Everything I've read says the deep litter method is the route you want to go. But my husband finds the concept disgusting and refuses to let me manage our coop this way. We live in the mountains of Northern California, and our weather is quite extreme. Nights go well below freezing, but from about the end of May thru October it is regularly over 90F during the day, sometimes even reaching over 110F! Flies are also a persistent issue in the summer, no matter how often I clean the coop nor how many traps I put up. So my husband believes the deep litter method to be inefficient for our needs. Is he correct? Does anyone out there use it while living in a warmer climate (texan's, arizonian's and new mexican's, I'm looking at you)? Or if not, what methods have you found to work well in your coop or run?
Hi Im in Melbourne. Last summer we had a stretch (you might remember it was while the aus tennis open was on... If your into the tennis) where it was 44oc plus. Not sure on the conversion but your looking at 110+ territory. We have hot dry summers. I use the deep litter, its awesome. No smell, no flies. Chicken poo just dissolves. You know you have it right when they start digging it up, when they prefer to go in there and dig craters everywhere. When they do, get on your hands and knees (your not going to mind cause there wont be poo everywhere) get up,close and have a look through the litter.... See all the millions of little bugs running around. These are your friends and free protein for your chooks. They are breaking all the nasties down, kill bad bacteria and providing food for free and entertainment. It is your best idea. I remeber as a kid, mum and dad always making me clean the stupid disgusting chook house. I wish we had the internet then and i could have done this instead. 18 months in the main coop (i have 6 lol) and all i have had to do is top up the free wood chips... Occasionally dig it over underneath the roost. Apart from that very little maintenance and healthy for the chooks. Tell,your husband to read this and ask any questions he wants, imo stupid to not at least try it and see how it goes. Edit to add photo and also mention the important bit... Deep, make the stuff deep and dry (you want carbon, nothing green... Or only a little bit)... Enjoy I even use it in my brooders
I don't do deep litter per se, but I use composting in the run and I'm in San Diego. We have a lot of critters (skunk, raccoon, possum) and two dogs so we did a sloped sand base, wire on top then patio stones on that. Then I took masonry sand and laid about 3-4" down and mixed in a couple of spadefuls of soil for beneficial organisms. On top of that we throw dry leaves or coconut fibre. There isn't a deep layer but it doesn't smell unless someone JUST dropped one (in which case I kick some fibre over it), in fact if it does start to smell I just throw ¼ - ½ of a coconut bale in the coop and some scratch on top and they spread it out. I've been doing this for, hmm, about a year. No obvious poop, no obvious compost for that matter never cleaned it out. Only time it has smelled and had flies is when I ran out of leaves and coconut fibre and the feed store didn't have any. I put them out on the grass a lot that month. I have PDZ in the raised coop and when I scoop poop in there I just throw it in the run. When it gets hot I hose it all down and it cools it down a lot. Doesn't get muddy, chickens feet stay pretty clean, super easy to take care of. Friends were surprised it didn't smell bad and our chickens don't smell.