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Not only is it okay, but highly desirable.
Im currently reading Geoffrey Sykes book, "The Henyard." Mr. Sykes, now unheard of, was from England. He pioneered what we call "the deep litter method" for the small poultry yard, in the period just after WWII. In America, we are familiar with the deep litter practice indoors, but Mr. Sykes had great success using it both inside and out. His inspiration was the outdoor cattle midden, or pen, on which straw was normally strewn a deep layer of straw for the animals to live upon. He reckoned that if it worked for cattle, it would work for chickens. He was right.
The goal is to create a deep layer of actively decomposing litter material, upon which you intensively rear your birds. 6" or more would be about right. Mr. Sykes settled on straw as the best material for this, so keep that in mind, as it is key. Coarse grass clippings, shredded corn stalks, hardwood leaves chopped in the lawnmower, anything like that is desirable. Grass clippings will do, although one could expect them to breakdown faster.
In it's simplest form, you simply pile this stuff on the ground and the chickens live ON TOP of it, fenced into their pen. This was not originally designed for just one or two chickens, but to accommodate a fairly dense stocking level. It would be wholly adequate for the 4 sq ft per bird we all love to use and would be ideal for the small backyarder.
Its greatest benefit is drainage, first and foremost. Its most immediate effect is that the birds are not living on a mucky, filth encrusted moonscape of a run or yard, but rather on a carpet of fresh and clean straw. No stink, no funk!
As the birds soil the top layer with their droppings, you rake over the top and add another layer. This is normally about each week, or as needed depending on your stocking levels in the yard. As you can imagine, an adequate and steady supply of litter is the primary requirement for this method.
What happens is this. As the layers build, the deeper layers soon become a 'bacterial incubator' as the organic material of the litter decomposes. Added to that is the breakdown of the birds' droppings, which releases nitrates and ammonia into the mix. These two factors, the heat of decomposition and the chemicals from the droppings, combine to create an environment that is hostile to most poultry diseases, in particular coccidiae.
It also makes a home for the tiniest of insects to thrive, which the chickens eat. Also weeds and other plant seeds get in and are either eaten by the birds or sprout - and then are eaten.
As the birds scratch around in the upper layer, they also get down to the bacterial sections and so ingest some of the beneficial bacteria.
Mr Sykes' method proved greater fertility of eggs, significantly lowered mortality and greater feed efficiency among flocks reared in this way. At its core it really is an intensive management practice and is not intended for 'free ranging' the birds. If you dont like fences or constraints and prefer to have our chickens running loose, then this isnt really going to appeal to you.
This about penning up your birds to both their benefit and yours.
At the time of Mr. Sykes' work, agricultural practices were moving toward sterile cleanliness and isolation of animal groups, the mantra being "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness." But the gulf between animals living in their own filth and the symbiotic orderliness which can be promoted using deep litter was not well understood. So the agri-biz as we know it in civilized lands left The Henyard methods behind. It never really caught on and I don't even know if it is much remembered anymore, except perhaps in the back counties of England. More is the pity.
If you can ever get a copy of his book, do so. It is long out of print and so is very hard to find. It also commands a premier price when you do find one.
I was extremely lucky to get mine, thanks to a generous BYC member and happily payed $20 for it ( THANKS ED
).
I have seen them go for 5-6 times as much. Sadly, I have yet to find a down loadable copy on the internet.
If you have any questions about it, please feel free to ask me. I will do my best to answer them.
This might warrant post thread of its own, in time...
