cleaning with pine shavings

[CATRAY44]

Stall dry works great, too, mixed in with the bedding...

 

[riderbecky]

Quote:
How much lime do you use, and what does it do? Will the chickens not eat it?

I just replied to an email about this so I think I'll copy it here as it answers some questions.

Please note I use agricultural lime and not quick lime. I use it for two
reasons. 1. Soil amendments - to attempt to maintain a neutral PH by
counteracting the acidity of the pine shavings as they decompose. 2.
Control odor - I'm not sure how well it works but I think anything that
helps to absorb moisture and neutralize ammonia will help in this regards.
I am an aggie college graduate where we used quick lime on the floors of
stalls when they were mucked out however I opted to go with the agricultural
lime for my chickens because I didn't want to burn their little feet with
the corrosive properties of the quick lime.

I'm also planning to introduce soil into the mix as well to introduce
beneficial microbes to aid in the composting process of the chicken litter
while in the coop. I'm hoping this will help so that I can introduce the
chicken litter directly to my gardens and flower beds without needing to
compost it for months first.

Also, I don't use alot maybe a cup or two each time I change out the litter. I'm not sure why you'd feel that the chickens would eat it though. It is a powder and is sprinkled on the floor of the coop when the littler is changed. I have been doing this for about a year now with no ill effects.

 

[Autumn Mama]

Becky, I like this thinking!

It was on my mind as well, that I would need to compost shavings a long time before using on my ornamental or food gardens. I was afraid that the pine would break down slowly, and also that it would leach nitrogen out of my compost/soil.

How much earth do you figure you'll try?

We are starting our coop and the ideas about managing litter, poop etc to be recycled are varied for sure!

 

[tdgill]

hmm interesting...

I have the loose dirt from shovel chunks of sod I brought in - not much yet, mixed in with shavings also some stray hay and was wondering how that might affect my litter. Sounds like it is a good thing. And I am sure there is scattered crumbles here and there that I am concerned and not sure how it will affect litter. I was considering starting over with my deep litter - but then wondered if during the summer it was best to keep the litter fresher and less deep to avoid any added heat from it cooking

http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html

figure I needed a refresher read.

 

[patandchickens]

There is no "the" deep litter method, there are a zillion different personal things people do that for some reason all get lumped under this heading but can involve really pretty different procedures and results

FWIW, I do not clean my pens out much (but I do use droppings boards cleaned every morning, which removes about half the poo from the coop right then and there); if a little bit gets especially skanky I may shovel it out, and every few months I decide things are looking a little 'thin' and add some more shavings. Thus far I've always had reason about once a year to do a wholesale cleanout, like I recently sold the birds from one pen and figured I'd clean it out before putting this spring's chicks in there. Otherwise I dunno whether I'd do that wholesale cleanout every year -- would depend on how things were going. Really the bedding stays pretty dry and "clean" (by animal bedding standards) and in no way objectionable, though. Of course I do have fewer chickens in there than most people.

It's totally a personal thing, everyone's situations and preferences are different.

For composting, btw, unless you let your bedding get really *scary* nasty, it will be deficient in N for ideal composting. Adding back poo from droppings boards can help, or grass clippings (but really you should be using a mulching mower and not *have* clippings...), or other animal manure without bedding, or commercial N fertilizer. Of course even without adding N the stuff will compost *eventually*

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[riderbecky]

Quote:
I'm sure I have no idea.

I think it would depend on the size of your coop, how much bedding you have inside the coop and how quickly you want everything composted. The thing I'm trying to accomplish is to introduce the microscopic flora found in the soil into the bedding. I've come to understand that deep litter methods traditionally were done with an earthen floor....hence my hypothesis. PatandChickens makes very valid points.

I'm no expert by any means and I hope people don't do things just because I have an idea that sounds good. I make mistakes (shhh don't tell my dh) and much of what I'm doing may not work for others. Please do the reseach and try to find what will best work for your situation.

 

[Dustoff79]

I add zeolite to my shavings after I have mixed them up. This serves to help dry out the litter and absorbs the ammonia which virtually eliminates the smell. It is a great admendment to the compost pile when I finally do add the litter to it.

 

[PAJerry]

I considered the deep litter method but being somewhat of a 'neat freak' I had to clean the coop out about once a month. I used pine shavings with about 2 cups of agricultural lime in a 6 X 8 coop. Now, I finally got the dropping boards in and what a difference! The coop in MUCH cleaner, the boards take 2 minutes to scrape off and the whole thing is better. The benefits of installing and using dropping boards are amazing. I know I'm going to save a bunch of time and money with this simple fix.

 

[basicliving]

Quote:
I also use the DLM and as has been stated - that method seems to vary from person to person. But one benefit of this method is that you can rake/shove/etc. around in the coop to mix the poop in with the shavings and it will virtually eliminate the odor. No need to remove poop from the litter - although I sometimes do if there is an especially big pile under the roosts. I scoop poop off roosts and the top of nest boxes each day - and use a garden rake to mix in poop under the roosts once a week or so. Then add more litter in on top of that. When the weather is bad and the chickens are hanging out in the coop, I throw some scratch around in the coop and the chickens mix everything in for me. So I don't usually remove the poop from the litter - I just stir it all in add more litter on top of that once a week. This weekend I will be shoveling it all out and starting over.

The deep litter adds a little insulation to the floor during the winter as well. And my coop is very dry, so the litter doesn't get hot.

Hope this helps,
Penny