The main thing with DLM is that you want different size materials so that it will get air flow thru it naturally - even when your birds aren't turning it. Just using "bedding" (especially pine shavings) materials - it won't very easily be composted, nor will it drain if it gets wet.
That is why you use different size/type of materials. Yes, I've used different sizes of pine bedding and also some of the pine pellets (that open/expand when get wet - used in horse stalls), but we also use pine straw (we have both long & short on our property - in fact the guys who do needle collection DON"T like our place as they say the mix isn't what most people want), pine branches, weeds (all different types - at different stages of growth), vegetable matter from the garden (not just fruits/veggies themselves), leftovers that haven't been eaten/won't be in future, shredded paper from work, shredded cardboard (LOVE our Staples Shredder), hay & straw from the ponies. We do a LOT of left overs & scraps for our chickens - to include fats, bones (especially after doing bone broth) and meats... what they don't eat/clean up (& sometimes they are choosy) will become part of the DLM in the coop/run "floors". All of our coops/pens are on the ground. I have no experience at all with a coop with any type of floor other than dirt/sand.
I also have a lot of chickens - so all of that from 2 - 6 people is OK and is broken up between 8 coops with more to be built before winter. Currently have chickens that have never been in coops - but in movable temporary grazing pens (not tractors - just the actual fencing w/ discarded bed sheets for shade/protection/keeping them from flying off). They were all mixed together and combined into coops for the storm... Understand - when I say "coops" - none of ours are standard building types. We have 3 actual cattle panel coops (approx 8x8 each) in our pony pasture, 1 truck topper coop w/ a 14x14 (?i think?) run and 4 coop pens that had flat wire roofs or tin on them at 3 1/2' tall when we moved in. We've gotten 2 of them hooped (c pics below) and tarped... well, that didn't survive the onslaught.
Hurricane Florence is smacking us hard right now, dumping INCHES (feet??) of rain on us. Our coops weren't under water this AM, but I haven't been back out...
Will pile loads of pine straw into all coops just to get the chix up/off of the wet (& I know they are muddy now) floors - as the wind damaged/removed the roofs on most of our coops & for the past several hours rain has just come straight down. Our yard (on mostly sand that we are changing to loam with fertilizer AND chickens) has always drained well, but water is now climbing our front porch steps.
I was worried I'd find dead chickens this evening. I just went back out to check on them. there is some ponding in the deep litter in the "short" coops behind our house, but not so much that the chickens are standing in water - even with 3 of the roofs no longer existing (tarps were too light and didn't survive sustained winds and much higher gusts - c next set of pics). The bottoms of all the pens still have blocks up - so wind is blocked & chickens are shaking off the rain when ever it slows down. I will be able to pile layers of cardboard, shredded paper, limbs with both leaves & pine straw attached, hay & straw and leaves into the ponded areas to help them dry out. They are draining (YAY!!). I am SOOOO happy.
Yes, I moved the tin sheet before it became a dangerous weapon flying thru the air any further than right there. We have new tarps (heavier weight, but still prob wouldn't have survived the winds) that we will put up. Eventually, I want much heavier tarps OR to put on green house panels (not sure those would have survived either actually).
In the next week, I will post pics of what the pens look like BEFORE we put anything else down in them and then what we put in them and then into the future...
YEP, DLM works in hot, humid and WET climates. I am in the sandhills portion of NC - there road closures and flooding "all around us" but our property sits up pretty high and we are ok.
EDITED to add: I have posted lots of other pics in other forum threads on DLM, but I can repost them in another post or two...
That is why you use different size/type of materials. Yes, I've used different sizes of pine bedding and also some of the pine pellets (that open/expand when get wet - used in horse stalls), but we also use pine straw (we have both long & short on our property - in fact the guys who do needle collection DON"T like our place as they say the mix isn't what most people want), pine branches, weeds (all different types - at different stages of growth), vegetable matter from the garden (not just fruits/veggies themselves), leftovers that haven't been eaten/won't be in future, shredded paper from work, shredded cardboard (LOVE our Staples Shredder), hay & straw from the ponies. We do a LOT of left overs & scraps for our chickens - to include fats, bones (especially after doing bone broth) and meats... what they don't eat/clean up (& sometimes they are choosy) will become part of the DLM in the coop/run "floors". All of our coops/pens are on the ground. I have no experience at all with a coop with any type of floor other than dirt/sand.
I also have a lot of chickens - so all of that from 2 - 6 people is OK and is broken up between 8 coops with more to be built before winter. Currently have chickens that have never been in coops - but in movable temporary grazing pens (not tractors - just the actual fencing w/ discarded bed sheets for shade/protection/keeping them from flying off). They were all mixed together and combined into coops for the storm... Understand - when I say "coops" - none of ours are standard building types. We have 3 actual cattle panel coops (approx 8x8 each) in our pony pasture, 1 truck topper coop w/ a 14x14 (?i think?) run and 4 coop pens that had flat wire roofs or tin on them at 3 1/2' tall when we moved in. We've gotten 2 of them hooped (c pics below) and tarped... well, that didn't survive the onslaught.
Hurricane Florence is smacking us hard right now, dumping INCHES (feet??) of rain on us. Our coops weren't under water this AM, but I haven't been back out...
Will pile loads of pine straw into all coops just to get the chix up/off of the wet (& I know they are muddy now) floors - as the wind damaged/removed the roofs on most of our coops & for the past several hours rain has just come straight down. Our yard (on mostly sand that we are changing to loam with fertilizer AND chickens) has always drained well, but water is now climbing our front porch steps. I was worried I'd find dead chickens this evening. I just went back out to check on them. there is some ponding in the deep litter in the "short" coops behind our house, but not so much that the chickens are standing in water - even with 3 of the roofs no longer existing (tarps were too light and didn't survive sustained winds and much higher gusts - c next set of pics). The bottoms of all the pens still have blocks up - so wind is blocked & chickens are shaking off the rain when ever it slows down. I will be able to pile layers of cardboard, shredded paper, limbs with both leaves & pine straw attached, hay & straw and leaves into the ponded areas to help them dry out. They are draining (YAY!!). I am SOOOO happy.
Yes, I moved the tin sheet before it became a dangerous weapon flying thru the air any further than right there. We have new tarps (heavier weight, but still prob wouldn't have survived the winds) that we will put up. Eventually, I want much heavier tarps OR to put on green house panels (not sure those would have survived either actually).
In the next week, I will post pics of what the pens look like BEFORE we put anything else down in them and then what we put in them and then into the future...
YEP, DLM works in hot, humid and WET climates. I am in the sandhills portion of NC - there road closures and flooding "all around us" but our property sits up pretty high and we are ok.
EDITED to add: I have posted lots of other pics in other forum threads on DLM, but I can repost them in another post or two...
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