deep litter & throwing scratch in it to get the chickens to mix it..

[Beekissed]

Typically, the birds raised in commercial setups are broilers, who are on the floor in the litter, and layers, who are in cages and not using litter at all. Simple laying flocks like most of the folks on here have will not produce the liquid feces nor the sheer amount of feces that is produced by broiler birds.

The problem, most decidedly, is not the deep litter...the number and type of birds that are living entirely on the floor surface in the moist bedding full of wet fecal matter is the problem. This bedding is not turned and isn't scratched through by broilers....they mostly eat, lay down, poop.

My flocks free range all year and are rarely inside the coop except in early morning, for laying, for evening meals and roosting. Most of their feces is deposited outside, as I'm sure is the case with most of the folks' flocks on this forum. Comparing the backyard flocks, or even just regular farm flocks, with commercial operations and their respective deep litters is like comparing apples and oranges.

 

[PAJerry]

I agree with Saladin on the deep litter. I tried it one winter and the method just seemed wrong. I now use dropping boards under the roosts that I clean daily and I use pine shavings about 4" deep on the coop floor that I change out every other month, except in the winter, when I shorten the interval since the hens are inside more. Someone here posted about an old man who had a sign in his coop that read 'Cleanliness is Godliness, Filthyness is Death'. Works for me!