Deep Litter Method - Light mist or not?

[patandchickens]

Quote:
One could make it compost in the coop, but I seriously doubt that they would like the results. I can only envision ammonia, foot pad problems, and breast blisters from the moist litter.

That's not necessarily the case, at least with other livestock. (But see note below). Actually the horse barn I described, where a foot and a half (or whatever) down into the bedding it was hot enough you didn't want to touch it for long... you would NEVER guess those stalls were managed that way unless you came by on the one day a year they were dug out and started over. (A very, very bad day to be anywhere in the vicinity though!).

The surface was always kept topped up with fresh dry shavings, and the composting layers were pretty much sealed down underneath. They looked like any other very-clean stalls, and there was no smell as long as the deeper layers of the litter pack were not disturbed. This was also in a better-than-average ventilated barn, if that matters.

The "see note below", though, is that this was largely driven by the urine from the horses (and I've seen it done with cattle and goats too)... the pee soaked down to compost the lower layers of bedding, while the manure was almost entirely removed every day.

You can't, obviously, do that with poultry. However you CAN have a whole lotta chickens pooing on one area and then cover it with fresh litter every day; or keep the upper portions raked-and-fluffed-and-scratched enough to stay dry and fluffy while the lower portions are moist (e.g. partly from moisture rising from the soil) and composting.

I have not personally seen this in action in a chicken coop, but enough people describe it happening in ways similar to what I'm familiar with from large livestock that I am really inclined to believe that if you are blessed with the right circumstances it CAN be done quite healthily in a chicken coop.

Just, not many people are blessed with the right circumstances.

And I do not think it's wise that so many BYCers seem to fixate on this as a goal or take it for granted that following some recipe will yield some magical self-maintaining coop-heating good-air-quality-generating magical litter pack. Cuz I think that's feasible only for a select lucky few.

Which is not to say there aren't plenty of OTHER ways to manage deep litter that are healthy and constructive, TOO

Pat

 

[jerseygirl1]

Quote:
That's pretty much the nature of it. The manure is going to give off ammonia no matter how you manage it. You can only try to minimize the build up with good ventilation, keeping it at proper moisture levels, burying it in fresh bedding, etc. The ammonia is what makes it "self-sterilizing" and somewhat keeps the bacteria in check.

That's what I thought, but IMO, having all my chickens smell that (even with a lot of ventilation, vents, window, etc.) - how good it possibly be for a chicken to inhale that smell 24/7? So, I clean it out and scrape the floor once a week, keep a poop board or something underneath and so far it works.

 

[Sjisty]

I use deep litter. I just sprinkle DE and stir with a rake once a week and it seems to be working for me. Every now and then when it is rainy, I get a slight ammonia smell and then I sprinkle a little Sweet PDZ and maybe add more fresh litter and mix. My chickens free range during the day and only sleep in the coop, so there's not that big a problem. If it rains for a week or more, which is pretty rare, then I will shovel the whole thing out and replace, but that only happens once or twice a year. The plus side is when it used to rain we would have a muddy, messy coop. Now we don't have a problem. The girls/guys all get to keep their feet dry, if they have the sense to come in out of the rain!

 

[spartacus_63]

Where's the moisture coming from? Even when I used to mist down the litter in our coop Texas, it would pretty much be bone dry again within days.

I'm no compost expert and my goal was never to harvest chicken poop compost. I would be perfectly happy with straight up chicken poop for that purpose. What I can tell you is that between the chickens, the fountains, relative humidity and occasional weather, there are times when I get enough moisture to create to much ammonia. I use DE and Barn Lime to control the ammonia when ventilation can't keep up with it. My belief as to why I get decent composting is that I feed a good amount of greens to my girls in the coop. A lot of the green stalks get turned under. In the winter I also feed fruit in the coop. I use alfalfa as bedding in the nest boxes (the girls snack on it while laying) which gets pushed onto the floor as it gets dirty or during the fluffing up process. All of these items add to the compost process. I also have poop bins under the roosts that collect the majority of the poop. These get emptied as needed and always right before winter (cause I don't want to deal with frozen poop cubes in January). Patients I think is the key to composting in the coop. I do not have a regular schedule for cleaning out my coop. I clean it as needed. The last time I cleaned it out is when my DD needed money for an extravagance. She did the heavy lifting in exchange for cash and that was 18 months ago. I normally like to clean out the liter in March because I put the majority of it on the vegetable garden, but I didn't do a garden this spring. The contents of the poop bins usually goes around my young fruit trees and brambles. It makes for a good protective winter mulch and may even provide a little heat as it continues to breakdown.

The key for me is that I like a low maintenance approach. I have found that nature does a pretty good job of recycling. I try to use as natural of methods as I can. If something requires chemicals to work, chances are it won't work for me.​

 

[darkmatter]

I use deep litter on a sub-ground level dirt floor, (See my BYC page) and it composts well. In the winter I use a black rubber tub for water in the Coop raised on concrete blocks. I dump the water out when I refill it in the Coop, the composting adds heat to the Coop and I can have the outside black rubber tub frozen solid, but the inside one rarely even gets a skim of ice on it. An occasional toss of scratch in the Coop has the chickens doing the turnover and mixing of the deep litter.

 

[eKo_birdies]

a smell of ammonia means that there is too much free nitrogen in your compost and not enough carbon. the microbial balance is off. the "self-sterilization" doesn't have to do with the ammonia... it has to do with bringing the compost up to the proper temperature to kill pathogens.

the smell of ammonia is due to anaerobic digestion - either too much moisture or not enough air.

 

[naomipoc]

Quote:
Can you please tell me what is PDZ? I'm in N CA, and we've just begun our rainy season. It's the first time I've noticed an ammonia smell in the coop. I was thinking just to add more pine shavings to the floor.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Can you please tell me what is PDZ?

It's a mix of clay and DE:
http://www.sweetpdz.com/
Ag Lime will do the same thing cheaper

I was thinking just to add more pine shavings to the floor.

That's the best thing to do.

The whole "DLM" is based on having a LOT of pine shavings so as to keep things dry​

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Yes, if you are composting, but ammonia production in chicken manure has some unique aspects.

In most animal stalls ammonia can be minimized by segregating the urine from the manure. Enzymes break down urea into uric acid and the uric acid hydrolyzes undigested proteins in the manure and generates ammonia. The problem with bird droppings is that the droppings are manure surrounded by a white coating of urea which is quite a potent mix to generate ammonia. Lowering the pH or keeping the manure dry reduces the enzymatic action that generates ammonia.

Even in the best of circumstances hot composting poultry manure volatizes large amounts of ammonia.

Deep litter, even in the absence of composting, is self sterilizing because of the ammonia generated in the litter pack. Producers raising broilers on built up litter packs find that they have less problems with cocci and other manure-borne pathogens versus using fresh bedding each time.

 

[spartacus_63]

Quote:
Yes, if you are composting, but ammonia production in chicken manure has some unique aspects.

In most animal stalls ammonia can be minimized by segregating the urine from the ammonia. Enzymes break down urea into uric acid and the uric acid hydrolyzes undigested proteins in the manure and generates ammonia. The problem with bird droppings is that the droppings are manure surrounded by a white coating of urea which is quite a potent mix to generate ammonia. Lowering the pH or keeping the manure dry reduces the enzymatic action that generates ammonia.

Even in the best of circumstances hot composting poultry manure volatizes large amounts of ammonia.

Deep litter, even in the absence of composting, is self sterilizing because of the ammonia generated in the litter pack. Producers raising broilers on built up litter packs find that they have less problems with cocci and other manure-borne pathogens versus using fresh bedding each time.

x2...i think