Deep litter method

[lawatt]

Thank you for the advice I have to tell you I giggled to see where you live because you said it was so dry there.

We're from the Bay area originally but have lived in Reno for the past 20 years. When we go back to visit it feels like we're breathing under water it's so humid and moist to our lungs now. Oh how I long for that Baby Area atmosphere. My desert chicks would love the Martinez earthworms, slugs and snails which are not heard of in my dry backyard. I'm thinking I might have to pass on the DLM for now and see what happens this winter moisture wise.

yes, the air is certainly more moist here than where you are! (and, keep in mind this past year has been a bad drought here, so things have been much drier than usual) -- but what matters more, i think, is the moisture in the ground -- or whatever you can add via sprinkler hose. i absolutely love using DL, can't imagine having the scrape and clean the coop constantly!

 

[mamabear72]

I wrote an article on my blog about my experience with deep litter. Hope this helps! It's the second part of the article, after the update about the hen who is foster mothering some chicks from the farm store.

http://crossedsabersranch.blogspot.com/2014/03/deep-doo-doo.html

Thank you, I absolutely LOVE your blog!

 

[Ms Jellybean]

I tried using the deep litter method in our large coop with 18 chickens. It does work. And it's so easy to manage. The litter has been building up for about 8 months. Just cleaned it out yesterday for the first time. The bottom layers were all broken down and composted. I dug it all right into the garden.

It's easy peasy! And it doesn't smell. Trust me. If you are doing it right, there's no unpleasant smell.

I wrote an article on my blog about my experience with deep litter. Hope this helps! It's the second part of the article, after the update about the hen who is foster mothering some chicks from the farm store.

http://crossedsabersranch.blogspot.com/2014/03/deep-doo-doo.html

Welcome! I"m going to check out your blog later today. Sounds like I will enjoy it.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Thank you for the advice I have to tell you I giggled to see where you live because you said it was so dry there.

We're from the Bay area originally but have lived in Reno for the past 20 years. When we go back to visit it feels like we're breathing under water it's so humid and moist to our lungs now. Oh how I long for that Baby Area atmosphere. My desert chicks would love the Martinez earthworms, slugs and snails which are not heard of in my dry backyard. I'm thinking I might have to pass on the DLM for now and see what happens this winter moisture wise.

I live east of you and it's drier here than there. I am attempting to utilize deep litter in my coops and yes it is very very dry so I am contemplating a fix for it, at least inside my coops.

On facebook and youtube, I've seen people teaching and showing how to propagate LAB (lactic acid bacteria). It captures your local air borne beneficial bacteria and makes it so you can make a solution to put on your houseplants or even water your outside plants with. I'm thinking I want to do this and lightly spray my coop's deep litter to add some good bacteria to my soil and deep litter for a healthy floor covering for my birds to live on instead of a dust storm every time they drag a foot across the floor.

I ferment my feed so I know we have the bacteria, I just want to do it in a container without food in it so I can later put that liquid in a spray bottle and actually have it come out the sprayer.

 

[Beekissed]

My FF feed trough has holes drilled in the bottom to allow for drainage.....and under that trough just happens to be the most dug out, picked over and scratched up place in the whole coop...I can't keep the DL under the trough because of this. I can only assume the bugs are coming up in the soils there to feed on this FF liquid and so the chickens are really foraging that area because of it.

It certainly would jump start some DL towards composting to have some of the FF liquid to spray into all the areas of the DL this summer...when I get back to my double bucket method I'll dip into my bottom reservoir and take off some of the liquid there and use it to start more liquid and just keep it going in that manner so I can "seed" my DL now and again. Will also see how it does in my garden beds for the same purpose.

 

[MagicChicken]

In my area May and June are hot and dry, and July and August are hot and humid. We have huge monsoon-like thunderstorms in the summer. I started using deep litter about a year ago, during the dry time. I had been spraying it lightly with the hose to keep the dust down and provide some moisture for composting. That worked great until the humidity hit.

