Deep litter method

[Latestarter]

I had to order the horizontals from EBay.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks for all the responses. Our bucket does have vertical nipples. It's all we could find at TSC. We also have a submerged heater snaked through the top hole. I don't think the threads are leaking; our birds just seem to be messy drinkers.

If that's all it is, then it's probably not a great amount of steady, soaking water there, so it should be easy to just toss some dry on that spot when you visit the coop. Then, when it gets too deep there, just scoop the whole wet litter mess and toss it into the dry parts of the coop and start all over again. I LOVE it when I get a consistently wet area in the coop so I can use that area to impart moisture into my more dry, dusty areas. In the end, it makes for a litter that has had some moisture hitting it enough that the bottom layers can get some decomposition.

My wet areas are those that I intentionally allow the rain and snow into so I can get that moisture into the coop. Sometimes the chickens will dig more in those areas than others, kicking the wet bedding into the dry and sometimes I come along and toss a forkful or two of dry onto the wet to trap it where it lies. I have so much ventilation in my coop that it suffers from too dry much, much more than it suffers from too much wet....even when we've had lots of rain for days on end, I know that moisture is only temporary and I need to trap it and keep it while I can into the bottom layers of the litter.

With the trapping of that moisture underneath dryer bedding and the ventilation that I have, I never have a humid coop nor do I have consistently wet bedding the chickens are walking upon. It just takes a little tweaking every other day....a few forkfuls thrown here or there, a flip of the bedding over there, just the work of a few mere seconds and it's all restored to balance once again.

If my chickens didn't free range all the time, I think the chickens would be doing the most of that work for me....come winter and deep snows I barely have to do anything at all for days and days, as they keep the bedding well mixed on the top layers. When they get all the moisture evenly distributed throughout all layers of the bedding, then I deposit another bag of leaves for them to work on to give dry footing once again. I usually use 4-5 large bags of leaves only each winter in a 10x12 space, so that tells you that it's a pretty neat system of DL going on there.

The space in the middle and front of the coop never gets moist...it's always too dry and dusty there, but it works out well in the winter because they use that area for dusting.....so much so that the whole front part of the coop is coated with a fine layer of dust by the end of the season. That's where I get my dry bedding to toss towards the back of the coop where the poop and moisture are being deposited.

 

[RuthHM]

I'm wondering what people do with the deep litter once they remove it from the coop? I like to add it to my compost heap, but I know diatomaceous earth kills invertebrates and other decomposers, so I haven't added any to the pine shavings I use on the coop floor. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[Molpet]

I'm wondering what people do with the deep litter once they remove it from the coop? I like to add it to my compost heap, but I know diatomaceous earth kills invertebrates and other decomposers, so I haven't added any to the pine shavings I use on the coop floor. Does anyone have experience with this?

so long as there is no DE you can compost it with out worries
some people put it right in the garden in the fall and some compost it first.... some have the same litter for yrs in the coop http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html

 

[Beekissed]

I'm wondering what people do with the deep litter once they remove it from the coop? I like to add it to my compost heap, but I know diatomaceous earth kills invertebrates and other decomposers, so I haven't added any to the pine shavings I use on the coop floor. Does anyone have experience with this?

When I remove mine, it's fine, silty and fully ready to place on the garden...smells like earth. And that's exactly what I do with it.....

 

[RonP]

My coop deep bedding goes into my outdoor deep litter run to finish composting.

My deep litter run, and my girls, produce some of the finest soil enhancers, eagerly awaited by our local master gardeners.

 

[Kangasox]

We've been doing dl since may, and today when I collected eggs,I saw tiny bugs on them that I fear are red mites. We have DUCKS, not chickens, but I'm hoping someone here can help. I searched the thread, and found only a few things, and what I've read says mites should not be a big problem with dl. I'm hoping I just caught it early. I really don't want to use sevin or chemical choices...anyone have experience with neem or de?

 

[Beekissed]

We've been doing dl since may, and today when I collected eggs,I saw tiny bugs on them that I fear are red mites. We have DUCKS, not chickens, but I'm hoping someone here can help. I searched the thread, and found only a few things, and what I've read says mites should not be a big problem with dl. I'm hoping I just caught it early. I really don't want to use sevin or chemical choices...anyone have experience with neem or de?

I'd treat the birds, the nests and the roosts and then see what happens. I'd not treat the DL nor clean it out just yet. Between DE and Neem, I'd choose Neem.

 

[Kris64]

I haven't responded yet, because I'm not really sure. But here's what we did: First our next boxes are raised well above the ground--this might not be practical with ducks. The wood surrounding the boxes--and our entire hen house for that matter, was painted with a livestock safe paint to detour mites. The roosts were covered in linseed oil. When I saw a very small bug--unknown what kind--on an egg, I added an herbal mixture from a shop in Asheville, Nc. From what I can tell all is well.

 

[hollyk]

We had this problem, as well, that is why we moved the water out of the coop into the run. The run is enclosed and attached to the coop so the chickens can access it even if I haven't let them out to free range.