Deep litter method

[appps]

As Bear said, it's a moist addition to the bedding so not the best if used in larger quantities and in a coop that doesn't need moisture.  The bedding needs enough nitrogen to bind with the carbonaceous bedding, so you might not be letting it absorb enough fecal matter to do that. 

The question would be, why are you pulling out your litter while it's still at the level that it takes a long time to compost?  Most using true DL don't pull out any litter until it's composted enough to use directly on the garden~this they take off the bottom levels and place the top levels back where they found them, which then becomes the bottom levels....has a mulch or soil smell, look and consistency at that point.  I don't even pull mine out...it just degrades right back into the soil of the coop and looks pretty much like soil at the final stage.  I use a mix of shavings, leaves, pine needles etc but my litter pack never really gets deep as you'd think it should after all the materials I throw in there...it just turns back to soil. 

Well the first time I pulled it out because we got mites so I redid the coop. The second time we got lice. So I pulled it out again and started fresh.
So it seems to be about every 8 months I'm pulling it out.

I also like the idea of putting it on my garden so was wanting to put it the compost to speed things up

However you make a good point about the water and moisture. It does flood in heavy rain so that would not be fun. (Which reminds me the third time I pulled it out because it flooded and was under water for a week)

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

So I'm confused. I keep reading about how important it is to keep your coop and run clean of droppings as they can promote disease.

But if I'm reading some of your posts right, you don't pick up the droppings from your run on a regular basis. You just let it mix and compost and then, what, a few times a year, rake it all out and put it in the garden?

I'm just not sure I could bring myself to do that.

Do you toss seeds, scratch or greens right on top of the droppings? And that's not bad for them?

I guess chickens have been living in confined spaces for hundreds of years w/ out to much issue. But if you could explain further how that works, I'd like to understand better.

 

[appps]

We have it in the coop not run and I don't add food as like you don't think that could be good for them. I just have an old rake and every couple of days give it a quick scratch around to get the poop mixed below the shavings.

It sounds bad how you describe it but has made a huge difference for our coop as far as reducing smell and flies

The shavings seem to dry out the poop so they aren't walking in a sea of poop lol. Its really just like them walking in shavings.

Mine is however probably the mildest form of deep litter.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

We have it in the coop not run and I don't add food as like you don't think that could be good for them. I just have an old rake and every couple of days give it a quick scratch around to get the poop mixed below the shavings.

It sounds bad how you describe it but has made a huge difference for our coop as far as reducing smell and flies

Thanks for that. I've had my hens for three years now and what I'm doing is working for me. I won't claim that it's right or wrong. But I do think I'll keep doing it. It's working for my situation and I have happy, healthy hens.

And if I've learned anything over these past three years, is that there is no one right way to do this. Each set up is different and where you live and how many chickens you have can make a big difference in how you manage your hens.

Thanks for all the info.

 

[Beekissed]

So I'm confused. I keep reading about how important it is to keep your coop and run clean of droppings as they can promote disease.

But if I'm reading some of your posts right, you don't pick up the droppings from your run on a regular basis. You just let it mix and compost and then, what, a few times a year, rake it all out and put it in the garden?

I'm just not sure I could bring myself to do that.

Do you toss seeds, scratch or greens right on top of the droppings? And that's not bad for them?

I guess chickens have been living in confined spaces for hundreds of years w/ out to much issue. But if you could explain further how that works, I'd like to understand better.

Sure. I don't even rake mine out a couple times a year any longer, I just leave it in place but if I had a wooden floor coop I would remove the lower layers once a year so that it wouldn't get too too deep over the years.

Yes, every book out there will tell you that you have to clean up the poop, blah, blah, blah. On barren run soils that have no ground cover left, are packed down and can no longer absorb water, so it makes a slick mess and puddles each time it rains..I'd say removal of the feces each day is a good idea. Too much nitrogen on the soils can kill the balance of organisms to be found there and the bad germs find it a lovely place to thrive.

But, if you can keep a correct balance between the nitrogen of the feces and the carbon of the litter, they will bind with one another to enrich the soils, bugs and worms will inhabit the soil layer under the litter to feed on the manure, keeping the soil loose and loamy which allows the water to absorb instead of run off..this absorption takes the nutrients even lower into the soil and allows the soil layers to cleanse the water of excess nitrogen it may have from the feces.

