I just started being a chicken owner six days ago. I'm trying to use the deep litter method. Please let me know if the following sounds correct: I've got about 6 inches of pine shavings sprinklede with DE covering a 4 x 6 area for six chickens. Everyday, I've used a handheld garden hoe to rake the poop under--well, sort of. I can't get the poop to fall all the way to the bottom. As I rake the newest poop under, the older stuff comes up. For now, I kinda push the newest poop down maybe an inch or so and cover it with pine. Next I throw scratch down and the chickies mix everything up. The problem is, (if it is a problem), the chickens bring the old poop up. As for the smell, it's nothing but pine all day. Should I change anything?
personally, I like to remove the big wet poop with the tip of a scoop or my rubber gloved hands then put a layer of new litter over the old. There's still a lot of smallish bits and pieces but at least the big clumps are mostly gone. Just my way of doing it.
I'm going to do the deep litter method as well, but under my roosting boards I'm going to have a poop board to catch the majority of the issue! Then I'll daily scrape that board and compost it. Hopefully others will post to help you as well!
Is a pop board just a board you put under there roost?how big should it be?The length of the roost and as wide?
Quote:First off, I don't have my chickens yet so all this is from things I've read and am planning on doing in my coop. I have not learned from trial and error yet, my chicks don't arrive until next week! Soo with that in mind, I'm going to do the ladder roosts and put a piece of plywood underneath the length of the roosts and the width from the lowest ladded to the wall. I will have the drawer liners on it the kind with the sticky backs so they will adhere to the plywood and then can be wiped clean. The dollar tree has a shower scraper that is about 10 inches wide and should do the trick easy enough. I'll put the poop board about 6 inches lower than my lowest roost and hopefully that will work!
Anything that makes you happy is "correct" Honestly, there are all sorts of sanitation strategies that will yield healthy chickens, it is pretty much the opposite of rocket science... so whatever works for you and you're comfortable with, go ahead and do it. "There are nine and sixty ways/Of constructing tribal lays, And every single one of them is right." --- Rudyard Kipling Have fun, Pat
