NY chicken lover!!!!

[armorfirelady]

Aqua why do you stir up your DL? I leave mine be and let the girls do it when I add leaves.

If I rake anything it's the poop off bagged shaving bale as it sits under the roost partly. I'm using it as a wind block.

Other wise I leave the DL be and found it breaks down just fine. Through a little scratch in btw adding material and the girls happily dig in it.

 

[miquwid]

Same i love the deep litter!

Well just got out work and i dont go back till the 11th yayy! I so needed this break.

 

[Metella]

Yeah, I don't mess with it at all except to add some on top.

The chickens stir and scratch and move it around - and after a few months it even exudes a little warmth up for their toes.

I love it.

 

[rancher hicks]

I do a DL sort of in the runs. I just dump more large chip shavings, (Nobles) and a bale of straw from CM. It breaks down pretty good and by adding more keeps things dry.

I toss about three handfuls of scratch in the morning for breakfast and that's it. I might skip a day just to keep them hungry and get them to scratch and clean up any leftovers. I have BOSS mixed in with the scratch and DE to keep the moths out of the can.

Brella - Make sure you put hardware cloth over those open eaves. My first month or two a coon got in and I lost 4 birds that time. It climbed up over the side of the coop.

 

[ke5hde]

I do deep litter in the winter. I rake it around once a week and every couple weeks I add some fresh stuff on top. If it gets too nasty or starts to smell I'll scrape some out but not all of it.

As for mucks, I went to TSC Friday since they had some on sale. Of course they didn't have my size. Lots of men's size 7 though and my size 11 foot wasn't going to squeeze into those

 

[Lapeerian]

Hmmm, quote button doesn't seem to be working on my iPod.
I stopped at the TSC in Dewitt since I was out that way today. Looking for an 11 for hubby too, had one 7 and one 10 in the sale boots.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Aqua why do you stir up your DL? I leave mine be and let the girls do it when I add leaves.

If I rake anything it's the poop off bagged shaving bale as it sits under the roost partly. I'm using it as a wind block.

Other wise I leave the DL be and found it breaks down just fine. Through a little scratch in btw adding material and the girls happily dig in it.

x2 let the chickens do the work ...they will scratch for the scratch !

 

[Gramma Chick]

well I found some cheap boots at Kmart ...Lets hope they arent too Cheap !
Buy one get one free ..so I got 2 different styles .
The only other ones I saw were at dicks ...Boys boots I dont think they had my size .
Id rather not shop on line for boots ..I like to try them on .

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all. Worked a double yesterday and didnt get home till 9. Slept in this am while dh let the cheeps out. Working retail this time of year just sucks your soul out of you. My middle daughter is coming up to help me decorate the house today since I have no gumption or energy to go up and down the stairs to pull out all of the decorations and put away boxes. Christmas is coming up way too fast.

Guess I will go online to see about muck boots. I have such a wide calf that its difficult to find anything that fits. Might have to order mens boots, As for the dl method, I love it. The cheeps do all the work for me. I just throw in some handfuls of boss and they go crazy digging through the litter. I just keep adding litter as needed. The silkie coops are easy to clean out and refresh. I usually do that during the winter as they are small and take so little time. I gave the chickens some kelp freefeed but they didnt seem to want it so I am mixing it in with their feed. Seems to be working better that way. I am down to 5 eggs a day from 19 layers. My silkies are laying better! I hope that things pick up soon. They are on lights for about 14 hours starting early in the am. Dh is trying to keep it as close to a normal cycle as possible so once its light outside, the light goes off and they go to be at dusk.

Time to get moving and get things done. My body says no but my head says go. Later all.

 

[AQHAchick22]

Aqua why do you stir up your DL? I leave mine be and let the girls do it when I add leaves.

If I rake anything it's the poop off bagged shaving bale as it sits under the roost partly. I'm using it as a wind block.

Other wise I leave the DL be and found it breaks down just fine. Through a little scratch in btw adding material and the girls happily dig in it.

Because my girls are lazy and don't stir it up. I add leaves, and other goodies like scratch and treats and it never gets stirred up so I end up doing it myself after awhile when there is a huge pile of poo under the roosts.

Edit--After reading the rest of your comments I may just start throwing down the scratch first thing in the morning before I let them out for the day. That way they actually scratch around. I think the problem is they get let out first thing in the morning and rarely come back in the coop to scratch around.

I didn't have this problem last year in the other coop but they also stayed in a little more and didn't venture out into the snow. It's this new coop that is starting to smell and not get mixed up and I think it's because the new hens all go outside and are rarely in. I use DL in both of my coops and the one has a great base going, it never smells and gets mixed up great, but it's this other one that I can tell is a little off.