Meanwhile, because the balance of the soil is more towards normal, beneficial microorganism can colonize the soils there and when they do that, they crowd out the overgrowth of the harmful pathogens. The harmful ones grow faster, but the beneficial ones grow stronger in a balanced soil and they also emit chemicals during their metabolism of the nutrients that actually inhibit the reproduction of the harmful pathogens. So, creating a habitat for beneficial bugs and microorganisms is a long term approach to a healthy flock and a much more effective one than trying to clean up poop and medicating the flock when it gets sick. Start at the beginning, where the problems occur and you may never have a problem. I've never had a problem because my birds free range at all times on soil that is not overstocked and has ground cover to protect the lower layers, but my coop has deep litter to protect the soils in that space from becoming imbalanced.

And that need for soil balance is imperative for this process to occur, no matter where you live, so it doesn't just work regionally...healthy soil is a must for healthy livestock no matter where they live.

One source states high levels of coccidia in the soils can be rectified in just 6 mo. of using deep litter, restoring the soil to a lower level of these organisms so they can expose your birds to lower levels of coccidia in order to form antibodies against it naturally.

 

[gilcamp4]

I have put shavings in then the hay, my girls kicked the shavings out of coop, had more in yard then the coop, that is when I went and got the hay and put it on top of the shavings, I did not put the shavings in nest just the floor, we have 31 chickens and have a old camper 25 by 7ft cleaned old and have 2 large roosts have 10 nests, we had one end fenced off when the hens where busy having babies, but now the whole thing is opened. they love going under it as we do not have much shade.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: That's a design flaw in the coop
Add a wide board across the bottom of the door to raise the depth and that will end

 

[armorfirelady]

I used to DL in my tiny coop. True I couldn't go a year without cleaning it out but I probably only cleaned it out every couple months. I had to turn it more because it was so much smaller. I added vents and the east facing side was only covered halfway from the top. Bottom was open all year. Their roost was right in front of that open area. Well the roost sat right where plastics ended. Never had any problems. Chickens can handle cold. It's the humidity that causes frostbite and illness. I had 4 hens in mine

This is my old coop. The building on right was the coop. You can see the snow piled up in front of the east side and just barely see where plastic ends and where open area is below. The girls sat right in front of that all winter

 

[gilcamp4]

we did a redo of a camper, had it fixed so we could have old and young in same camper, as for the broad at door to stop shavings from going out into yard, my husband is 81 and I would be afraid of him tripping over it, we have had both shavings and hay for 3 yrs and clean it out maybe every four mths

 

[joan1708]

So I'm confused. I keep reading about how important it is to keep your coop and run clean of droppings as they can promote disease.

But if I'm reading some of your posts right, you don't pick up the droppings from your run on a regular basis. You just let it mix and compost and then, what, a few times a year, rake it all out and put it in the garden?

I'm just not sure I could bring myself to do that.

Do you toss seeds, scratch or greens right on top of the droppings? And that's not bad for them?

I guess chickens have been living in confined spaces for hundreds of years w/ out to much issue. But if you could explain further how that works, I'd like to understand better.

My coop is also small but may still be a little bit bigger and taller than yours. I have 3 silkies in my set-up. I keep about 6 inches of litter in the coop. I also use a cat litter scoop and scoop out the big poop form the coop daily. I also give the litter in the coop a daily stir. I add more wood shavings from time to time. I've had the chickens 18 months. I have never replaced all the litter in the coop. I replaced about half of the litter last spring. Gail Damerow (Storey guide to chickens) says if you replace all the litter you have more problems with flies. I have 6-8 inches of litter in the "run", I also keep litter in the chicken "yard", so it's not a muddy mess when it rains. I add leaves/shavings to the litter in the run and yard some. and I "harvest" litter from time to time and throw it in the compost because I want the compost. (I will only use chicken manure or litter that has been composted at least 3 months in my vegetable garden). My run doesn't look or smell "poopy". In summary; I give the coop more attention since it is smaller and the chickens sleep in there, so I guess it is modified deep litter. The run and yard are more "bonafide" deep litter. And even though I have a small coop, I have an ample sized run and yard for my 3 little chickens (which makes DLM idiot proof). Here are some pictures to show you what I'm talking about.

This is the yard


This is inside the run


This is inside the coop when it was fairly new (I don't think it has litter in it yet). That is a bantam nest box that I moved to the run because the coop is too small for it. I made the pop door about 6 inches above the coop floor and have board in front of the main door to keep the litter in.