Deep litter: friend or foe?

[haTHOR]

i also use DLM with a dropping board that is above the popdoor, food, and the nesting boxes...gives me a way to make a little more room that stays quite a bit cleaner than the purely DLM area.

but i too am wondering what to do now with that droppings board each morning. i built it so that it slides out when i open the nest box door. the plan was to cover it with linoleum so it could be scraped daily, but we ran out of time/materials sunday and my husband just put shavings on top so we could get the girls in there. it's OSB so i don't want to keep that scenario up for long though!

in my last coop i used DLM solely, and i did find that the poop stacked up just under the roost. (true, for the last two weeks i had two or three birds more than i should have, for the space--that's why we built the new coop.) my thoughts on using DLM + dropping board are that 1) i can protect the nest box area and the popdoor and food space, but also 2) i can just remove the bulk of droppings each morning (or every couple mornings)

. i hear your point, chicken downunder man, that not dealing with poop is the point of DLM...but the fact remains that if LESS poop gets in the DLM it will last longer and be cleaner, etc...it certainly won't lessen the effectiveness of DLM to reduce the amount of poop in the shavings.

 

[rooster0209]

Deep Litter Method...Friend.

I use wheat straw and lawn clippings from the last mow of the fall. It was a pain hauling it all out of the coop a week ago. I think there were 8 or 9 wheel barrow loads. But with the long stretch of minus 0 weather we had in ND, I didnt have one frozen comb or have frozen chicken poop on the floor of the coop. When it got especially dirty on top, I just turned it with a shovel. The chickens went nuts, thinking they had a new "play ground"

I am not sure if it heats the coop or not. I have a cinderblock hog house as my coop, so its not insulated. Having a few inches to a foot of straw/grass on the floor makes the coop more comfy for the chickens, imo. Its also alot cleaner, especially when the birds are confined to the coop during the cold weather.

The litter was put in my compost pile, but I am not sure if it will get warm enough here for it to decompose for this years use. But I still till some of it in the garden. It does improve the soil drainage either way. The chickens and guineas had really pecked thru it. It was mostly dirt and poop.

 

[CityChook]

It seems like doing deep litter and removing your shavings *weekly* would get awfully expensive. And stall dry can be your friend, but if you're using it to mask the ammonia smell rather than figuring out WHY you have the smell in the first place, then it is not doing you any favors.

I also live in a cold climate, have a 6x8 coop with about 9 inches of deep litter by spring and I only do a complete change out of the litter twice a year. May and October. There is absolutely NO ammonia smell. If you are removing your shavings weekly and still have a smell, it's because your ventilation is not adequate, your coop is wet or you have too many birds per square foot. Plain and simple. Your nose will tell you if you need to make some changes in your management.

Back to your original question: I can see how your compost isn't breaking down if you are changing out the shavings so quickly. Generally, the wood just plain takes a long time to break down. And if you don't have the proper carbon/nitrogen ratio, it probably will never break down. Even for shavings that are pretty heavy with poo, I still need to add a LOT of grass to get some composting action. And keep your compost pile damp, but not wet. Like a squeezed out paper towel. Don't want to do that? Sure, I guess you could burn the shavings... or maybe just use them for mulch in the flower beds. If you really don't have a use for them and don't want them hanging around because of your dog or potential preds, then maybe try listing them on freemarket or craigslist for free - I'm sure you could get rid of them in an afternoon.

Take a good, honest look at your ventilation. I'll bet you need to open up your coop a little more.

 

[daisy_dukers]

DLM = Friend

I have 25 ISA browns
8x12 coop

I used 400lbs of hardwood woodstove pellets in mine.
I put the litter in July 1st 2009
Changed it March 1st 2010

No amonia smell, but I have decent ventalation
No poop boards, no nada

I throw treats or scratch in the coop and let the chickens dig in the litter and mix things up a bit every day.
Once every 2 weeks I give it a good rake.

Over the last 2 weeks the used litter pile has been wetted, and covered and now it is REALLY heating up and composting nicely. By June 1st it should be ready for the garden. It is literally steaming right now.

I live in Manitoba and it is normally really cold in the winter and my birds were pretty much confined to the coop for 4 of the months for this DLM cycle.

Any questions.

 

[Qi Chicken]

Great Thread.

We are getting ready to install our first chickens in our first coop and was wondering if anyone has a formula for adequate ventilation. As in how many square inches of ventilation per square feet of coop?

I assume that 20 chickens in a 10X10 space would require more ventilation than 10 chickens in 10X10 space but is there a guideline?

We have a 10X11 coop with 2 regular sized windows and additional ventilation around the top also but I don't know how many square inches are up there. I'm afraid the rain/wind will come in the windows so I was planning to rely on the roofline ventilation more, keeping that open year round.

Any info would be appreciated!

 

[jessica32]

Thanks for all of the posts! I am beginning to think that ventilation is my problem. The days have been nice lately and today I left the coop door opened all day. Tonight- no ammonia smells. I always put my scratch feed outside in the run but, a few people have mentioned putting it inside so the chickens do the turning of the litter. It sounds like a good idea. Is it very helpful?

 

[thetajmahalcoop]

I'm sure I am not doing it "by the book" but I also do the DLM. My coop has a plywood floor (although alot of people say you can only do this on an earth floor) and I love it! I designed the coop before it was built with this plan in mind. I started out with like 4 bags of the shavings from TSC and add about two bags a month, more in the winter when they are stuck inside. When I go out to get eggs, I thow a scoop of scratch grains on the floor and the chicken "turn" the shavings for me. I'm lucky because mine free range most of the day so alot of poop winds up outside. I have a screen door on the back (fine gauge hardware cloth) and three full size recycled windows on the front. Good ventilation at the roofline plus the pop door. Sometimes in the heat of the summer it gets a little stinky but I started adding DE also and that helped. I definitely recommend deep litter method! I only clean it out to the floor 2x a year. It definitely stays warmer in there during the winter, that's for sure! Good Luck!

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
Didn't get an answer to whether you give them the BOSS w/ the shells on.

 

[greathorse]

shells on, nothing special regular old Black oil sunflower seeds

 

[haTHOR]

no i have my children (smaller hands/fingers) crack each one in the 40 lb bag. i have them use a really cool old-timey tool made by elves for elven-automotive repair. they don't have much time left over for homeschooling, but i figure the never-ending and mind-numbing work is good practice for being an american office worker.

no, i put it out with the shells on.