Deep litter method

[Beekissed]

We got torrential rains last weekend here also. I just started chicken keeping last fall. We had issues with a muddy run a couple times. Then I got some chipped wood and leaves / pine needles from a tree trimming company. It has been wonderful. The run never got muddy or very squishy even with the mulched tree trimmings. I was surprised. One corner of the run even acted like a collection basin before we put the mulched/chipped tree trimmings in there. It would fill up and sit with water for days. I live in San Diego and it's pretty dry usually, but some days it gets very wet. We also have times that there is a fair amount of humidity. I got the trimmings free from a tree service I saw working down the street. I just asked of they could dump it in my side yard next to my driveway. I love it and haven't had to do anything to it. It's about 12" thick in the corner that floods so easily. We also have some sandy soil some clay soil here.

I think that's what so many are missing by not having deep litter in their runs. Those soils get very compacted and have an overage on feces, so the soil is out of balance and so compacted that water cannot soak into it, but rather runs off or stands in all the craters of the moonscape or stays in the inch of soil at the top, making for a muddy, slick, stinking, fly covered mess after a big rain and then hot, humid weather.

The covering of materials acts as a protective layer for the bug and worm life that would work their way up through those compacted soils to feed on the nutrient rich water/feces and their tunneling loosens the soils, keeping them loose and more absorptive. Then the litter also lessens the impact of the foot travel on those soils, keeping them from being packed down all the time, so this further allows draining and absorbing of excess fluid. All of that cleans the feces and the stink right out of the run as the run becomes a self cleansing, nutrient rich ecosystem for insect and bird alike. No more feces sitting on the surface attracting flies as the chicken's digging and hunting through the litter covers their own feces into the compost, little by little and day by day, until you have a wonderful, working habitat for the chickens instead of a barren, lifeless, muddy, stinking cesspit where no animal should have to walk over and over for the rest of their lives.

 

[momofthehouse]

I have the deep litter method going on and they are hiding eggs in the shavings! What should I do? They fight over one nest box of course. So when occupied they just lay whereever and scoot shavings over the egg. I am learning this but I hate digging trying to find eggs! I moved into this house and inherited this coop so it is only temporary but still annoying. Maybe their litter is too deep?

 

[Beekissed]

I have the deep litter method going on and they are hiding eggs in the shavings! What should I do? They fight over one nest box of course. So when occupied they just lay whereever and scoot shavings over the egg. I am learning this but I hate digging trying to find eggs! I moved into this house and inherited this coop so it is only temporary but still annoying. Maybe their litter is too deep?

I wouldn't think so...mine is very deep but never had this problem...sounds like a nest box problem rather than a litter problem. You could establish a few nests at floor level with actual grass hay bedding formed into a nice, deep nest and see if they prefer that to the bedding.

 

[momofthehouse]

Ok so I removed some of the old litter and out it in the run but then put fresh shavings in the nest boxes and made sure it was deep. It's hard cause this is a temporary coop so don't want to invest into it too much. I'll see how this does for now. New birds were added so maybe trying to still figure out pecking order and who gets to lay where and when.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Ok so I removed some of the old litter and out it in the run but then put fresh shavings in the nest boxes and made sure it was deep. It's hard cause this is a temporary coop so don't want to invest into it too much. I'll see how this does for now. New birds were added so maybe trying to still figure out pecking order and who gets to lay where and when.

Try adding fake eggs to all the nesting boxes. It may encourage them to lay in more than one box.


Question:

I am planning on using deep liter in my coop/run and have a question. I've read that you aren't supposed to put DE in the deep litter so it won't kill the good bugs and nematodes that break down the stuff, but the first several pages of this thread had a lot of comments of people adding it. Which is right? I didn't read all 125 pages so maybe something has changed since the thread was started 7 years ago?

 

[Beekissed]

Try adding fake eggs to all the nesting boxes. It may encourage them to lay in more than one box.


Question:

I am planning on using deep liter in my coop/run and have a question. I've read that you aren't supposed to put DE in the deep litter so it won't kill the good bugs and nematodes that break down the stuff, but the first several pages of this thread had a lot of comments of people adding it. Which is right? I didn't read all 125 pages so maybe something has changed since the thread was started 7 years ago?

Some do, some don't, some will, some won't. Some did and found their DL didn't break down as nicely and quickly, so they changed and stopped using it..then could tell in the layer of their DL when they had stopped using it...dead deep litter in those layers...nothing much happening, composting, dark and rich DL in the layers without DE.

It's not necessary at all and it doesn't keep flocks from having parasites nor keep down flies any more than NOT using it, so it's purely your choice.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Some do, some don't, some will, some won't. Some did and found their DL didn't break down as nicely and quickly, so they changed and stopped using it..then could tell in the layer of their DL when they had stopped using it...dead deep litter in those layers...nothing much happening, composting, dark and rich DL in the layers without DE.

It's not necessary at all and it doesn't keep flocks from having parasites nor keep down flies any more than NOT using it, so it's purely your choice.

I choose not to then.

 

[momofthehouse]

I don't use it currently. I try and not use anything added cause that just makes the birds cost more.

 

[Arielle]

I moved a group of 15EE + 1 rooster to a new coop, and they now have 3 nest boxes. THey try to use only one, so I leave 1 brown egg in each on one day, and 1 blue egg the next.

Or I could mark an egg to leave in each nest box because I don't have fake eggs.

 

[armorfirelady]

I moved a group of 15EE + 1 rooster to a new coop, and they now have 3 nest boxes. THey try to use only one, so I leave 1 brown egg in each on one day, and 1 blue egg the next.

 Or I could mark an egg to leave in each nest box because I don't  have fake eggs. 

I found golf balls or ping ping balls worked as substitutes for fake eggs. Red last year sat on them for 3 days........I kept tossing her since there is no rooster here to fertilize the eggs.