed."

My chickens won't be killed -- well, not unless a hawk or something gets 'em. So far as the dinner table's concerned they'll be slaughtered

. I know, we've truly been as a society and culture so separated from the sources of our food that the idea that something had to die to produce that Longhorn Steak House rib eye we're chowing down oh is, well, shocking. Squeamishness annoys me, not because I don't understand it, but because by its very nature squeamishness makes us dependent on someone else to do what we find too "icky" or disturbing.

Just my two cents. Worth what ya paid for it

 

[cluckitall]

Does cut its head off still mean to separate its head from its shoulders with a sharp implement?

Does plucking still mean pull its feathers out?

I wonder about the word butcher..... To me it means to really mess something up.... Like when I butcher the English language..... I suppose you could butcher a butcher job if you were a really bad butcher....

 

[therapydoglady]

Culling the Cockerels
Therapydoglady

I ordered new chicks a couple months ago,
Enough to make some people's heads whirl.
But I got more cockerels than I could ever need
And they were all mixed up with my girls!

Now having ordered from this hatchery before
I didn't bother to look real close,
And didn't realize there were so many guys
Till they stood on their tip toes and crowed!

I put them all in the clean chicken coop,
And just as I turned to walk out
One litte guy flogged the back of my legs!
Guess he thought he'd established some clout!

I turned around and reached for him,
And he met my challenge, mid air
And I caught him as he was about waist hight
(He'd just as well have flogged a bear!)

I took his little punkin head in my hand
And wrung his neck like my Granny used to,
And plucked his feathers and cleaned him and then
Made a very nice chicken stew!

And we do this thing every couple of days
'Till the population is a manageable size,
And the girls are happy, and we are too
Eatin' chicken boiled, or roasted or fried!​

 

[fowlman01]

Well put.

 

[wsmith]

Culling the Cockerels
Therapydoglady

I ordered new chicks a couple months ago,
Enough to make some people's heads whirl.
But I got more cockerels than I could ever need
And they were all mixed up with my girls!

Now having ordered from this hatchery before
I didn't bother to look real close,
And didn't realize there were so many guys
Till they stood on their tip toes and crowed!

I put them all in the clean chicken coop,
And just as I turned to walk out
One litte guy flogged the back of my legs!
Guess he thought he'd established some clout!

I turned around and reached for him,
And he met my challenge, mid air
And I caught him as he was about waist hight
(He'd just as well have flogged a bear!)

I took his little punkin head in my hand
And wrung his neck like my Granny used to,
And plucked his feathers and cleaned him and then
Made a very nice chicken stew!

And we do this thing every couple of days
'Till the population is a manageable size,
And the girls are happy, and we are too
Eatin' chicken boiled, or roasted or fried!​

 

[fultzie]

CULL .bla bla bla...bla ..bla bla bla ..bla ..kill ..end of story ..come on guys ..just move on plz

 

[ldutch123]

That's another questionable term.  Some folks think of deep litter as just that....someone using a deep layer of bedding in their coop so that waste is lost in the thickness of the wood shavings/straw/hay until it just can't hold anymore without stinking and then they rake it all out and start again.

Some add a few inches when it it gets saturated, lets it get around 6-8 in. deep using this method and then cleans it out and starts again.

Others add new bedding now and again, keep the old bedding turned, letting it decompose and settle over time and rarely ever remove the bedding from the coop for many months or years.  This takes really good ventilation and an understanding of what healthy bedding should smell like, look like, feel like.   Deep litter purists subscribe to this method as being a true deep litter system as opposed to cleaning it out more often and before it has composted properly. 

True deep litter that is well managed provides an environment for good bacterial/microbial growth that will prevent an overgrowth of more harmful pathogens in the coop environment...but it's easy to let that get out of balance if you don't know what you are doing and it can become a petri dish of harmful bacteria or excessive ammonia build-up when too moist, no ventilation, etc. 

 

I'm attempted deep litter method but I wonder is it not going to be effective because I have a raised coop with a wood floor? I'm wondering if you must have a earth floor?

 

[Beekissed]

I've done deep litter on a raised coop, wooden floor for the past 5+ years and it was very effective. Carbonaceous material doesn't need the earth on which to decompose and break down...many a composting bin is not built on an earthen base. In all reality, when I cleaned out my deep litter once or twice a year, there was very little dampness detected in the wood but I wouldn't attempt it on any kind of chip board or laminated type wood....mine was thick, old oak lumber with spaces between the boards.

 

[Beekissed]

Culling the Cockerels
Therapydoglady

I ordered new chicks a couple months ago,
Enough to make some people's heads whirl.
But I got more cockerels than I could ever need
And they were all mixed up with my girls!

Now having ordered from this hatchery before
I didn't bother to look real close,
And didn't realize there were so many guys
Till they stood on their tip toes and crowed!

I put them all in the clean chicken coop,
And just as I turned to walk out
One litte guy flogged the back of my legs!
Guess he thought he'd established some clout!

I turned around and reached for him,
And he met my challenge, mid air
And I caught him as he was about waist hight
(He'd just as well have flogged a bear!)

I took his little punkin head in my hand
And wrung his neck like my Granny used to,
And plucked his feathers and cleaned him and then
Made a very nice chicken stew!

And we do this thing every couple of days
'Till the population is a manageable size,
And the girls are happy, and we are too
Eatin' chicken boiled, or roasted or fried!​

Quite excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The official poem for this thread!!!!!