Deep litter method and soggy muddy run

[mammat]

I have had chickens for 7-8 years and I am struggling with two things still---
1) The deep litter method always smells like ammonia to me. I end up cleaning out the coops every week or two. What am I doing wrong? We have great ventilation. Maybe I just have too many birds in there. I have read and read about it but I never seem to find info on how many birds per square foot works with deep litter. I am a chickenoholic so getting rid of half of my birds to make this work is not an option. Does anyone have any ideas?

2) Our run is a nightmare. It is a muddy mess all spring and most of fall. I have tried sand,sod,pavers and I spent 500.00 bucks on river rock last year. I have tried trenching, drains,free ranging. I dont know what else to do. I have spent hours reading solutions but none seem to work for us. Due to the condition of the run I allow them to free range during the day and now we have ZERO grass in the back.

There has got to be a better way. Please chime in if you have any ideas :0

 

[jetdog]

I have had chickens for 7-8 years and I am struggling with two things still---
1) The deep litter method always smells like ammonia to me. I end up cleaning out the coops every week or two. What am I doing wrong? We have great ventilation. Maybe I just have too many birds in there. I have read and read about it but I never seem to find info on how many birds per square foot works with deep litter. I am a chickenoholic so getting rid of half of my birds to make this work is not an option. Does anyone have any ideas?

2) Our run is a nightmare. It is a muddy mess all spring and most of fall. I have tried sand,sod,pavers and I spent 500.00 bucks on river rock last year. I have tried trenching, drains,free ranging. I dont know what else to do. I have spent hours reading solutions but none seem to work for us. Due to the condition of the run I allow them to free range during the day and now we have ZERO grass in the back.

There has got to be a better way. Please chime in if you have any ideas :0

Not sure about the run but in the coop have you tried making poop boards with sweet pdz, I don't have as many as you but I have no smell and my shavings were put in last April.

 

[mammat]

I do have dropping boards but just put shavings up there. Thanks! I will try the PDZ!

 

[PapaChaz]

yes try the sand and pdz, that will help with the smell. As for the shavings, a few questions for you.

Are we talking about a hen house/coop, or a couple of roosts in an enclosed run type coop? How deep do you start off with the shavings? do you turn them, do you encourage the chickens to turn them by tossing in a handful of scratch a couple times a week, do they get turned at all? Do you add any on top occasionally?

for it to work there's a few basics. I don't think it really matters how many chickens you have in there, although common sense says more chickens = more poo.............LOL they're little poop machines!

ok the basics, wet poo is what smells. Dry poo doesn't smell. The purpose of the shavings (and sand and pdz in the poop tray) is to absorb the moisture out of the poo. Faster it absorbs it, faster the smell goes away. So, they poo, they eat drink, scratch around and poo some more. they they walk around a minute it seems, and poo some more. Maybe lay an egg, then go poo again........all the fresh poo is on top of the shavings, so it helps for them to be tossed and turned every couple of days.

I start with around 3 or 4 inches. Throw in some scratch and let the chickens do the dirty work of turning it. once a week or so, throw some fresh shavings in on top. If you're talking about a hen house type coop, walls, floor etc etc, after you get to 8 or 9 inches (some will even go a foot) rake em out, put in a new 3 inches or so, go add the old stuff to the run or your compost pile.

you can also scatter some pdz around in the shavings to help dry the poo out too......


good luck! and keep us posted on how things are going.

 

[ChickMagnet64]

What are PDZ's?

 

[jetdog]

What are PDZ's?

It's a horse stall refresher, it comes in powder or granular form. Tractor supply sells it in 40# bags,it dries and takes the smell out of the poop,perfectly safe for chickens.

 

[ChickMagnet64]

It's a horse stall refresher, it comes in powder or granular form. Tractor supply sells it in 40# bags,it dries and takes the smell out of the poop,perfectly safe for chickens.

Thanks JetDog! I'll check it out.

 

[Cabin Katie]

I have a similar problem with the outside of the coop. All winter they would usually hang out there and not venture off and stand there pooping. I'm thinking of maybe laying some bricks there or something. Easier to clean off every once and a while and I can add it straight to compost. Never messed with that PDZ stuff.

 

[RonP]

I have had chickens for 7-8 years and I am struggling with two things still---
1) The deep litter method always smells like ammonia to me. I end up cleaning out the coops every week or two. What am I doing wrong? We have great ventilation. Maybe I just have too many birds in there. I have read and read about it but I never seem to find info on how many birds per square foot works with deep litter. I am a chickenoholic so getting rid of half of my birds to make this work is not an option. Does anyone have any ideas?

2) Our run is a nightmare. It is a muddy mess all spring and most of fall. I have tried sand,sod,pavers and I spent 500.00 bucks on river rock last year. I have tried trenching, drains,free ranging. I dont know what else to do. I have spent hours reading solutions but none seem to work for us. Due to the condition of the run I allow them to free range during the day and now we have ZERO grass in the back.

There has got to be a better way. Please chime in if you have any ideas

Best to know how many birds, and how many square feet in the coop, and run.

 

[mammat]

20 birds in 8x8 coop with dropping boards. There are windows on the sides also, another vent at the top on the side and a space about 1 inch that is open around the eves-run is 90 square feet but they free range most of the day in about 20,000 square feet area

It seems that everything I add to the run ends up making the problem worse. In my research it says to wait until the area is dry to put anything on top but then as soon as it rains a significant amount the sand,rocks pavers sink in and disappear. I spent two hours out there yesterday digging my river rocks out of the mud. I laid down plastic under part of it because I was afraid it would just disappear and it did! We have very heavy clay soil that is like quicksand. Our back yard has a very steep slope that empties into a creek so the problem is not a runoff issue.