Deep litter method

[Reed]

Quote:
Thanks, that makes perfect sense ... and thanks, too, for explaining why -- I always want to know that!

In your pictures it looks like you have nothing that will close up your vent - is that because you're in a warm climate?

 

[Layira]

So I'm using the DLM in my coop (10x12) for my 14 chickens and so far its been excellent! I add shaving usually every few weeks (or as needed) and rake the bedding every few days and I've had no issues. In fact, I really recommend this to anyone who needs a low maintenance way of keeping a coop clean.

Recently though my youngsters started their molting from baby feathers to adult feathers and now there's feathers everywhere. Should I clean the feathers from the coop or will they not cause a problem? They are a bit unsightly, but I'm more concerned with the possibilty of them causing a problem.

Also, I don't use a dropping board beneath my roosts and I've read that this is fine; in you guys' experience, do you have to clean more frequently with or without one?

It's good to see so many different opinions from so many different situations and get a really broad spectrum of information! Yay BYC!

 

[Beekissed]

The feathers will not cause a problem...only good compost and good insulation.

I've never used a dropping board in all these years and had never even heard of one before I visited BYC. When you use the DLM, droppings are a good thing, IMO. My birds free range, so I get cheated out of a lot of good manure.

Just keep your litter turned~I do this with chicken power and BOSS~and your nose will tell you when to add new shavings.

but in cold winter months you do not want your ventilation to be down low where the chickens are.

I don't know about you all but my chickens are on the roost at night and high above the pop door. The only way they could get drafts directly from that is if they stayed on the floor. In the daytime, mine free range and are outside for most of the time unless there are deep snows.

My pop door isn't my only ventilation in the winter as my coop is old and has many cracks between the boards, but it is the biggest opening I have then. I don't have ventilation at the top of my coop at all. My litter stays dry and my birds stay warm when I use the DLM. In the daytime, if they are on the floor of the coop, they have the dry and warm litter and many draft free corners in which to congregate.

Never had any problem with this method. My birds love the drafty coop I have...fresh air never hurt anyone.​

 

[Reed]

This has probably been answered in other threads but I was looking for an answer so for those who asked and are still interested ...

I ran into a chicken farmer at our flea market this morning and he said he puts wood ash in his chicken yard because the chickens love to dust bathe in it and it helps with insect control. In particular, according to him, local farmers here in CT are battling mites, and while store-bought insecticides can be used for prevention wood ash is an old-fashioned natural remedy.

 

[Layira]

Quote:
Concerning using wood ash; can ash be used from an outdoor wood furnance? My parents just bought one and will be burning wood in it all winter, I was curious if it could be used or whether or not that would make a difference.

Another thing, is there any kind of guideline one should follow when adding it? Like should I just make a pile in the run and also add it to the litter in the coop? I guess what I'm asking is if too much is bad for the chickens.

 

[junglebird]

I have an open air coop - utility fencing with plastic sheeting over the top and 3 sides. We received 2.5" of rain last week, and now the bedding is wet around the edges of the coop. There is not standing water, just wet bedding. I've been using a combination of straw and dry meadow grass clippings.

I can't trench around the coop to try to divert moisture, and even if I did, I'm not sure how dry it would keep the soil under the coop. Our soil is called gravelly loam, good drainage, but there's seepage ... even the center of my hoophouse floor is damp.

Should I continually remove the wet bedding around the edges? Should I mix in pine shavings to absorb it? Abandon straw altogether? Should I add a couple inches of gravel around the edges of the coop? Or should I give it up and put in a raised floor?


Also, if DLM promotes good microbes, doesn't adding DE kill them?

 

[patandchickens]

Should I continually remove the wet bedding around the edges? Should I mix in pine shavings to absorb it? Abandon straw altogether? Should I add a couple inches of gravel around the edges of the coop? Or should I give it up and put in a raised floor?

Seems to me it depends where you live and how open-air the coop is. If it is literally just 3-sided, and you live somewhere that never gets real cold in the winter, then it is probably 100% fine to just leave the damp bedding around the edges, just check it occasionally to make sure nothing unsavory is going on. If the coop is really pretty much enclosed though with not so MUCH ventilation as if a side were all-mesh, especially if you get noticeably below freezing on a regular basis during the winter, then it may indeed cause problems eventually and you would want to do something about it. You could try some gravel, maybe with a board laid over it, to create a capillary break so the water does not wick up into the bedding; or maybe other solutions would work, depending on the exact situation (I am having trouble visualizing the details, do you have any pics by any chance?)

Also, if DLM promotes good microbes, doesn't adding DE kill them?

DE does not, at least as far as anyone knows, kill *microbes*. Mainly what it is hard on is arthropods (insects, mites, that sort of thing). Of which there are probably next to none in your coop bedding anyhow (if nothing else, chickens would eat all but the tiniest

).

I have to assume that at least a certain amount of DE in composting deep litter does no major harm, since a bunch of BYCers do that and report no obvious problems; but I would like to point out that DE is BY NO MEANS of long or historical use in this way. The old-timey composting deep litter that many people are imagining they are mimicking did certainly not use any diatomaceous earth, although in some cases when odor problems arose and things could not be cleaned out at the time some lime would have been used. Mind you I do not see any particular reason one *should* be mimicking historical bedding-management practices but I am just trying to point out that DE is totally NOT essential to that sort of thing, being of only fairly recent commercial availability in the first place

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[junglebird]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for your reply. I found your page on muddy coops while reading another thread. Awesomely helpful, thanks!

Pictures of my fresh air coop:

Upon further examination, most of the wetness is due to lack of overhang on the open side, and water running down one of the tree trunks. I'm going to gather up chunky branch pieces and more pine cones from the woods to put in those soggier areas to provide more aeration underneath the bedding. And, I'm going to try to seal up the roof around the tree trunks a bit, and add an overhang. Any other ideas?

 

[growinupinfl]

Does anyone in Florida or other Gulf Coast area's use the Deep Litter Method.. I tried some over the summer, I don't know if I was doing something wrong. But those flipping palmetto bugs (aka- huge freaking nasty Florida cockroaches) Got in there and just creepped me out. Is the bugs a problem or will the girls just eat them eventually. Does the DE help keep the bugs down?

As for the area's under the roost what exactly is put there to catch the poo? This I would be most interested in, it amazes me how much poo can come out of them.

For the most part the coop is dry, but in the heaviest rains when it starts going sideways the rain does get in. I have gap up at the top of the roof that allows air to circulate in the hot stuffy southern summers. The floor is wood and up off the ground to prevent flooding in the heaviest of rains.

My flock is mainly a free range flock. They mainly sleep in tree's on the top of the coop and on the gaps on the top of the sides. So much for needing a inch wide or more roost.. They pretty much ignore their roost. So is their lack of spending time in the coop part of the reason I may have a bug problem. I am sure part of it is just the fact I live in the deep South, where bugs rule the land.. LOL

I also have eggs that are due to hatch in a few days, I was thinking the litter method would help the coop stay a little warmer for the babies. It is dropping down into the 30's at night any ideas would be great.

Christal

 

[abhaya]

lots of people use DE in there litter

what is DE