Molt cleanup with deep litter?

[nutmeg259]

I've read somewhere that stray feathers should be removed from the coop as they can harbor pests. This is my first year with chickens and I'm doing the DLM. At this point, if I attempted to leave the shavings and remove the feathers it would take forever. I'm interested to here what other DLM users do when chickens molt?

 

[chicmom]

I've never heard that. Sounds silly to me. I do clean up the feathers around the hen house. Sometimes there are quite a bit. (I just do it to keep things looking nice.)

 

[cafarmgirl]

I just lightly rake the feathers off the top and get as much as I can to keep things cleaned up. I've never heard of shed feathers harboring any kind of pest however.

 

[RonP]

I have never removed feathers from the deep litter.

They seem to just disappear.

 

[Blooie]

Seems to me that pests living on a detached feather would soon starve, so I wouldn't worry about it. Oh, I suppose a few would find their way back to live chickens but if they are already present in the coop, run, and on the birds, and they are also hiding in so many other places, I don't think I'd drive myself crazy trying to pick every feather out of the litter. I use DL, and I don't worry about the feathers.

 

[gilcamp4]

i have had chicken off and on for some 40 years and never picked them up, if in yard wind takes care of them.