I've had ducks through one winter so far, now going into our next. We have used DLM almost the whole time, save the very beginning. Here is what my experiences have been.
Last winter.
House was an 8/7 plastic shed (purchased from one of those home stores) with a run attached (dog kennel on the ground). Out side that, was their temporary large fenced in area for day time.
Plastic floor in house: Used only shavings. Stirred surface almost daily, added a little more prob weekly. Only part that would freeze is where I put their water bucket at night. (looking back I wouldn't keep water in the house if I was keeping the door open at night and they could have access to their heated waterer outside in the "dog kennel area". Most nights the door was kept open. Only on the below zero days/nights was it closed. This yr I will only put water inside the house only if the door needs to be shut because of temp and winds.
In the spring we moved them to their "pond house" where they free range during the day. When we emptied the winter house, even at the lowest layers, it hadn't broken down into a compost like material at all. We threw it on our garden anyway which just looked like a layer of wood shaving mulch. We had the weediest garden this year ever.....with corn stalks poking up randomly all over....except where we actually planted it
The rest of the garden, despite the weeds, did well.
Pond house spring:
Started new deep litter. Plastic floored house, dirt run. Used shavings and straw layers. Rarely stir it. Sometimes pick out the biggest poopy messes but not all the time. Add new material (straw or shavings on a rotation) every three weeks or so. The water is always kept outside the house in their night pen. We haven't moved them back to the winter home yet but I can tell by just walking on the bedding and how spongy it is that it is going to make for a much better compost than last time. I don't know if it was because I used mixed bedding or because I didn't stir it as often but I will continue to try it this winter.
Straw is cheap here and shavings are expensive. I'm going to try some dried leaves this winter too (which I think was your suggestion on a thread of mine).
DLM has never been stinky when I have tried it. But I knew by the slight change in smell and the looks of the top layer when I needed to add another layer. I don't know if any of this makes sense. These are my experiences with it and it may not work this way with everyone. Just wanted to put my experiences out there because I know how hard it was to find answers to my questions when I was researching it last yr. There are a lot of threads about deep litter and everyone has a different opinion and experiences. For me it seems like the way to go, I just need to tweak it a little here and there.
Good luck!
