Deep litter method

[Arielle]

Quote: can you repost it here?
Yup wood ash from the wood stove is what I use. I just pour cool ashes in a litter box and place it in their coop.
I mainly use it for mite removal prevention. But it must taste ok since I occasionally see one of the hens eat some.

I screen the ash if I have been using pallets to get the nails & staples out first.

It also helps with the DL since its like compost.
We usually sprinkle it onthe grass in the back yard, well on the snow on the grass in the backyard, all winter long. Now I have a new use for it !

 

[ChicksCoopHome]

Hello I am very keen into trying the deep litter method... But i read somewhere that problems with mouse infesting or nesting under the straws may occur? Do you have any experience about this? What about the smell of the compost? Will it not generate a foul smell?

 

[Beekissed]

I've not seen anything of rodents in the bedding. I think the chickens would be a big deterrent to that, as mine would eat any mouse small enough to fit into their mouth and throat. They also tend to rearrange the bedding quite a bit as time goes along, so any mouse or rat burrow would be torn apart and shifted too much for comfort. Maybe in large poultry houses this would be a problem, as those chickens probably do not shift the bedding much?

I also do not use straw, so that might be a factor as well...could be they would nest in straw much more readily than they would in smaller fragments of wood shavings, leaves and pine needles.

I've also not had any foul odors; on the contrary, the DL actually decreased coop smells, particularly in the summer months when smells are the highest. Ventilation is key to moving any ammonia produced by the composting up and out of the coop, so when I didn't have proper ventilation in the coop I noticed some smell more....a few simple adjustments took care of that.

Now, with feeding fermented feeds, the feces don't even have a smell and they practically disintegrate in the bedding, as the contents are predigested by the fermentation and then more fully digested by the bird. No smells except earthy, soil smell one would experience if they smelled forest floor debris/soil.

My 79 yr old mother is constantly amazed at how the coop has no smell or flies in it in the hottest part of the summer, which is not how she remembers raising chickens...chicken poop smells and that's a fact of life, or so she thought. She wished she had known about using deep litter back in the day and so do I. To me it's nothing short of a revelation and same with the fermented feeds...we used them on hogs back then but never thought to use them for chickens.

 

[Arielle]

THe only mouse I have found so far was a mother that set up shop in a blocked nest box. She built ontop of the shavings, gathering sheep wool and feathers and cloths. LIke that she had a "litterbox" away from her nest. Clean girl. I let her finish her job, then removed the nest and now check the nest box more often to prevent another nest. Lots of other places for her to go. We tend to be a live and let live farm. Everyone has a place on a healthy farm in my opinon. Besides they are free protein when the right chicken catches up with the mouse.

CCH-- if it smells add more bedding or increase the ventilation. THe more bedding I added the betterthe smell until I got it just right. I sometimes use a little lime-- not sure if that is allowed, but it too helps with the ammonia. GIve it a couple days and the smell is reduced. *** BEekissed said, it smells good. ( I've only recently tried the method again. I have done a better job of getting the deep litter going this time. )

 

[ChicksCoopHome]

Thank you Beekissed & Arielle for the quick reply. Now I know I will have less worries on the smell of poops with the deep litter method and less maintenance in cleaning the coop. Oh what a relief.

I will keep this in mind when I finally start trying out this deep litter project especially your tips on providing enough ventilation inside the coop. For now I still have to convince my husband about how on the contrary this DL method is more convenient and requires lesser maintenance.

 

[Arielle]

Thank you Beekissed & Arielle for the quick reply. Now I know I will have less worries on the smell of poops with the deep litter method and less maintenance in cleaning the coop. Oh what a relief.

I will keep this in mind when I finally start trying out this deep litter project especially your tips on providing enough ventilation inside the coop. For now I still have to convince my husband about how on the contrary this DL method is more convenient and requires lesser maintenance.

Oh it is much less work than my other coop which is very small, and I pick out the nightly droppings. Just not possible to have DL as the coop is only 14 inches high--

Good luck, and do take the time to read this thread from the begining as it has much info.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Same here, no problems with any smells or critters. I don't scoop the poop I just turn it over and the next day turn it over again and I don't know WHERE the poop goes, it's weird. lol

 

[Dita Von Cluck]

I usually scoop out the big chunks of poo that I find when raking. If there's a fresh layer of nightly poop in the morning under the roost, I'll scoop that out. Sounds like that's unnecessary?

 

[Beekissed]

Yep. I use a pitchfork every now and again and turn the poop under the roost into the bedding..just a flip here and there or even just use the fork to toss bedding over the poop. The bugs will consume it faster if it is under cover and it doesn't attract flies that way, though I haven't seen a fly for 2 yrs in my coop anyway.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Yep. I use a pitchfork every now and again and turn the poop under the roost into the bedding..just a flip here and there or even just use the fork to toss bedding over the poop. The bugs will consume it faster if it is under cover and it doesn't attract flies that way, though I haven't seen a fly for 2 yrs in my coop anyway.

yep a few weeks ago I had to start turning it under every day because it was drawing flies but once I started to do that they left the scene. Doesn't take me 5 minutes to do though so I don't mind doing it. MUCH better this way AND no way I'm tossing out any poop from it because I want this stuff in my garden come spring time. My soil can use ALL the nutrients it has big time!