Deep litter too damp?

[aart]

I’m in east TN

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[awkwardkale]

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View attachment 3466161

Thanks so much! I’ll do that now.

 

[awkwardkale]

Deep liter needs to be deep. The best material is one that you consistently have a lot of at a low cost. That sounds like raked leaves in your case.

I’m definitely going for leaves. There’s tons everywhere. I have like fifteen trees or something on the property. I work tomorrow thru Sunday, but luckily only until early afternoon so it’s gonna be a weekend full research and fixing that bedding.

Do you think I should remove all the straw and start fresh? Or just try to balance out the mixture?

 

[perkolator]

Do you think I should remove all the straw and start fresh? Or just try to balance out the mixture?

IMO if the goal is deep litter, just keep topping off the existing base with fresh dry material. I think the variety of organic materials will be better results, especially over straw - ever seen how a straw bale collapses into a slimy wet mess as it decomposes? A bale of wood shavings will help, but I'd be trying to source some arborist wood chips for adding in - they have a variety of sizes from the chunkier woody bits, as well as the smaller ramial bits (canopy/twigs/foliage) which will fill in some of the spaces so it's friendlier on the feet and help to decompose things. In the coop section where they're sleeping and pooping out these wet poops in high volume, you may want a system you clean out more regularly vs the deep litter.

 

[awkwardkale]

IMO if the goal is deep litter, just keep topping off the existing base with fresh dry material. I think the variety of organic materials will be better results, especially over straw - ever seen how a straw bale collapses into a slimy wet mess as it decomposes? A bale of wood shavings will help, but I'd be trying to source some arborist wood chips for adding in - they have a variety of sizes from the chunkier woody bits, as well as the smaller ramial bits (canopy/twigs/foliage) which will fill in some of the spaces so it's friendlier on the feet and help to decompose things. In the coop section where they're sleeping and pooping out these wet poops in high volume, you may want a system you clean out more regularly vs the deep litter.

Thank you! There’s already a lot of straw in there, so it sounds like I just need to balance it out with other materials. I’ll look into the wood chips. Do I need to be worried about them being treated with anything?

I’ll definitely consider a second option. I might even just go in there with gloves and pick out some of the poop so that’s there’s not so much getting mixed into the bedding. The part that doesn’t have vents yet (the tiny house looking thing) has wood floors so I definitely won’t be doing a deep litter up there.

This sounds silly, probably, but im excited to find a system and get into the groove of things! Im very task oriented and I like having a process for everything

 

[perkolator]

No prob. Arborist wood chips are what you want, as they come from trees being chipped up; people don't really treat large trees with anything. Mulches from the store or even a landscaping supplier are a different thing - especially the dyed stuff; my local dump separates "lumber" that they chomp into mulch - I was told local companies buy that stuff in bulk for dying as colored mulch and for "playground mulch"; the actual plant material like from landscapers and arborists, all goes into their composting operation where they compost it and sell like 4 different stages of composted and sifted finished product.

Inside the coop structure I'd consider something like the poop boards, or maybe source some large cardboard sheets that fit the dimensions (I hit up local cardboard dumpsters for big cardboard) and use less bedding on top of it like a bedding tray - then regularly just pull the whole "tray" out and put it in the compost pile without doing any shoveling

 

[awkwardkale]

No prob. Arborist wood chips are what you want, as they come from trees being chipped up; people don't really treat large trees with anything. Mulches from the store or even a landscaping supplier are a different thing - especially the dyed stuff; my local dump separates "lumber" that they chomp into mulch - I was told local companies buy that stuff in bulk for dying as colored mulch and for "playground mulch"; the actual plant material like from landscapers and arborists, all goes into their composting operation where they compost it and sell like 4 different stages of composted and sifted finished product.

Inside the coop structure I'd consider something like the poop boards, or maybe source some large cardboard sheets that fit the dimensions (I hit up local cardboard dumpsters for big cardboard) and use less bedding on top of it like a bedding tray - then regularly just pull the whole "tray" out and put it in the compost pile without doing any shoveling

Good to know! Definitely going to look into that. The cardboard sheets are a great idea as well! I’ll get down to researching!

 

[perkolator]

Yep, my county has cardboard-only dumpster locations - so a few times per year I go and fill up my truck with the biggest sheets I can find, for sheet mulching underneath the wood chips I get from arborists. If you don't have that around, maybe find a store that gets things in large boxes and doesn't bale up their cardboard for recycling like large stores do, such as a bicycle shop

 

[3KillerBs]

Inside the coop structure I'd consider something like the poop boards, or maybe source some large cardboard sheets that fit the dimensions (I hit up local cardboard dumpsters for big cardboard) and use less bedding on top of it like a bedding tray - then regularly just pull the whole "tray" out and put it in the compost pile without doing any shoveling

I don't think that poop boards work for ducks because ducks don't perch but, instead, sleep in a pile of bedding on the floor.

I could be wrong because I don't have ducks.

 

[awkwardkale]

I don't think that poop boards work for ducks because ducks don't perch but, instead, sleep in a pile of bedding on the floor.

I could be wrong because I don't have ducks.

Yeah, they kinda just plop down right into the bedding.