HELP! Fly Problem - Deep Litter Method

[CHIKENROOKIE]

Seems like this has been an extra bad year tho with flies. Here in Kansas I use shavings, DE and fly paper. Tried the fly traps, but the scent was getting to me.

 

[austintxchick]

The pic is my droppings deck with food grade DE (Amazon) and Sweet PDZ (feed store).

We live in fly territory thanks to the area corporate chicken farms and it can get bad, like now. I have zero flies on my poop deck which is amazing.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/10/the-deep-litter-method-of-waste.html

The above discusses the deep litter method.

Good luck and have fun.

Wow, that is a super clean coop! How are there no droppings on the bars even?!

 

[dana0710]

For flies I have sand in the run, a few fly sticks hung around outside of the run and one if the bag type fly traps. Be sure that if you are using a baited fly trap that you put it somewhere in the back corner of the yard because the flies are drawn to it and it stinks!!!! I also read somewhere that those vanilla scented tree air freshen era repel flies? I haven't tried that yet.

 

[austintxchick]

For flies I have sand in the run, a few fly sticks hung around outside of the run and one if the bag type fly traps. Be sure that if you are using a baited fly trap that you put it somewhere in the back corner of the yard because the flies are drawn to it and it stinks!!!! I also read somewhere that those vanilla scented tree air freshen era repel flies? I haven't tried that yet.

Good to know, I just bought one of those fly bait jugs.

 

[hudsonhousechicks]

I live in Austin as well. I'll tell you what has been the ideal coop litter for me for the last several years. I do have a large area for my girls (and rooster, mustn't forget the boys). They only use the enclosed coop at night. In their coop (which is roughly 6' x 8') I rake it completely clean. Then I add 4 bags of general purpose sand from Home Depot. Then I sprinkle very generously with diatemaceous earth, then I put...and here's the magical part, rice hulls that I buy from Buck Moore on Lamar and 51st. I used to use wood shavings but they took forever to break down in the compost bin and I don't mind saying I am a master composter. Even when they did compost, I really didn't care for the quality of the compost compared to the rice hull letter compost.

Rice hulls are not easy to find. You can pick composted rice hulls at Natural Gardener for an arm and a leg but you want dry rice hulls. The only place that I know to get those in Austin is at Buck Moore. Ken makes a trip a good ways out of town to pick them up. It's the best litter I've found. The coop is dry, easy to clean and very few flies. I hope that helped. If you do this, remember to thoroughly remove/clean out the old bedding first and raise that feeder!

 

[Firefly041407]

Hey EastTXChickens,

How much sand and sweet pdz do you use in the coop for litter?

Thanks,

 

[dvcrztb]

Please do not use DE. It is dangerous to your and the chickens' respiratory systems. It does nothing for flies. I am using fly lure/traps from Home Depot, but you can find them at many places. They consist of a plastic bag with a yellow stopper. Inside is a fly sex lure.You pull the plug up to fill with water to the line and hang, not near your house or neighbors.( stinks after a while) Every fly will drown in there and when full of dead and rotting flies, push the stopper in and I get it into a plastic bag and tie it up and toss it in the trash.

 

[birdman55]

do you have any info on de and its effects and causes on certain poultry...i just bought some and was going to use it in some of my coops but im going to hold off now.....thanks

 

[nube73014]

Did I just read someone has ducks? I currently have approx. 68.
The vary from what used to be hatch lings, that are now grown to
My latest new babies.
I started out feeding them because they are so cute. Now I have all these ducks that
descend on me twice a day ( every time they hear the garage door open)
I really wouldn't mind continuing to feed except for the horrendous amount of giant poop.
Anybody have any advice?
Judy
[email protected]

 

[ktdeluxe]

Speaking of flies, generally, how do you keep the flies down? I know I don't have the problem above but we never had flies until we got our 8 week old chicks. Friends who have cattle, goats, etc have told me how they control flies but they don't sound organic so I wouldn't want to use them. I don't have the number of flies described in this thread but from going from almost none to lots, I would like to do something to control them. Any ideas? I'm in Oklahoma, not as hot as Texas, but plenty hot. Thank you in advance!