I didn't stop spraying when monsoon season arrived. It wasn't long before most of my birds were getting bumblefoot-like sores on their feet. That could have had a number of causes, but part of the problem was the way I had been maintaining the deep litter. When the litter suddenly got thoroughly moist it became clear I had not been adding fresh litter fast enough. The dry poop kind of reconstituted. It was smelly and gross. I treated the birds' feet, mucked out about half of the litter, and started over.

I resolved the problem by increasing the amount of fresh litter I was adding, and I stopped spraying the litter with water. The birds' feet healed just fine. The litter still doesn't compost much in the coop and the coop is a bit dusty, but I'm okay with that. The coop/run has a lot of open wire and cross-ventilation. Most of the coop/run dust gets blown out and some of the outside dust gets blown in. My birds live in a desert. Dust is something they have to cope with, like heat. There is no way to keep them in a dust-free environment.

When it is really hot and DRY I will spray the coop/run a little. It helps moderate the temperature in there. But I will stop all spraying once the humidity kicks in. And I will muck out a portion of the deep litter every few months.

In my climate the litter may not compost well in the coop/run, but once I get it into a compost pile where I can add a lot of moisture it is a different story. After last summer's coop muck-out the compost pile got so hot it was scary. For a couple of days I was concerned about spontaneous combustion. Watered and turned it a lot and it eventually calmed down, producing a great compost within a few weeks. I like it to be in the "active" range of the compost thermometer, not off the scale on the "hot" side.

Since I need good compost more than I need eggs, this works for me.

 

[armorfirelady]

In my climate the litter may not compost well in the coop/run, but once I get it into a compost pile where I can add a lot of moisture it is a different story. After last summer's coop muck-out the compost pile got so hot it was scary. For a couple of days I was concerned about spontaneous combustion. Watered and turned it a lot and it eventually calmed down, producing a great compost within a few weeks. I like it to be in the "active" range of the compost thermometer, not off the scale on the "hot" side.

Since I need good compost more than I need eggs, this works for me.

I do not have your wonderful heat here. During the middle of one of our blizzards I was picking up handfuls of DL to toss out on the snow and was amazed by the heat in the DL when the temps were in the single digits. No wonder the girls spent part of their time digging thru the DL it was warm in there

Mine stays moist all winter with the snow we get and we are having another wet spring so its always damp. I empty it in the spring into the veggie garden. The girls scratch thru it in there spreading it for me. During the summer I just use grass clippings and pine shavings in the coop and keep it at a lower level.

 

[gilcamp4]

I tried using the deep litter method in our large coop with 18 chickens. It does work. And it's so easy to manage. The litter has been building up for about 8 months. Just cleaned it out yesterday for the first time. The bottom layers were all broken down and composted. I dug it all right into the garden.

It's easy peasy! And it doesn't smell. Trust me. If you are doing it right, there's no unpleasant smell.

I wrote an article on my blog about my experience with deep litter. Hope this helps! It's the second part of the article, after the update about the hen who is foster mothering some chicks from the farm store.

http://crossedsabersranch.blogspot.com/2014/03/deep-doo-doo.html

I just read it and this year for the first time I did a dl, but I used hey and it did have a smell, I just told my hubbie we will have to try this way, we have had chickens for years but last year was the first time we did the dl, I use to clean it out every week. I did almost what you said but like I said I used hey, when it smelled I just put more on it, but I never saw a worm when I cleaned it the end of feb.

 

[megoony99]

Im sure this is a silly question but does the deep litter method for just inside the coop? Or is it for the run also? I just got 9 little pullets and I am wondering if this method would work in their coop and run. I live in Missouri so the weather is seratic. Would the deep litter method work in their run too? Ive read about doing sand in the run also and using a cat litter scoop the pick up the poo.

 

[Beekissed]

Im sure this is a silly question but does the deep litter method for just inside the coop? Or is it for the run also? I just got 9 little pullets and I am wondering if this method would work in their coop and run. I live in Missouri so the weather is seratic. Would the deep litter method work in their run too? Ive read about doing sand in the run also and using a cat litter scoop the pick up the poo.

Yep, works great in the run and, if kept sufficiently deep there, will eliminate muddy runs, muddy feet, etc. It will keep the run soils healthier, more absorbent and will encourage more bug life there for your chickens to eat.