Dirt floor or solid floor? Deep litter.

[zookeeper15133]

When you use lime you need to stir it in so it doesn't hurt the chickens feet. It is an alkaline. I believe barn lime is hydrated lime. You can buy it in powder or pelleted. You can also make a whitewash type paint out of DE.

 

[NewOldMotherHen]

I have been using the DE after reading about it here. I had a very hard time finding it but after visiting every local feed store I finally found a country feed store that had it in 50# bags. It was only $11. Tractor Supply had NOT heard of it and Southern States Farm Co-op had very small bags of garden-grade but did not have the required food-grade for chickens. I already have a bag of the hydrated lime so I will start adding it to the DE. Thanks for the info. This is a great forum and has been such a great help to me in getting started with my first chickens.

 

[chicmom]

Quote:
msbee, I am confused: (so sorry), what do you mean when you swipe pine shavings and poo to the floor? Is it really not stinky when you use the barn lime? I'm kind of a neat freak, and I can't stand smells.....but I want the chickens to be comfortable.

Thank you,

Sharon

 

[msbee]

I have a remodeled tool shed for a coop. The chickens roost up high, and the floor is partitioned with landscaping timbers for the litter. Behind the boards on the left is storage for bedding and DE.

Here are picts:

Here's the barn lime - sorry the bags are upside down - it just says barn lime, safe for livestock, and doesn't give any other ingredient identifiers. I buy it a Fleet Farm for about $2.50/bag. I have never noticed any problem with the chickies feet. They spend most of the time outside though, not in the coop. The litter is just to catch the poo when they roost.

 

[msbee]

It's dusty, but I don't spend a lot of time there. It doesn't smell at all. As a matter of fact, I just had the my city council rep, the local news station, and the local newspaper reporter over this morning. It was raining, and no one noticed a smell at all. The tv camera man even went inside the coop and hung out with my daughter as she told him all about the chickies.

 

[DreadElliot]

My coop never smells with the deep litter method. It is the out door run that gets a little stinky, especially higher heats.