Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[1muttsfan]

Guess I could add that I clean the coop annually in the late summer or early fall, tossing the bedding in a pile to overwinter with a few generous scoops of rotten horse manure.

 

[gladahmae]

we've got our shavings at 6-8in deep right now. Our coop is 8x10, and we put 4 of the bales of shavings from TSC in to start with in August or so. I've added 1 or 2 since then. I will periodically shovel (pitchfork) the shavings from under the roost bars out into the compost pile (2x a month?) since we don't have poop boards yet. Maybe this summer we'll add them. Anyhow, I turn the litter with the pitchfork 1x or so a month, and will occassionally throw some scratch in and let the chickens do the work for me. They aren't as thorough and don't get all the way down to the bottom, but they do a pretty good job of keeping things from getting compacted.

I also read somewhere when we were getting started about adding DE to deep litter, so usually when I turn the litter I'll sprinkle a bunch of that around when I'm done. I don't recall all the specifics about it, but that was 8mo ago.

 

[SillyChicken]

I think my issue is that I use the wrong type of bedding... I use straw. for the dirt floor run it works fine, but the floor coops, not so much for me. I think this is a good discussion though.

Does anyone use just sand inside?

 

[SillyChicken]

any word on the chicken stock date?

 

[RIRJen]

I use pine shavings, those big bales (the ones from the feed mills, not the little ones from TSC or Meijer) and add the whole thing. I think I started with three bales in my (approx.) 9 x 12 coop. That made it roughly 6" deep at the start. I add a bale every so often when it starts to get thin (every month to two months or so depending. It seems I need less here in the colder months). The shavings break up, get compacted and start to decompose eventually. I didn't used to have a poop board so yes, I would go through under the roosts with a cat scoop and fish out the poo. But now that I have a board, I just scrape it and don't worry too much about what they drop during the day. The whole thing gets turned over now and again. My chickens turn over the edges frequently on their own but not in the middle so I have to do that with a hoe or rake. Because my coop leaks, I hit those moist areas a lot but that's it. Very little maintenance really. I think I have about 10-12" overall at the moment.
I should add though, that I'm one of those people who labors under the delusion (if not laziness) that it's healthier to be dirty.

wow! I clean my coop 2x a month or more...and I put maybe 2-3" down each time...maybe less. Just enough to cover the linolium (sp?) flooring. I worry about mites though if the coop isn't being completely cleaned. Is that ever a problem when doing this method?

OH! And I need some help from my BYC friends!!
I have 2 nesting boxes that are about 3.5ft off the ground and are just a framed in rectangle with a wire bottom.(with bedding) I have birds sleeping on this at night! They are pooping all over my nesting boxes where they are supposed to be laying eggs! I blame the silkies...I raised some speckled sussex with silkies this year and those darn birds think they are silkies and they don't want to roost. I have adequate roosts for them but they keep insisting on sleeping there. Any ideas? I have to keep moving them to the roosts at night and it's a pain...I'm about to rip it out and put the nest box on the floor.

 

[RaZ]

One part green and two parts brown, Makes the compost turn to ground.
Add some water and some soil. Turning is the only toil.

This little poem is what I use when trying to teach kids about composting. You can sing it to "Twinkle, twinkle little star" to help remember it.

In my opinion, composting is a little of science and a little of PFM (pure, freaking magic). The science part is mixing the nitrogen (green) with the carbon (brown) in the proper ratio. The magic is keeping the moisture level just right to make a happy home for those magical critters that do the decomposing.

The decomposers are big critters we can see, such as worms, beetles, earwigs, slugs, snails and even mushrooms. The little decomposers do more work but we can't see them with the naked eye, Micro-invertebrates, fungi and bacteria to name a few. The other magic of micro-decomposers is that they work at different temperature levels up to around 150 degrees F. Hot composting is quicker than cold composting but decomposition still occurs in the cold. Think of the forest floor in high latitudes.

Now, regarding deep litter and what kind of flooring is best...
I suppose it depends on how much labour you want to put into cleaning your coop.
A constructed floor (cement, wood, vinyl) will require regular attention even with deep litter.
A dirt floor is easier to maintain and typically occurs less often.

In either case, the litter on the floor is not ideally suited as compost by itself. 1. the ratio is off, 2. the moisture isn't right and 3. there aren't enough decomposing organisms present. Compost works best when the volume is very large (think cubic metres) and can sustain the magical ratios. Even at a foot deep, we just don't get the volume to sustain decomposing activity over the short term.

So it comes down to a few factors. 1) How much work do you want to do? 2) Are you keeping the litter for composting? And how fast do you want it? 3) What substrate are you using for the litter?

There is a lot more that I could ramble about but I'll stop now.

 

[Elyssia001]

Quoting "The Small Scale Poultry Flock" again, dried leaves, woodshavings, hay or anything else that you would use for your brown/carbon composting parts will work. You lay down a thick layer to start, then add a handful to the top "as needed" to keep thing balanced and prevent amonia.

He says dirt floors are best, because the composting litter will pull up any moisture it needs to continue the composting process, though you have to have excellent drainage around the coop to prevent a hard rain from turning your floors to mud. He also goes on to share his findings that providing some scratch inside the coop makes the chickens do all the work of turning the litter.

He also claims that all the good microbes in the litter help prevent sickness in chicks, and quotes a study about it. In addition to all the other positives he points out about deep litter, he also says the composting helps keep the coop warmer than outside temps in the winter.

It's sorta funny to me that he's NOT a fan of poo boards, but he freely admits that he's a "lazy" farmer and that they're too much work for him.

It's a really great book if you're the reading type, it took me 3 days to get through it all. Loaded with information. He also talks about other poultry besides chickens. He likes ducks for slug control.

 

[1muttsfan]

Chicken poo is the "green" that makes the whole process work. As far as soil microbes, my birds track in Plenty of dirt from the outdoor run.

Dirt floors are impractical for me - the "soil" here is rocks and clay, very poorly draining, cold, and sticky when wet - and the vinyl-covered wood works fine as long as you keep on top of the moisture content. While all of the above substrated CAN be used, some work much better than other - straw not so much as it tends to pack down and be hard to keep fluffed up.

 

[chickflick]

Ok, folks. The date of Chickenstock 2013 is June 22nd. 10am to 3pm. Let the planning begin.

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

OH! And I need some help from my BYC friends!!
I have 2 nesting boxes that are about 3.5ft off the ground and are just a framed in rectangle with a wire bottom.(with bedding) I have birds sleeping on this at night! They are pooping all over my nesting boxes where they are supposed to be laying eggs! I blame the silkies...I raised some speckled sussex with silkies this year and those darn birds think they are silkies and they don't want to roost. I have adequate roosts for them but they keep insisting on sleeping there. Any ideas? I have to keep moving them to the roosts at night and it's a pain...I'm about to rip it out and put the nest box on the floor.

Maybe try a thicker roost for them or putting milk crates on the floor for those stinkers.