Deep litter method

[armorfirelady]

A couple people asked what peoples DL looked like. Here's mine today

Leaves, pine needles, wood chips from cutting wood, peat moss and wood ash. It's about 3-4 inches. I added the leaves and wood chips last week.

 

[Beekissed]

And mine....








The pics below and above shows where the litter has been dug out by the chickens to expose the moist layers below...and under those layers is just very, very rich soil. All the leaves I placed there last winter are long, long gone and turned into soil.

 

[Chicken Myster]

you put the deep litter UNDER their roost and every other day or two you just turn it over and it seems to just disappear in the litter. Doesn't stink or anything. I added a nice huge pile under mines roost and had to add some more to it the other day since it's been awhile for that being there. IF you live where it snows ya might want to bag you up a few bags and poke a few holes in your trash bag to keep it from molding and that way you will have it on hand when you have snow on the ground once you get the deep litter in place that is. You'll have the bagged up ones for later on.

 

 

[Chicken Myster]

I mix it up every other da with a pitch fork

 

[Chicken Myster]

 

[Chicken Myster]

The outside run has about 4 inches of hay which gets turned as well
I will change out 3/4 of the coop shavings to the compost pile and replace it to 12inches for 6 more months

 

[Chicken Myster]

We use the deep litter method in our chiken coop. It saves quite a bit of work and it is very clean and efficient. First off we Clean our coop out once a year. Usually in the spring so we can use the litter in the garden. We shovel all the litter out, wash down the walls with a weak bleach solution and also spray this solution on the floor lightly.

We let the coop air out all  day and in the evening add a 2 or 3 inch layer of wood shavings and paper shreddings. We

We have a droppings board underneath the roosts and we do clean this off every sunday whether it needs it or not. It always needs it. This fresh poo goes into the compost pile as it will burn plants if it is not rotted first.  This only takes about 10 minutes or so and is no problem at all. At this time we also stir up the litter in the bottom of the coop, this helps to keep poo from accumulating around the feeder and helps to dry it out. Some people just throw scratch or corn in the coop and the chickens will stir it up for you. We then add a thin layer of shavings, paper shreds or hay. We keep this up every week and we end up with a 12 inch or so layer in the bottom of the coop to clean out next year.

As long as you make sure the poo is drying out there wont be a problem. We never have any issues with smells or ammonia build up.

I'm gonna go down and snap some photo's of the inside of the coop in the a.m.  Stay tuned...


Chris

 

[Chicken Myster]

Nice
I might incorporate a wash down method in the spring

 

[mynewbabies]

Would you start putting up plastic on the very windy sides of the outside coop /run,? Leave other sides open till it gets down closer
to the 30's. Also we are getting down to the 40 this weekend, ok to keep indoor coop screen door open at night, as we have over 40
Birds in the house, don't want to overheat them as this is where they stay until other building is almost ready. They share with the
Ducks. We separating them.

 

[armorfirelady]

Would you start putting up plastic on the very windy sides of the outside coop /run,? Leave other sides open till it gets down closer
to the 30's. Also we are getting down to the 40 this weekend, ok to keep indoor coop screen door open at night, as we have over 40
Birds in the house, don't want to overheat them as this is where they stay until other building is almost ready. They share with the
Ducks. We separating them.

My hens are in a hoop coop. On the east side and south side the canvas is rolled up about 2 feet from the bottom. I only put it down when they call for heavy rains more to keep the DL from getting soaked as this is the side the winds tend to come from. The west side has a foot gap from the bottom. I won't over it. Winds rarely come from this side. The north end is open and the glass is down in the screened door. I will close the glass when we have heavy rains.

We have had temps into the 40s and a few nights where we even got frost. I never lowered the tarps or put the window up in the door. Girls are fine. Their Roost runs from north to south. They all bunch down closer to south side if its raining in the north end on occasion. Normally just the roost that's right at the north end gets damp a couple inches in. The rest is dry.
I won't put the canvas on the east and south sides till the temps start staying in the 30s. I added a south facing window so it warms up in the coop during the day even if temps are lower.

As long as their are not cold wet winds blowing in and the hens have a place to stay dry they are fine. My hens are out in thunderstorms, when it's snowing .........they don't care. Just need a dry place to dry off in when they preen