Deep litter method

[Kris64]

Do you remove the roosts to get under them to toss the deep compost/litter? I'm designing our coop and want to have a way to easily toss under the roosts for the deep litter method. Thanks!

 

[EagleEyes]

my roost is 2' above the bedding.

And as far as adding moisture/water, I'm hesitant/nervous about doing that. Winter is just around the corner/2 days away from the teens at night, and don't want a frozen deep liter coop.

 

[goodb]

Thank you all for the advice... I am still not sure if i'm going to do the DL method but at least i am more educated on the subject.

Deep litter is utilized and highly endorsed by Joel Salatin...

 

[armorfirelady]

Do you remove the roosts to get under them to toss the deep compost/litter? I'm designing our coop and want to have a way to easily toss under the roosts for the deep litter method. Thanks!

My roosts are about 4 ft off the ground (when no DL in the coop) and located at the back of the coop. I use a rake when I am cleaning out the DL in the spring.

 

[Latestarter]

Do you remove the roosts to get under them to toss the deep compost/litter? I'm designing our coop and want to have a way to easily toss under the roosts for the deep litter method. Thanks!

My roosts are leaning against the front wall and the support legs are attached to the wall with hinges. When it's time to clean, I just grab the lowest roost (underneath as it's cleaner

) and lift it up and then prop it up with a length of 2x4. I could also attach a chain or something to the over head beam and place a hook/catch on the roost to hold it up that way. Or if I really wanted to get fancy, I could run a length of line/wire through a pulley up at the overhead beam and then attach that to the roost and pull it up that way

But for now, the 2x4 seems to work just fine as I think in the past 6 months, I only had to lift the roosts once

Oh, and as for moving the litter around, The chooks seem to do a fine job of it for me... I just toss in some scratch and they spread everything around quite well all by themselves

 

[Beekissed]

Do you remove the roosts to get under them to toss the deep compost/litter? I'm designing our coop and want to have a way to easily toss under the roosts for the deep litter method. Thanks!

Try not to design a ladder roost....they take up so much walking space in the coop and are a pain in the butt in many ways. Best to do a two tiered roost that attaches wall to wall, with a small walk board on one side so they can get up there easily. Mostly they will just fly up there.

 

[Kris64]

Excellent! Thanks. Love the hinge idea. Hesitant to have the chicks toss under roost with all that poop.

 

[HennaRose]

I've been reading up on the deep litter method and I like the idea of it. But is it possible to do in an elevated coop? The laws governing residential chickens in my county require raised coops with solid floors, nothing that sits right on the ground and nothing with a wire floor.

If it is possible, how do I do that?

 

[Latestarter]

I've been reading up on the deep litter method and I like the idea of it. But is it possible to do in an elevated coop? The laws governing residential chickens in my county require raised coops with solid floors, nothing that sits right on the ground and nothing with a wire floor.

If it is possible, how do I do that?

Greetings HennaRose:

and to the deep litter thread. It is absolutely possible as I'm doing just that

What I did was paint the floor of the coop (3/4" plywood) with a liquid rubberized roofing product called Black Jack #57 (

) which I got at http://www.lowes.com/ I painted it on the floors and up the surrounding walls ~ 24-36 inches making sure to seal/fill all cracks and crevices as I went. Essentially, I turned the inside of the coop into a nice black rubber bowl

I then added the pine chips and leaves and dirt and weeds and grass clippings and anything else, along with the little extra moisture required to allow composting, and it's doing great.

There is virtually NO smell, and no daily/weekly/monthly cleaning chores! If it does start to smell, I know it's time to freshen up the pine chips with more because it's too wet. If it is getting too dusty, then I know it's time to add some more water as it's too dry. I don't have to worry about the wood floor or walls rotting because they are protected and coated with rubber! I do admit that it's very dusty in there right now as the temps have been below freezing so I have not been able to add additional moisture to keep the dust down. But the chickens like it just fine. I throw scratch grains in there and they dig around and turn everything for me keeping it all mkixed up. Even with their sharp nails and the scratching, they haven't put so much as a nick in it. There has been no peeling issues or cracking at all.

It is non toxic to the chickens after it dries, it is very strong and virtually indestructible. I've been very impressed with it so far and wouldn't change to anything else at this point.

Here's a pic of the inside of one of my coops with 2 enclosures during the build when it was first applied. The coop is raised 18-24" above ground. The long cut outs are where the external nest boxes were placed, and I painted the insides of them with this product as well once they were installed.


Here's the same coop right after the chicks were first introduced to it.

Here's a more recent picture but still before adding leaves, weeds and grass etc.


Good luck, and keep reading here. There's a wealth of knowledge and experience to be had, as well as lots of opinions

Edited for spelling

 

[HennaRose]

Thank you! I have some time yet - my chicks won't arrive for another 11 weeks but I want to have the coop and pen ready before they get here, so I don't have to worry about getting it set up after they get here. I expect I'll be busy enough, between the chicks and my regular day-to-day stuff, and I'm afraid if I don't do it before I won't have it done by the time they're ready to move in.