Deep litter method

[16 paws]

Mice /rats, subject comes up often.

Posted to another query.
Hope it helps.:

My understanding is that rats/mice are everywhere.
They will congregate and breed where there is available food, water, and shelter.
Look closely around any fast food restaurant and you will see rat bait stations.

They will eventually come, the idea is to prevent them from establishing a colony.
If you see 1, there are probably fifty.
If you see two or more holes, expect dozens.

Keeping a rat trap/bait station baited 24/7 hopefully keeps the population from establishing near your food source. Once established, they are very difficult to eliminate.

Remember, chickens don't attract rats, food does.

That said, I fabricated black 4 inch circular x 18" long drainage plastic pipe as a bait station.
Placed along the outside of my coop, looks like drainage pipe (not unsightly).
I put a t fitting in the center, capped, for easy viewing once a week.
Inside I maintain commercial rat poison.

My run has food scraps 24/7.
My coop has food access 24/7.
Water access 24/7.

5 years, no sign of rats or mice...

Hope this helps.



Thanks for the picture, I have a huge squirrel problem. I put out a block of poison inside a tomcat rat house, you know the ones that restaurants use and those squirrels carried the poison bar into the yard and my chickens almost got it! How do you avoid the squirrels carrying it off with them and dropping it? What kind of pellets do you use?
thanks bunches
Marie

 

[brickabracker]

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I looked through many pages and couldn't find it. I am a new chicken owner; I laid down 4 inches of pine shavings a week ago. Today, there is no smell of ammonia, no poop anywhere it shouldn't be (I made sure to build the nest box lower, and in a different part of the coop, than the roost).

But there is clumping of poop underneath the roost. So I am confused -

do I 1) rake that into the coop and THEN spray another sprinkling of pine on it?
Or do do I 2) scoop it OUT first, then sprinkle the new pine? This is a closed, dry coop and they have 24 hr access to a run, as well.

There's a lot of good info on the boards, but not sure whether to just toss pine, or to also do DE (it seems there are conflicts about whether it kills the good bacteria) and whether to toss shredded papers (seems they rot?) or straw? Many experts, many newbs together

Thanks again!

 

[JackE]

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I looked through many pages and couldn't find it. I am a new chicken owner; I laid down 4 inches of pine shavings a week ago. Today, there is no smell of ammonia, no poop anywhere it shouldn't be (I made sure to build the nest box lower, and in a different part of the coop, than the roost).

But there is clumping of poop underneath the roost. So I am confused -

do I 1) rake that into the coop and THEN spray another sprinkling of pine on it?
Or do do I 2) scoop it OUT first, then sprinkle the new pine? This is a closed, dry coop and they have 24 hr access to a run, as well.

There's a lot of good info on the boards, but not sure whether to just toss pine, or to also do DE (it seems there are conflicts about whether it kills the good bacteria) and whether to toss shredded papers (seems they rot?) or straw? Many experts, many newbs together

Thanks again!

Throw more shavings in there. The shavings depth in my coop, range from 6"s to a foot or so. You can either rake those piles/clumps into the bedding, or throw a handful of scratch in there, and let the chickens turn it for you. That's what I usually do. DE, IMO, is a waste of money.

 

[RonP]

X2

 

[brickabracker]

Throw more shavings in there. The shavings depth in my coop, range from 6"s to a foot or so. You can either rake those piles/clumps into the bedding, or throw a handful of scratch in there, and let the chickens turn it for you. That's what I usually do. DE, IMO, is a waste of money.

To clarify: so you throw shavings on top of (reasonably small) clumps of poop and scratch (or stale bread, etc) on that, and they dig their heads and feet through the pine and the poop? That's not recipe for anything disastrous?

 

[Blooie]

x3

Not at all a recipe for disaster. They'll dig through the litter, turning it over for you, and gather all the little goodies they find. Nobody has found a way to raise chickens in a totally sterile environment - they'll eat some of the grossest things and dig around in a cow manure compost pile like they've found gold.

 

[JackE]

To clarify: so you throw shavings on top of (reasonably small) clumps of poop and scratch (or stale bread, etc) on that, and they dig their heads and feet through the pine and the poop? That's not recipe for anything disastrous?

No problem at all. Chickens are known to eat their crap from time to time. That's what they do.

 

[Kris64]

Brickabracker, definitely leave in the old litter--that's the beauty of deep litter. I turn the litter every few days because my pullets refuse to use their roosts. If they used a roost, I'd turn the litter weekly. Just turn it to mix it up a bit and only add new litter when it needs it--getting very compact or turning doesn't result in a relatively poop-free top or flies or smell.

As for the dry bit, that's something I'm learning (first time owner here). If you think about it adding water makes sense. Compost cannot happen without moisture and that's what deep litter is. One gal suggested watering down one corner every week. Another option is to use Lactic Acid Bacteria (http://valeriedearmas.com/how-to-make-lactic-acid-bacteria-step-one/). I haven't done this, but it was recommended to me when I started to realize that my coop--even my open-air 3-sided one--wasn't wet enough to break down the litter.

Personally, I'd avoid DE if you want deep litter. You need the bacteria to break down the litter and form compost.

Finally, as to what to toss in as litter. So far I've used straw and shredded paper and pulled weeds. We have a dirt floor, which will also help. So far no problems. If I did get any mold, I'd quickly change what I'm doing.

 

[Kangasox]

I started reading this thread and was 20 pages in over several days when my browser crashed and I lost my place. Boo! But a wealth of information. A few things i didnt find while reading:

We just moved 10 ducks into their coop. I put down what was 6" of pine shavings and some pellets,but their darn big feet have smushed it to maybe 3". I am turning it and fluffing it, but is the 6" fluffy or mushed? I know ducks have a different set of issues and aren't going to turn it like chickens.

Also, I was going to add some ashes from the woodstove. I know the purpose it serves for chickens, is it purposeful and safe for ducks?

Last, there are flies in there during the day...obviously they like poop, and we know what they do. Is this normal, or even as issue, or will the quackers take care of any maggot activity at night?

Thanks!

 

[pinkmartin73]

I'm a believer! We moved our chicks into their coop Easter weekend. We use pine shavings. We turn them over when we think about it. Usually a couple times a week. Throw some new shavings over the top as needed. It really doesn't smell bad. It smells like pine shavings and kind of earthy. Not unpleasant at all. I was raised on a farm. I know what barns that house animals can smell like. I was visiting a friend this weekend and she invited me out to meet her girls. Her coop is large. Its a converted shed. She uses straw and cleans it out copletely once a week. Her birds have more than enough room. But no windows for ventilation. It smelled like a barn. I personally don't mind it since I grew up farming but even my husband noticed how clean ours smells!

I guess what I learned was that neither way is wrong but ours is less work and smells better Thats a WIN in my book!