How do you all afford the Deep Litter Method? Questions about Winter?

[greenSearcher]

I have pegboard floors in the 3 4x6' coops, w/ 15"x45" nest-box and one coop has a Silkie apt off another side the same size as the nest box. I use about 1/2 a bag of pine and then continue to add shredded paper. I shred all our junk mail and any non glossy documents. I don't use news paper any more, it is too flimsy and will bind the shredder. I get an average 3 bags of non glossy paper shreds a month. I like the paper as it decomposes faster than the pine, it can be compost in 6 months even if I don't turn the pile. Only will by 3 bags of pine today, as I have to clean out the babies runs (will attach to the coop when all are finished and they are ready to be outside and am getting enough for a few months.

 

[Buugette]

Does anyone ever use Peat Moss?

 

[Mattemma]

I have a 6 by 8 shed and a bag a shavings from walmart almost fills it.The bags at the feed store are much cheaper and bigger,but there was way to much dust.Shop around and get a few bags to start with.Add some stall dry and clean a bit daily to make things go further. I might add some straw for them to pick through,but I usally remove that more often.

 

[woodmort]

My coop is 12 by 12 with 40+ birds. When I clean down to bare floor in the spring I toss in 3 bales of shavings. A month or two later I add another bale. That was back in June. Today I stopped into TSC and bought 2 more bales and will spread those out today--should keep things going until April unless it is a really warm winter and the birds go out a lot. It isn't the manure that causes the problem but the mud and dirt they bring in.

Oh yeah, the reason I bought two bales was I had a 10% off coupon from TSC and wanted to use it up before it expired. Otherwise I'd have gone with one.

 

[carrlr]

I just did my pre-Winter coop cleaning on my 5x8 coop yesterday and removed all the shavings and added one bag that will stay in there hopefully until Spring (6 months). I originally started with deep litter this past spring with one bag of shavings. Over the following six months I only added one more bag. I also added DE periodically throughout those six months. I love this method and I actually think it saves quite a bit over straw, which I would have had to replace monthly prior to switching.


BTW...I have 12 Chickens.

 

[moonlyghtegirl]

I have gone to using leaves in the winter, mixed with DE and alternating with compressed pine shavings. I can make a it through winter with just one or two bags of pine shavings.

I have 19 chickens and my run is 16' x 20', covered with pvc and tin, so it stays fairly dry all the time.

 

[TallChick]

Hi Everyone........argh a Newbie....>yeap that's me

My dad just came down and built me a chicken coop, which is far greater than the makeshift scrapes I rigged together temporarily. To the person who wrote the initial message...maybe you could cover the big doors with plastic? I am trying the deep litter method because my neighbor and I are both new to chickens and she said she was doing the deep layering with peat moss, straw, wood shavings. Hers has sideboards that allow for deeper layering. Mine on the other hand isn't set up to keep a deep deep layer but I put crumbled corn cob,straw, wood shavings and I rake it every other day except where the turkey roosts I remove his waste daily. So far I really like the layering method. Can I ask questions here or is this for deep layering questions and answers only? ugh....I was wondering how people keep wild birds out of their feeders??????? I don't want my chickens getting disease or ME for that matter. The ducks live outside so how can I put an inside feeder when their is no inside besides a lean too---Also I gave my neighbor some chicks when I got them and all of hers are laying and mine still aren't. I know I didn't give her all the females..........maybe because I moved the chickens from the makeshift coop to the new one? has this disrupted them? because they still go over to the old one when I let them free range and act all excited to see it...........so many questions!

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Willow's Meadow :

Our coop is made of all wire but it is inside a big barn with big barn doors. But the barn is still gets pretty cold in the winter.

This sounds a lot like my set up the first winter and we did have frostbite problems on the large single combs. The heat of the birds and the heat lamp disapated too much into the large unheated are of the barn/shed.

You have Brahmas? They should do better with smaller combs and feathered feet. Can you insulate the sleeping area a little?

This year we have insulated a 20 X 16 corner room of the shed and put in our 40-ish chickens. I am anxiously monitoring to see if we included enough ventilation.

It has a concrete floor. We cover it first with a layer of discarded carboard. Then start with 2 inches of pine shavings. We add more shavings, corn cobs, very dry leaves or other dry organic matter over the course of winter.

I have put peat moss in a corner for a dust bath, and the birds mixed it in with the bedding eventually. Here, peat moss is more expensive than pine shavings. We are trying dry sand this year.

I try to justify the expense of pine shavings as not having to buy fertilzer and mulch in the spring for the garden. I try not to go over what I have spent on garden ammendments in the past. It has to sit a year before used, but then it is great stuff.

I have used shreded paper on floors but not in nest boxes, print sometimes appears on the eggs.

The birds are on pasture over the summer, so very little bedding is needed then, the poop goes right into the grass and we slide the shelter to a new spot each day. I miss summer already.​

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Quote:
It is difficult. There are whole threads on this. Please contribute what you discover in your own experiments.

There are feeders you can buy or make that have a treadle that opens a hatch. The chicken stands on the treadle, their weight causes the hatch to open and they eat. They get off, the hatch closes to keep English Sparrows and Rodents out.

On the ducks I think my dad used to feed them twice a day, all they could clean up, and then took it away.

Quote:
Could be. Could also be that they birds are not getting enough light to trigger laying. They need about 14 hours a day. Does your neighbor keep a light on for them

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I have fixed up the barn for the winter for the chickens and ducks. I have put the water out in the "duck" spot (all birds now sleep together and milking parlor was thought to be where I would put the ducks) and outside in the run. I am using straw for bedding and letting the chickens do all the mixing. So far I seem to put 4-6 fork fulls of straw in there every week to every other week. I am using the wood shavings for the nest boxes and at times put it on top of the straw. So far it looks good.