Deep Litter Method...How does it work for you?

[mdbokc]

Food Grade DE can be taken internally by people, animals for excellent health purposes. I know many horse people that feed it. Use it as an insect/flea control in the yard, garden dust. 50 lbs will get used up. Chickens will eat it if you have a pile of it (mine do anyway) besides the regualr poultry uses.

 

[kipepeo]

Quote:
I just got some from my petchicken they do have it. Was ordering some other things so thought I would it get my initial go of it from them. Also others have used Stall Dry which has DE in it and they have gotten it from TSC I looked at my local one yesterday but didn't see and didn't ask they were short handed.

Haven't used it yet and I am trying the DLM but my free range anyway no problems yet.

 

[2txmedics]

I looked all over for DE in my area....all the feed stores...home depot, lowes even TSC!!!...etc...NOTHING...not in any little city here...so then someone bumped me in here on byc pm...and she lives about an hr from me but works out my way....7mins from my home and she has DE in her area.

So she brings it to me!!! worked out great!!! Infact I have the tag for DE in my post at bottom as she is willing to hellp others. Maybe you can find someone in your close by area.

 

[kathyinmo]

I love DLM. I put 44 chicks into their 12' x 16' coop about 3 months ago. I have had visitors come in and say, "Wow, there are no flies, and no smell!" I do use DE, and I do have a droppings board. I use an ice scraper (like for your car windows) and scoop (scrape) the poop each morning, into a bucket. It takes less than a minute.
Note that I have 2 roosts (18" apart) one in front of the other; so the droppings board is 3 foot wide. The roosts are movable, so I just pick up the front on, and don't have to lean over much to scrape. Yes, I do think that the droppings board and DE are key to the success of DLM. Honestly, I have quite a large amount of poo that I haul out everyday. By having it out of there, it will also decrease the moisture in the winter, (hoping to not have frostbite).
DRY, DRY, DRY.... yeah, that's what we want!

Here is a picture before the droppings board:

They are not little like that anymore! Bigger, and lotsa poop!

 

[underground chickenman]

It works for me. As I understand it, a true DLM doesn't use droppings boards or require droppings removal. In fact, that defeats the whole purpose of the DLM. You just keep adding litter every few weeks. The only maintenance is if the girls get lazy and don't scratch the droppings in thoroughly enough, you have to pitch fork it a bit. Droppings boards create a mess and smell, in my opinion. With the DLM, all droppings are left in the litter and mixed in by chicken scratching and occasional pitch forking. If it is too dry early on, spray a little water on it to moisten it slightly to encourage decomposition. Decomposition will actually add a little heat in the winter. That's it. I don't haul anything out for about a year, then some gets taken out for fertilizer and then built back up again with layers of new litter over time.

Google deep litter method and you will find lots of info on it. It works well and is a labor saver.

UGCM

 

[2txmedics]

I find this true...because when Im sick...Im still good with it....to get the flock to move it around....since I always cant as of lately due to injury on my back.

I throw in some feed into the coop and then hens run in to kick up the litter on there own....

so they help keep there own house clean

 

[Sam The Yam]

It works great for me as well. In the mornings when I turn them out, I have an inexpensive paint scraper that I use to clean off the roosts of any droppings, letting it falll to the floor, then simply take a small rake of shovel and stir the litter up and within just a couple of minutes the "floor is swept" and they are ready for another day. I do not have a smell or fly problem. It is great.

 

[KMHunter]

I take out the large areas of wet or very soiled shavings under the roost, but not all of it. I use lots of stall dry, and some ABM to absorb moisture better. Coop smells fine.

 

[2txmedics]

Kim...You use Stall dry in the coop....the flock doesnt try to eat it? is it safe??? Im new to stall dry as of this week...and scared to use it in the run, do after they are in bed for the night.

FOUND THIS ON DLM:
Deep Litter for Healthier Chickens
by Robert

Link: http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html

The "deep litter method" was one of the most important poultry developments of the Twentieth Century. It resulted in a dramatic drop in disease and a reduction in the amount of labor it took to keep a flock of chickens. It also gave an early example of how biodiversity works to our advantage, even with confined livestock.

People these days think they know what "deep litter" is, but mostly they don't. Here's a quick checklist:

Deep litter is not about compost. It's about healthier chickens. Do your serious composting on a compost pile.

More is better. It's not deep litter unless it's at least six inches deep.

Compost as a clean-up tool.If the top of the litter gets caked over with manure, skim off the caked part and toss it into a corner. Within a few days, natural composting will cause
it to turn back into litter again.

Litter is a probiotic. Deep litter has anti-coccidiosis properties (it develops a population of microbes that eat coccidia), but only after it's been around for a few months, so never remove it all. When you start bumping your head on the rafters, remove part of it, but not all.

Lime helps. Stirring in hydrated lime at about ten pounds per hundred square feet will keep the litter more friable.

Chickens don't wear gas masks. If you can smell ammonia in the chicken house, you don't have enough ventilation. Open the windows, even if it's twenty below outside. Ammonia is a poison gas; cold weather is just a nuisance to grown chickens.

Don't break a sweat. If you're spending a significant amount of time messing with the litter, you're doing it wrong.

Check out my Deep Litter FAQ for more information

THIS ARTICLE IF YOU CLICK ON FAQ ON DLM...YOU CAN READ SOME VERY GOOD INFO. ON HOW IT HELPS SO THAT YOUR FLOCK STAYS HEALTHY, VENTILATION AND ALOT MORE.

 

[phore]

Have been using the DLM for many years w/very good results. We use grass clippings w/lime. We only clean out the hen house in the spring, leaving a few inches of old litter. We store the unused (dried) grass under a tarp for winter use.