Deep litter method

[lavacaw]

Glitch,
I have been using a mix of wood chips and dry leaves this year and it seems to work beautifully. I also throw bags of leaves into the run/pen. The chickens love digging through them for weed seeds, bugs, etc. and seem to turn them much better than wood chips alone. I would be careful about using wet leaves because of mold problems and the possibility of diseases though. I cannot imagine why shredded paper wouldn't work.

 

[tdgill]

Quote:
yeah, i would be concerned about having a wet floor. wet litter stinks! lol. either way, wet anything is probably not good. I just shoveled out perfectly good litter because it rained in my new 3 ft. x 3ft. windows (holes cut out hahah). but i was able to put it in a kiddie pool i was getting ready to get rid of, in the sun, and its drying out nicely. i will be putting it back in coop if all turns out well.

why does your concrete get wet? have you figured that out? folks here are so wonderful. i had issues with dampness in my shed/coop and rotting away at bottom outside edges. i thought it was moisture under the shed floor, like grading issues etc. but folks on here mentioned it looked like splash up from ground during rains. I think they're absolutely right! gonna fix it soon.

if you have alot of moisture or dampness especially make sure you have tons of ventilation...and air flow. my shed was colder inside this winter than outside, because of all the damp air trapped inside. no chickens at that point tho...

 

[Spud395]

Cheers for the reply, was thinking as much all right.

Problem with the wet is when the door is open( all day basically)
the rain blows in, we get a lot of rain here!

I think I'll put in a raised timber floor and change around my door design.
The shed was originally a store and I've done very little with it

 

[tdgill]

Quote:
would love to see pictures!

 

[Spud395]

Give me a little while, away on hols in 2 days and flat out untill then

 

[tdgill]

sounds good!

 

[greenfingers]

I have a terrible fly problem in my chicken run (not in the covered coop). I have put DE in the coop and also some in the run - but it is expensive here and when it rains I think it just washes away. Are there any suggestions for keeping the flys down with anything but DE? Thanks!!!

 

[BigPeep]

I have a concrete floor in my barn and it gets wet whenever the humidity is high even though there was no rain inside. It looks like someone just washed the floor. I don't know if that still happens when you have litter over the top but the concrete "weeps" when it's wet so that could be an issue in your coop.

 

[seespotbitejane]

Hello, I'm a chicken newb, and in the process of planning a coop. I've been reading through various recommended threads until my eyes are crossed.

Anywho, I have a couple questions about deep litter. All this decomp sounds like it should give off heat. I live in an area (south eastern Washington) where summers are hot (routinely 90-100+ degrees f) and winters are cold (rarely gets to freezing, but we did have a freakish amount of snow last year). I'm planning a playhouse style coop to house a flock of 4 to 6 banties. It'll be open on three sides. So will the decomposition of the litter be a significant heat source in either summer (I'm guessing no,) or in winter when the walls may be more closed off?

Also is the litter likely to spontaneously combust? I haven't had chickens, but I've had horses and the riding stable where I took lessons it was a (minor) concern in the hay barn. One most bale, rotting under a huge pile of crisp dry ones and throwing off heat.... I guess a better question would be whether the deep litter method is any more or less flammable than any other litter method.

Last question, I'm not sure of the terminology here, but the house part of the coop where the next boxes are, would you use the deep litter method in there too or not? It's just a tighter, less ventilated space so I'm not sure if there are caveats or not about that.

Thanks, I'm sorry if any of this has been asked before and I missed it. Like I said, my eyes are crossed from reading about chickens at this point.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
How much heat of decomposition you get depends a whole big lot on what exactly you are doing. There is no "the" deep litter method.

Normally however one would remove all or much of the bedding and start over in springtime or early summer, meaning that there will be little decomposition going on yet during summertime. And of course if you start having a problem, then, fix it and don't do it again in that particular way

Also is the litter likely to spontaneously combust?

No. The main problem with hay fires is with fresh uncured hay, not so much with older hay anyhow. And hay is more flammable than used shavings. But you are not going to have enough size of a pile in your coop to get spontaneous combustion. No way no how.

(It will be thinner and thus less insulated than a compost pile, and compost piles never ever burst into flames...

)

Last question, I'm not sure of the terminology here, but the house part of the coop where the next boxes are, would you use the deep litter method in there too or not?

No, in the nestboxes you need very CLEAN bedding, and in fact you will be emptying the nestbox bedding onto the floor of the coop and replacing it with brand spankin' new stuff on a regular basis (as soon as poo starts to be evident). Otherwise you get pooey eggs for sure, and quite likely also hens starting to lay in other locations because they are ticked off with the maid service

I would suggest banishing this idea of "the deep litter method" from your mind, and merely thinking of it as a giant continuum of many many different ways of managing bedding and manure. Fish around, try some different approaches, see what works best for you personally. People who get hung up on the "the" thing seem to have problems, based on those who post to BYC anyhow.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​