Deep litter method

[Mtn Laurel]

Can you build deep litter in a closed, raised, wooden floor coop?
I'm doing deep litter in their dirt floor run that's open air surrounded by hardware cloth and partially covered.

I don't see how deep litter can work in an enclosed area that gets no rain or has no drainage.

here's a pic of my coop and run. The area on the right is deep litter and the wooden house/coop is Sweet PDZ.

My coop is closed with a wooden floor and deep litter does great. I have a tarp over the floor to protect it and have put pine shavings and leaves over that. The chicken poo provides the moisture but I'll admit that I also add some dirt from our woods to the mix. The dirt inoculates the litter with those leaf, litter, and poo eating critters and enzymes to help it break down. Plus, the dirt has a bit of moisture in it.

My profile pic is of my coop and - like you - I've got several windows that allows in a bit of moisture from the air. If your litter gets too dry, you can always spray it a bit with water.

 

[schnebbles]

I'm going to try this method. Question - I had about 2" of sand on the bottom (fairly new). I put a bunch of wood shavings on top. Is this ok? my coop has a wood floor. If I need to get the sand out, I need to do it this weekend when it's nice again. I didn't figure it would be a problem but figured I better ask.

I find sand kind of a pain. I can't get all the small clumps out and then when I finally got around to changing it out, it was cool and my sand wouldn't dry (playsand in bags).

I'm anxious to do this because it sounds so easy!

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I'm going to try this method. Question - I had about 2" of sand on the bottom (fairly new). I put a bunch of wood shavings on top. Is this ok? my coop has a wood floor. If I need to get the sand out, I need to do it this weekend when it's nice again. I didn't figure it would be a problem but figured I better ask.

I find sand kind of a pain. I can't get all the small clumps out and then when I finally got around to changing it out, it was cool and my sand wouldn't dry (playsand in bags).

I'm anxious to do this because it sounds so easy!

Well, I'm just trying this for the first time myself so I'm no expert. But I've read that people do this over dirt floors. So I'm thinking why not do it over the sand. You'd just not want to mix the sand into the DL as you turn it or it will just get heavy from the sand and moisture. But it a bit of sand gets mixed up in it, what harm would it do.

But again, I should defer to people who've actually done this.

 

[schnebbles]

good point, I was going to just leave the sand still on the bottom, but yes, it's probably going to need turned in to some extent.

 

[lawatt]

good point, I was going to just leave the sand still on the bottom, but yes, it's probably going to need turned in to some extent.

the chickens do the turning themselves, and i would expect that they will scratch down to the sand layer at one point or another, so keeping the two layers "separate" will eventually be impossible...

 

[schnebbles]

my chickens don't seem to dig around much in their coop. They are not normal, lol! don't like treats either except raisins.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

my chickens don't seem to dig around much in their coop. They are not normal, lol! don't like treats either except raisins.

They don't like treats?!? That is NOT normal.

You must have an amazing space for them with lots of tasty things to eat naturally.

 

[schnebbles]

I know! I've tried various things mentioned here and all they eat is raisins. They are still fairly young so I hope someday they realize they are missing out! and nope, small yard, lol!

 

[denimangle]

We are building a new coop/run its a 10' x 15' pen with a 8'x 4' raised coop that will have the roosts & nest does anyone use the deep litter method in the pen/run as will as the coop
thanks

 

[schnebbles]

I'm thinking of raking all of the leaves in the run.