Deep litter method

[x1lclem]

This thread is 133 pages long, so forgive me for not reading the whole thing.

I have 2 questions:

1. Should I paint the floor of my coop? Right now it's bare wood.
2. Do chickens and ducks need water inside the coop, in case they wish to drink at night? or can I keep the water outside?

 

[armorfirelady]

This thread is 133 pages long, so forgive me for not reading the whole thing.

I have 2 questions:

1. Should I paint the floor of my coop? Right now it's bare wood.
2. Do chickens and ducks need water inside the coop, in case they wish to drink at night? or can I keep the water outside?

I can not help you with your first question because my coop doesnt have a wood floor but as for water in the coop I do not leave water in my coop. They do not drink at night & it raises the humidity. I feed & water outside all the time. Even during the winter.

 

[Beekissed]

This thread is 133 pages long, so forgive me for not reading the whole thing.

I have 2 questions:

1. Should I paint the floor of my coop? Right now it's bare wood.
2. Do chickens and ducks need water inside the coop, in case they wish to drink at night? or can I keep the water outside?

You'll want to water proof it in some way....paint may not be the best solution but a good deck stain might help. Or Thompson's Water Seal. Some people just put a scrap of linoleum in there.

I have kept water in the coop...not for night time drinking, but for when birds have to be confined for any reason....snow days, if you have to travel for days and are penning the birds, if your dog drinks all the water if you leave it outside, etc.

You can keep it outside and I do so in the summer, when they drink out of the dog's water pan anyway, but make sure you have room in your coop for water if it needs to be placed there. Nipple buckets and such do not create more humidity in the coop unless they are leaking, which they shouldn't be doing. They are a great option for keeping water in the coop if you need to do so.

 

[RoseMarie1]

You'll want to water proof it in some way....paint may not be the best solution but a good deck stain might help. Or Thompson's Water Seal. Some people just put a scrap of linoleum in there.

I have kept water in the coop...not for night time drinking, but for when birds have to be confined for any reason....snow days, if you have to travel for days and are penning the birds, if your dog drinks all the water if you leave it outside, etc.

You can keep it outside and I do so in the summer, when they drink out of the dog's water pan anyway, but make sure you have room in your coop for water if it needs to be placed there. Nipple buckets and such do not create more humidity in the coop unless they are leaking, which they shouldn't be doing. They are a great option for keeping water in the coop if you need to do so.

Bee so glad to see you here cuz I got another (LOL) question for you AND wanted to tell you something about the run as well. HOPEFULLY I wont forget that one.

Question is this.....I have a brooder box, well you saw them awhile back. Nephew had given me two shipping crates we turned into brooder boxes and attached the two together so I can remove the wire panel if I want to use both for one batch chicks. Got 9 chicks in there right now and the walls and bottom is plywood. Hardware cloth on the top which is the lid. OK that said, every other day now I am having to change out their wood chips because of the phew smells and wondering IF I would do the deep litter method in there? Just curious because it sure would save me some work as well as the smell which is getting bad since they're over a month old now and growing. I'm highly thinking about moving them out with the big ones in a small sectioned pen I have out there. I don't trust mine to be together with the big ones like you do. lol

With it being plywood walls and floor just wondering if the ammonia smell would build up in there. I do have it plastic lined on the bottom and the walls though for easier clean up between chick batches.

Now for the run, honey all that deep litter has turned into dirt no longer than it's been. I have an oak tree close to the run and the roots to it is coming into the pen and feeding on all the goody. lol I am going to have to shovel a bunch of it outta there and sure WISH I'd made a wider door so I could get my wagon up in there instead of having to carry it to the door shovel by shovel. Anyway got to clean it out and get some more deep litter in there for them because it's almost all gone into soil. SOOOO COOL!!! LOVE this method!!! YES I DO!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Can you use the deep litter method in an outdoor run, or is it only for a chicken house with a covered floor?

OH YES you can. That is what I was JUST telling Bee, she taught me about this and man you should see the nice soil I have in my run now. JUST since last fall and it's turned to soil now. Man it's awesome to, going to shovel some of it out for my garden and replace with more deep litter since it's turned into soil now. lol LOVE this method! YES I DO! NO WORK hardly at all now for me except scooping out the soil now and adding more D.L.

 

[LindaB220]

Bee so glad to see you here cuz I got another (LOL) question for you AND wanted to tell you something about the run as well. HOPEFULLY I wont forget that one.

Question is this.....I have a brooder box, well you saw them awhile back. Nephew had given me two shipping crates we turned into brooder boxes and attached the two together so I can remove the wire panel if I want to use both for one batch chicks. Got 9 chicks in there right now and the walls and bottom is plywood. Hardware cloth on the top which is the lid. OK that said, every other day now I am having to change out their wood chips because of the phew smells and wondering IF I would do the deep litter method in there? Just curious because it sure would save me some work as well as the smell which is getting bad since they're over a month old now and growing. I'm highly thinking about moving them out with the big ones in a small sectioned pen I have out there. I don't trust mine to be together with the big ones like you do. lol

With it being plywood walls and floor just wondering if the ammonia smell would build up in there. I do have it plastic lined on the bottom and the walls though for easier clean up between chick batches.

