Deep litter method

[pinkmartin73]

I went out to lock up the chickies at dusk. I caught a glimpse of watermelon rind & jumped about 3' thinking it was a snake. Funny joke on me!

:-D

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: put a container of wood ash in the coop year round. They dust bathe in it and it kills the mites & lice. I also put some in the nest box. (When I didnt have the wood ash in the coop they all got mites & I used the wood ash to get them off the hens)

No need to add Sevin or DE

 

[PapaChaz]

put a container of wood ash in the coop year round. They dust bathe in it and it kills the mites & lice.  I also put some in the nest box.  (When I didnt have the wood ash in the coop they all got mites & I used the wood ash to get them off the hens)

No need to add Sevin or DE

Not everyone has wood ash available, but if someone is going to burn wood for this purpose make sure it's not treated wood.

Back to unhyjacking the thread, two weeks in and they are loving the thick layer of grass i put in both the coop and the run. My next layer will be wood chips until i start getting some leaves later on

 

[Beekissed]

Been adding to the variety of the DL all summer with fresh wood chips, garden clippings, canning and kitchen scraps and, today, we put another cartload of corn shucks and corn cobs in there. The last load was some weeks ago but those corn shucks are nowhere to be found...they just..disappeared. Composted. Vanished. I'll be placing a load of wood chips on top of these shucks and these shucks will also be integrated into the rich compost under the roosts.

 

[dawnpel]

We are building our 16 girls a new coop and was wondering about the DL method. Since its a brand new coop how does one START the DL method? The coop is 12x16 with a wood floor. Do I try to DL the whole coop floor or just under the roosts??

 

[Kris64]

Do you ever get concerned about the chickens digging through their own poop? I mean, having roosts with food scraps underneath that the hens may peck at?

 

[Kris64]

There may be better ideas on starting DL with a wood floor, but I'd start by adding some dirt. This is where the microbes live that you want to break down organic material. Personally, I'd DL the whole thing. Even our run is "sort of" DL. I haven't cleaned it out. I just turn it up a couple times a week and toss in more straw when it begins to smell like poop.

 

[Ironman]

Definetly gonna do this for our coop and run. I'm mid build right now with reclaimed ( pallets ) wood. We have a ton of oak trees around the coop and run so I plan to use pine shaving and oak leaves for DL and go from there.
I'll start a coop thread once I'm complete with the build.

Thank for all the info.

IM

 

[dawnpel]

We havent started our coop yet. The area we are putting it has good hard packed gravel. Would we be better off not putting a wood floor if I am going to DL?

 

[Beekissed]

Do you ever get concerned about the chickens digging through their own poop? I mean, having roosts with food scraps underneath that the hens may peck at?

Well...it's THEIR poop, so anything that is in there is also already in them. Then, I cover that poop with DL every other day and don't throw the scraps directly onto fresh poop....DL is flipped over it first. Any scratching after that will likely either cover it even deeper or uncover parts of it and recover it again. In the end the poop is covered and the scraps they don't eat are covered as well.

Nope, I don't worry because I don't throw scraps directly onto poop...no need for it if you have DL enough to cover fresh droppings daily or every other day. The roosts are the only place they poop, as they are rarely ever in the coop until nighttime or feeding. Most of their poop gets deposited out on the land.