Convert to deep litter?

[gummylick]

When this house was made, they originally made it too tall, so I asked them to add a divider and that way I could have 2 levels for quails. I solved the flooring problem by creating a sort of lifted wire floor that I drop wood pellet sawdust into. It works ok, I often just wipe and trash the top level into a bucket.

My question is, would it be any better I just created some 2" walls around the top and removed the wire floor and put down the wood pellets instead? This is outside and so that open side can catch some rain, not sure if this makes it worse.

 

[Debbie292d]

Your title says "deep litter" which I don't use, but then the horse bedding pellets/pine wood pellets, that's what we use in our coops and brooders.

I would definitely think that sounds like a plan and much easier for you. Quail, unlike chickens, wouldn't scratch the pellets around as much so you may need to get a big stick or metal rake and mix them up now and then, but I wouldn't bother cleaning until over half of those turn to sawdust. Then I'd just replace them. We let ours go to once a year, in March, we switch our coops out with fresh. Brooders are every other hatch.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I love deep litter as do the birds, if you can manage it in a pen situation that’s awesome, I had trouble getting the litter deep enough. Just make sure you monitor moisture, too wet and it will rot, too dry and it won’t compost.