Now for the run, honey all that deep litter has turned into dirt no longer than it's been. I have an oak tree close to the run and the roots to it is coming into the pen and feeding on all the goody. lol I am going to have to shovel a bunch of it outta there and sure WISH I'd made a wider door so I could get my wagon up in there instead of having to carry it to the door shovel by shovel. Anyway got to clean it out and get some more deep litter in there for them because it's almost all gone into soil. SOOOO COOL!!! LOVE this method!!! YES I DO!

Hey RoseMarie, I'm in the same situation. My babies are in a brooder thats 38" x 80" Plenty of room for 16 babies. I've started DL immediately and the only time I've ever smelled any ammonia was when I didn't add enough shavings. Stirred a little and added another inch. Next day, no smell, nothing. It's really amazing. So today I'm talking to my daughter and she want's to know when I am going to clean that brooder. (In other words, you lazy clod) So I tried to spend time to explain about DL. This is to a person who knows nothing about chickens and only knows about cat litter. Neither one of us was satisfied by the conversation.

 

[anitaschickens]

Dry Dry Dry. Some people that water there chickens in the coop will even put a small metal pan under the water to catch any spillage. After time this may rot a wood floor. No problem if you have concrete or hard pack dirt. We don't water in the coop, but we always make sure to let them out every morning plenty early. We do feed them in the coop as we find they will forage more free ranging if there food is not out for them to see.


Chris

 

[anitaschickens]

I have been reading about the DLM and some are saying dry, dry, dry and then I have read to not have it too dry! Which is it? I'm new at this so I have been keeping mine dry and want to make sure I am not harming my girls. Please could someone explain what is best?

 

[Beekissed]

I have been reading about the DLM and some are saying dry, dry, dry and then I have read to not have it too dry! Which is it? I'm new at this so I have been keeping mine dry and want to make sure I am not harming my girls. Please could someone explain what is best?

Moist underneath and dry on top. To achieve that you really need deep layers of bedding, manure, bedding, manure until you have formed a "pack". This pack will hold moisture in the bottom where it can encourage bug, worm and microbial life to break down the organic materials there and this will also wick moisture away from the surface. To encourage this even further, you'll want to lightly cover or turn your daily roost droppings into the surface of the pack in order to give the bugs access to the feces...they don't like coming to the surface for feeding.

Now, sometimes your birds are going to rearrange that whole thing as they hunt through the DL for these bugs and that's okay...there's where your aeration of the mass will come in. People think you need to stir it up every day to get that but when you do that you are losing valuable moisture and disturbing all that life at the bottom layers. The chickens will plow through there every now and again, glean some bugs, air out the mass and then it will settle back down until it builds up more microbial life and insect life to continue the composting...it's a nice cycle and it takes time to get there but if you have patience and build your pack well, give your coop good ventilation to move the ammonia up and out and allow for the humidity in the air to absorb into the pack, then you can finally start to see a real DL system going on.

If you live in a very arid place, you might want to add your own moisture to the pack to facilitate all these things and you can also use bedding with natural moisture built in, such as grass clippings, hay, etc.

 

[Blooie]

Moist underneath and dry on top. To achieve that you really need deep layers of bedding, manure, bedding, manure until you have formed a "pack". This pack will hold moisture in the bottom where it can encourage bug, worm and microbial life to break down the organic materials there and this will also wick moisture away from the surface. To encourage this even further, you'll want to lightly cover or turn your daily roost droppings into the surface of the pack in order to give the bugs access to the feces...they don't like coming to the surface for feeding.

Now, sometimes your birds are going to rearrange that whole thing as they hunt through the DL for these bugs and that's okay...there's where your aeration of the mass will come in. People think you need to stir it up every day to get that but when you do that you are losing valuable moisture and disturbing all that life at the bottom layers. The chickens will plow through there every now and again, glean some bugs, air out the mass and then it will settle back down until it builds up more microbial life and insect life to continue the composting...it's a nice cycle and it takes time to get there but if you have patience and build your pack well, give your coop good ventilation to move the ammonia up and out and allow for the humidity in the air to absorb into the pack, then you can finally start to see a real DL system going on.

If you live in a very arid place, you might want to add your own moisture to the pack to facilitate all these things and you can also use bedding with natural moisture built in, such as grass clippings, hay, etc.

Okay, I'm with ya, Bee...got tons of leaves we can start with and some other stuff to get it going. But if it's supposed to be dry on top and moist underneath, how do you keep it dry during spring storms and snow melt? Now, you know me pretty well, and you know I was planning to use sand. But the more I read, the more I'm convinced that I was wrong - YES, YOU HEARD ME! - and that I might want to do the DL in both the coop and the run. I'm not trying to be a smart alec, I've just been hearing the mantra, "Dry, dry, dry" and in my run set up that's a little tough. Help me, O Wise One!