Deep litter method

[pinkmartin73]

I had a big ol' mole digging into my brood pen ....I'm assuming it was coming after the worms that come to the manure but maybe they like FF too, so who knows.  My dog caught him outside the pen and he is no more.   Could be your tunneler is a mole or vole coming after the beetles and worms rising to your compost. 

We have moles living under our coop and run. Occassionally I find tunnels in the dl. From what I gather they pretty much just eat grubs that live under the grass. My dad tells me they won't hurt the chickens or eggs and unless they are very hungry arent likely to come up far enough to even eat the bugs the chickens would go after. I did find a baby one dead in the run after a storm. Chickens weren't interested.

5Ft behind our run is a huge corn field. Its full of the rodents. Fighting them would be impossible. The only intruder stealing food is a bird who found out she can sneak in for scratch. Lil rooster chases her out.

 

[Mims]

It has been working out great for us with 1/2" hardware cloth under the entire run and doing DLM on top of it. The roof above the run kept the bedding dry, the dirt ground

We did find evidence of digging under the run but was stopped by the hardware cloth on the bottom. Maybe it was the chipmunks trying to steal the chicken feed, they can dig a pretty long fist size tunnel. Surprisingly, we also found two bird carcasses in our yard this week, completely eaten and hollowed out, not sure what ate them, maybe the garden snake? We live in a highly populated suburban neighborhood, so I would imagine that the country side would have more varieties of predators than us.

I just took a picture for you so you can see our DLM after 1 year. I haven't add new pine shaving in 3 months, had to dig hard to find the wire mesh.

Thank you so much for the reply! This is exactly what I'm going for. My sides around the bottom of the run will be about 12-14" tall, and I'm planning on using the DLM. Thanks again.

 

[Beekissed]

Put a load of fresh wood chips in the coop today~mostly just under the roosts and around the edges~ and will monitor the results of that. That's the first time I've ever used freshly chipped up wood and wanted to see how it composts. It sure does make the coop smell good! We are having such a rainy spring and summer that there are parts of the coop that stay sodden all the time, so placing these chips to absorb that moisture and wick it to the lower levels, leaving the top layer dry for better footing. These chips have tons of green leaf matter in them, so that's a great thing for the composting.

Since these fresh chips tend to generate a lot of heat, I'd advise anyone using them to have HUGE ventilation. I wouldn't be using them in the summer at all if I didn't, particularly when mixing with wet DL....it's like putting a steam oven in the coop. So far it's nice and cool there and no problems noted. Been adding pulled up weeds to the area under the roosts also, as well as kitchen and garden scraps, making sure to cover them well so the worms have plenty of good food.

I hope to utilize these chips again and use them in the entire coop before putting my usual leaves in this fall. The wood chips should hold good moisture in the lower levels. I'm going to start adding more lime into this DL this year...it's a good way to balance the compost while also adding calcium to the chicken's diet. I added a whole bag of pelleted lime there last month but will most likely gravitate towards the crushed lime for the next application.

 

[PapaChaz]

good post beekissed!

the first wood chips I put in were straight off the tree service truck. This was back in march though, so it was still cool enough the extra heating action didn't really matter a lot. Spreading them out helps too, but you have it down!

I haven't put any lime in yet, I am waiting to get the depth built up. But, I'll just go ahead and ask if you think it should be done to start with?

 

[Beekissed]

If you have it on hand, I'd just put a light layer in every now and again, especially if you intend to use that compost later on the garden and such. I made the mistake of rarely adding lime in my composted litter and when I used it this season for sprouting seedlings, I forgot to add that important thing in as well....as a result my seedlings were pretty malnourished(too acid) when I put them out in the garden and all kinds of trouble ensued from then on.

This year I'm going to do it differently...I'm going to add lime and potash as I go along so it will be a more well balanced mix in the end. The worms will benefit from it and so will the chickens. I'll be keeping a lime bucket in the coop and spreading a layer when the chickens are out on range, as often as I can think about it. That way I won't have to play catch up later.

 

[PapaChaz]

thanks! good points all around. I do add wood ash pretty regularly, being that I cook a lot on an offset smoker and use wood to cook with. I try to make a point to put it in a different spot each time as well as adding some to the dirt bath circle each time.

Not sure how long it will take to build up enough to move to my garden spot, I do have another separate compost pile for that. But, it does just make sense to add some to the run occasionally too, thanks for pointing that out!

 

[16 paws]

I have never used lime in the coop but it makes sense. What kind of lime do you use and where do you get it?
Thanks

Beekissed, great post about ventilation, I think it is one of the most important aspects of keeping healthy chickens.

I use wood chips for my coop, love the smell, we live in Ca and things are real dry here. If you look at my coop in the picture you cannot tell but the whole back is hardware cloth. I have 6 windows just covered with hardware cloth as well. I really wanted an open air coop because I think it is healthy for the chickens so the wood chips work great for our set-up.

Marie

 

[Beekissed]

Just regular garden or agricultural lime...what they call "sweet lime". I get mine at Lowe's and it's super cheap...I can get 40 lbs for $3 and some change. It goes a long way. Some old timers use lime in their bedding and in their runs to give their chickens more calcium and phosphorus in that way. As the chickens ingest things found in the bedding and soils, they pick up the lime as well.

Be careful when spreading your lime, as it's very fine and can get in the respiratory tract of both you and the chickens...not fun.

There is a sweet lime~or garden/agricultural lime~ and a caustic lime~or hydrated lime, that is used in construction. Make sure you get the basic agricultural lime and not the caustic stuff....not to be used around animals and you certainly don't want to be breathing that stuff or even get it in your eyes or on your skin...burns like the dickens!

 

[pinkmartin73]

Just regular garden or agricultural lime...what they call "sweet lime".  I get mine at Lowe's and it's super cheap...I can get 40 lbs for $3 and some change.   It goes a long way.  Some old timers use lime in their bedding and in their runs to give their chickens more calcium and phosphorus in that way.  As the chickens ingest things found in the bedding and soils, they pick up the lime as well. 

Be careful when spreading your lime, as it's very fine and can get in the respiratory tract of both you and the chickens...not fun. 

There is a sweet lime~or garden/agricultural lime~ and a caustic lime~or hydrated lime, that is used in construction.  Make sure you get the basic agricultural lime and not the caustic stuff....not to be used around animals and you certainly don't want to be breathing that stuff or even get it in your eyes or on your skin...burns like the dickens! 

We are still getting rain on our already saturated yard. Until now the coop was staying dry. Now, its staying wet no matter how much bedding i add or how much I turn it over. I'm starting to worry it will mold. Would lime help with the moisture? I'm thinking mix it in the damp bedding and toss pine shavings over the top.

Or if you could recommend another plan...

 

[16 paws]

We are still getting rain on our already saturated yard. Until now the coop was staying dry. Now, its staying wet no matter how much bedding i add or how much I turn it over. I'm starting to worry it will mold. Would lime help with the moisture? I'm thinking mix it in the damp bedding and toss pine shavings over the top.

Or if you could recommend another plan...

I have never used lime so I dont know if that would help. You say the coop is staying wet? How is the water coming in if I may ask.
Marie