Deep litter: friend or foe?

[horsejody]

I have a few questions on deep liiter. Right now I guess I am using what you call the shallow litter and a shovel method. I cover the floor with shavinings and clean it a lot. I would like to use deep litter.

1. How well does deep litter do with a duck? I have a duck in with my 19 chickens, and she spills water everywhere. She makes as much mess as the rest combined.

2. Two of my chickens are bantams. How will they fare with deep litter? Will I ever see my 6 inch tall hens in 8 inches of litter?

3. I have a walk through door and 2 pop doors. The litter always seems to get stomped and kicked out of the coop by the doors. Will I loose too much litter?

 

[Soccer Mom]

Quote:
1. Ducks are a problem. I tried it with them and it simply didn't work for me. They put too much moisture down. I even tried with an entire sack of Stall Dry underneath the shavings. Blech!

Now I had 15 ducks, so maybe just one would be okay. But never again will I try deep litter in a waterfowl coop.

2. Bantams are no problem. I have polish bantams and they run across the top of the litter. I don't lose them.

3. I lose some out, but not too much. If you put a tiny lip on the door, it really reduces the loss.

 

[raizin]

I love this method. I change it out once a year, usually in the spring. I use wood stove pellets. takes about 400# for the entire year for a 10x12 foot coop. I keep adding chickens every year. Now have 34 chickens and it does great. I throw scratch on the pellets below the roosts about 3-4/week. I tried wood shavings but they were not as absorbent. Would not do my coop any other way,

 

[tammyd57]

Deep Litter works great for me. My coop is 3 sided with a dirt floor. It is 4' X 8' and houses 6 chickens. I use a foot of wheat straw on the floor and don't use dropping boards. The straw gets turned every day by the chickens looking for the handful of scratch I throw in there. When the straw starts looking like compost I add more fresh straw on top, just putting in 1/2 bale and let the chickens spread it out. After a year I probably have about 32 cubic feet of compost ready for my garden. Around April I will rake it all out and start with a foot of new straw, putting the finished compost in my vegetable beds. I never have a smell problem or any matting of the litter, and it's no work at all until it's ready to remove once a year.

 

[Bluemoon420]

I use DLM since last year in a fairly large chicken house with dirt floor. I don't use dropping boards. Ventilation is key, and really deep litter. A dirt floor works best, but it will work on other floors, just slower.

We use pine shavings, but mixing in some shredded paper isn't a bad idea either. There is no right or wrong way to do DLM. It's what works best for you. The key is ventilation, and keep in mind whatever floor you have, and how it breaks down. That's all. Our litter will be totally changed out in April. It will be a year. Last fall, we raked out the top inch of shavings, and added several bags of clean shavings over the winter. It stayed much warmer than outside and didn't smell bad at all.

Bluemoon

 

[rancher hicks]

I have a plywood floor and it gets wet could a dropping board help? or is there something else I can do. I clean once a month or when it gets stinky. I use wood chips on the floor. I'm not happy about how it's going and looking to redesign. By the way what is a "chook"?

 

[Bluemoon420]

How big is the area? It's just the dropping area where they sleep at night? If so, try a rubber pan ( like a dish bucket for your sink. ) filled with sand in that area. You could build a tray too. You may not have enough ventilation either.

Bluemoon

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
rancher, a dropping board would help greatly, but they do need to be cleaned regularly. Also, if you have a waterer inside the coop pay close attention to it and be sure water isn't leaking or being splashed onto the litter.

Ditto on what Bluemoon420 said about ventilation...be sure you have enough.

A "chook" is a chicken. Australian lingo, I think.

Ed

 

[ninny]

I love DLM!!!! I have a cement floor and it works awesome. We dont use droping boards. I put all of our food scraps in the coop. Even if the birds dont eat them they compost. Its really neat to see all of it turn into dirt. I free range so i just leave the door open all day. When i notice a smell i stir all of it and add more shavings on top of it. I need to stir it maybe once a month, but add shavings maybe every three. I hadn't heard that it works best on dirt floors. One thing i do have problems with is the chickens are never very intrested in stirring the shavings. They will eat the stuff but don't stir. Oh well.

 

[Bluemoon420]

Quote:
It just breaks down quicker on a dirt floor. Other than that, there is no difference. The building we converted for chickens had all sorts of animals in over the years. The only thing we did was add an inner door, some walls, and buried wire in the floor along the base of the building. I could also tell someone added sand to get better drainage inside. Our soil is very heavy, lots of clay, so it doesn't absorb water quickly. Our chickens dust bath in it. I'd go in there and have to watch for dust bathing holes during the winter.

Bluemoon