Deep litter done right

[henless]

Deep litter is liking raising chickens. Everyone does it a little different so that it works for them in their environment.

I've just had my 4th anniversary here at BYC. I've done DL since day one. Mine does not compost in the coop. It's just too dry. I fill it full of leaves & pine straw every fall. I do have a small amount of shavings that get added when I clean out my nesting boxes. The coop never stinks. I never have to stir it. The chickens do it for me.

This was last fall. I have about 5-6 lg loads of leaves/pine straw in this coop. I ended up putting around 15 in this coop alone. Bye the time the chickens get through, it's all in tiny pieces and hard to tell what is what.



When late summer rolls around, all of this will be tossed into the run to compost down. By Spring, I will screen out compost as needed. The compost looks like this. Real fine, dark compost.



Like I said, I never stir my litter. I don't have poop boards and my chickens don't free range. All their poop is either in the coop or run. My max load is 10 chickens per 10x10 coop. I usually keep it less than that. I like to give them plenty of room.

 

[CindyR]

Hush Puppy And Chickens

• moco27
• Nov 19, 2017
• 3

Dust is a problem with chickens. I don't know if it is more or less than other litters I tried as the chickens produce dust anyway and I can't remember a difference and don't know how I could quantitate that anyway. They do dust bathe in it all the time. They love to tear apart any piles of sawdust I leave outside the coop along with the dogs. I have had wood roosts in it since I started and it hasn't shown any signs of rot. The wood turns gray but it isn't soft or falling apart.

Thanks, DL is certainly wor

Deep litter is liking raising chickens. Everyone does it a little different so that it works for them in their environment.

I've just had my 4th anniversary here at BYC. I've done DL since day one. Mine does not compost in the coop. It's just too dry. I fill it full of leaves & pine straw every fall. I do have a small amount of shavings that get added when I clean out my nesting boxes. The coop never stinks. I never have to stir it. The chickens do it for me.

This was last fall. I have about 5-6 lg loads of leaves/pine straw in this coop. I ended up putting around 15 in this coop alone. Bye the time the chickens get through, it's all in tiny pieces and hard to tell what is what.

View attachment 1193493

When late summer rolls around, all of this will be tossed into the run to compost down. By Spring, I will screen out compost as needed. The compost looks like this. Real fine, dark compost.

View attachment 1193499

Like I said, I never stir my litter. I don't have poop boards and my chickens don't free range. All their poop is either in the coop or run. My max load is 10 chickens per 10x10 coop. I usually keep it less than that. I like to give them plenty of room.

While I am convinced that DL works much better with a soil floor, I have been able to get it going well enough in my coop with vinyl over plywood. My big concern was that it would be moist enough that it would encourage rot. However, I have not found this to be the case. I did paint the walls of my coop: 2 coats of primer and a coat of white latex on OSB.

My deep litter doesn't act like normal compost. I don't know if the bacteria is the same or not but in the chicken coop the litter is gray and very dry. On my goat side it is brown and moist like normal compost. The chicken coop litter doesn't get warm like normal compost either. The decomposition is very slow unlike compost that finishes in weeks. This stuff goes for more than a year.

Great stuff you guys! Love all the different perspectives. My coop is dry too, wood floor. Poop board. I'm thinking of removing it, tired of getting poop flicked in my face when I scrape it off the board. Moco, I have the feeling that the poop in the sawdust really isn't decomposing, it might simply be drying out and getting pounded to dust by the chickens. But it does look convenient! I currently use straw which doesn't break down unless it's exposed to moisture and then it takes quite a while. Since it's not breaking down that means my coop dust is composed of chicken skin flakes and poop dust. Nice I don't think there is a good solution to the large amounts of chicken dust if one is in an area with low humidity. I have plenty o leaves and grass clippings so that might be better than the straw or sawdust, although I do have a mill not too far away. Plus the leaves and clippings will break up and compost in the garden easily. I can explore the deep litter method with that and see what happens without a soil floor and a dry climate. Great conversation everyone!

 

[aart]

I'm thinking of removing it, tired of getting poop flicked in my face when I scrape it off the board.

Use some sand/PDZ sift instead of scrape.

 

[moco27]

Thanks, DL is certainly wor






Great stuff you guys! Love all the different perspectives. My coop is dry too, wood floor. Poop board. I'm thinking of removing it, tired of getting poop flicked in my face when I scrape it off the board. Moco, I have the feeling that the poop in the sawdust really isn't decomposing, it might simply be drying out and getting pounded to dust by the chickens. But it does look convenient! I currently use straw which doesn't break down unless it's exposed to moisture and then it takes quite a while. Since it's not breaking down that means my coop dust is composed of chicken skin flakes and poop dust. Nice I don't think there is a good solution to the large amounts of chicken dust if one is in an area with low humidity. I have plenty o leaves and grass clippings so that might be better than the straw or sawdust, although I do have a mill not too far away. Plus the leaves and clippings will break up and compost in the garden easily. I can explore the deep litter method with that and see what happens without a soil floor and a dry climate. Great conversation everyone!

The Deep Litter in my coop reduces in volume over time so I don't think it is just building up with pulverized poo. The chickens produce so much that it should be doubled in volume in a few months. I think it is composting but very slow. When I use it on my garden it turns to a mud almost like lome. The sawdust doesn't stay in the form it had when I put it in the coop. Another thing I noticed is when I would change the litter completely the sawdust would look like sawdust for more than a month. Same color texture and it was moist. If I change half of it it turns gray by the next day and looks way different after a month or so. It also dries out very fast. I suspect it is a type of bacteria that lives on wood without moisture.

 

[moco27]

You all got me thinking about what could be at work in my deep litter and I stumbled on the site below using inoculated deep letter. They have recipes for making the inoculation to start so you don't have to wait months for it to start working on it's own naturally like I did. It uses local bacteria and fungus in your area and lactic acid. The second site below has the recipe in appendix B. They use this deep litter on pigs and chickens and recommend a meter of depth. They use sawdust with some other things deep in the litter but they use it on a cement floors with a membrane so all of you that are skeptical about trying it on your wood floors or other floors besides dirt I think you are able to make it work too. Depth may be a problem depending on your setup. I think a meter is overkill for chickens and I know 6 inches will work.

https://permies.com/t/69798/critters/Deep-litter-system-KNF-progress

file:///C:/Users/0/Desktop/IDeepLS_Piggery_Final_5_11%20(2).pdf

 

[moco27]

I found another site that has a much more detailed recipe for creating the inoculation. https://www.nofamass.org/articles/2014/05/korean-natural-farming-managing-farm-systems-holistically

 

[moco27]

 

[moco27]

here is part 2 and 3

 

[EsqChick]

Hi all, just getting through most of the postings here. Thanks for all the info. I have a lot of redwood mulch in my yard from the previous owners and I’m wondering if anyone has used redwood sawdust or mulch in their DL?

 

[ChickNanny13]

Not sure but let's get some with more experience to chime in .... I'm not as lucky as you all, no lumber mills here so I purchase White Shavings ....

@aart @rebrascora @lazy gardener Thank you in advice for your opinion