Filthy Coop Condition

[DIYSeattle]

How often do commercial growers change the bedding though?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
They use bedding as a starter, as an absorbent base that keeps things from caking over until there is a sufficient amount of dry manure, before long it is mostly manure and maintained as such.

That is a deep litter system. Deep litter as it is spoken of here on BYC is much different from commercial deep litter systems. The BYC method is more of a "deep bedding" method. Folks are instructed to keep adding bedding so that the manure is sufficiently diluted. In commercial systems the deep litter is almost all manure.

Take a look at Robert Plamondon's write up:

http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html

He quotes a 1949 guide:

When built-up litter is erroneously referred to as filthy or dirty material, it is because of either prejudice or lack of understanding. Because fresh litter smeared with unabsorbed fresh droppings is obnoxious, it is natural to think of it becoming more and more so the older it becomes. But old bult-up litter is drier, more absorbent, and less obnoxious than fresh litter after a few days’ use. Often overlooked is the fact the nature’s chemical and biological processes have converted built-up litter into a more sanitary, less obnoxious, residual compost-like material which is preferable to fresh litter contaminated with a larger proportion of fresh droppings.


I keep 2500 hens in a deep litter house with access to pasture. I start with hay as bedding. The first few weeks it is rather messy as the hay on concrete isn't very absorbent. As the litter (read manure) starts to build up and dry out it crumbles into a soil like consistency. After the first few weeks I take a scraper and make sure that aren't caked areas left underneath the dry litter, as caked up areas hold moisture and generate ammonia. Once the litter is an inch or two deep it is very friable and absorbent. If you didn't know any better you'd think it was dirt. It is cleaned out on a yearly basis. After one year it averages about 10" deep in our barn. There are areas where it piles deeper and areas where the hens keep it pretty thin from scratching around.

 

[averytds]

I guess I don't get it. The OP described exactly how tons upon tons of people raise chickens (according to some of their other posts, the same as they themselves are) and without further info how can any judgments be made?


I've got 30 CX in a homemade coop at the moment that sits right on the ground with no base. The chickens have been in there for about 4 wks. They poop there, sleep there, and eat in there. I sometimes throw treats right on the same ground they poop on. I do move it 3 times a day, but I could move it 10 times a day and it would still never be completely poop free.

Our free ranging birds love to come inspect and pick through wherever the tractor was most recently moved from.


I mean who really can determine anything from just that little bit of info.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Here is a picture of deep litter as it is maintained in a broiler barn. Our layer barn is not so different, except that we have a lot of broken up hay mixed in. I start with hay and I add hay from time to time, not as bedding, but as forage for the birds when they are kept in during the depths of winter. They keep busy tearing down the bales and scratching around in it. After a while it almost completely disappears from the litter as they bust it up into smaller and smaller pieces and continue to eat it. I then throw them a few more bales.

 

[BlackBart]

I think there is some important information missing from the original post to make educated opinion
Is it a commercial operation
how many chickens
are they using bedding
I presumed none of the above (and the worst conditions in a small area) from what I read in the OP
I use the deep litter method and pick out the poop almost everyday. But I am not a commercial operator, far from it.