Paul Gautschi/Garden of Eden chickens?

[Chicken girl 15]

Im so glad i came across this thread! I was reaching the best way to do deep litter method and came across back to Eden. I've only been able to watch half the video so far and plan to finish the rest. However i then started looking up the proper steps for BTE and came across a site that had FAQ for Paul specifically about his chickens.

It asked things from what does he feed them, to what does he feel makes a perfect coop. In the answer it states he uses an old shed and wood chips for bedding. Wood chips for bedding!?!

before i ever researched deep litter method, we were cutting down overgrown forsythia bushes and chipping them and i had it in mind to either compost it or use it for bedding. That is until i read to only use kiln dried shavings for the deep litter because too much moisture could promote mold.

Here is a link to the FAQ page i found: http://www.l2survive.com/garden/back-to-eden-garden/back-to-eden-garden-faq/
The coop question is about halfway down.

I would love to know if any one has tried deep litter method using the Back to Eden method of wood chips (green parts and all)!

I am trying the DLM with "green" clipping. We have an over abundance of pine on our property which we are removing. So far we are on month 3 of fresh woodchips with no excess moisture no mold or bad bacteria growth. I do use a manure fork to toss everything twice a week. I also sprinkle cracked corn in the coop on days I don't toss it. That way the girls still keep it moving. The key, IMO, is to not let it sit too long without movement. I might be wrong, I'm only a first year flock owner, but my coop smells nice and pine fresh at all times. Its roughly 8-10 inches deep and as it starts to lose its pop of fresh pine smell I chip a few branches in.

 

[lazy gardener]

I am trying the DLM with "green" clipping. We have an over abundance of pine on our property which we are removing. So far we are on month 3 of fresh woodchips with no excess moisture no mold or bad bacteria growth. I do use a manure fork to toss everything twice a week. I also sprinkle cracked corn in the coop on days I don't toss it. That way the girls still keep it moving. The key, IMO, is to not let it sit too long without movement. I might be wrong, I'm only a first year flock owner, but my coop smells nice and pine fresh at all times. Its roughly 8-10 inches deep and as it starts to lose its pop of fresh pine smell I chip a few branches in.

Bee Kissed is doing DLM. Is your coop a dirt or a wood floor?

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Bee Kissed is doing DLM.  Is your coop a dirt or a wood floor?

the coop is plywood over pallets to raise it off the stone floor. My run is dirt. The coop is covered in 2 bags wood chips from the feed store, 2 bags soft wood pellet horse bedding and filled the rest of the way with fresh cut and chipped pine. Oh there are also tons or dry leafs and branches for them to play with. My coop is 8×16 with 20 birds and a 16×16 run. The run isn't used much as they free range.

 

[Beekissed]

I recently watched the Back to the Garden of Eden film. Very interesting. One thing that really got my attention was his chickens. From what I can gather, he throws all yard/garden waste in the pen. Also throws wood ash in. Claims there's no smell and the dirt in the pen appeared to be beautiful, light, non-compacted compost that he then uses in his garden. We live in a VERY wet area (West Virginia). It rains every month of the year here. I'm wondering if anyone else uses this method of scraps to chickens equals compost in a wet area?

Yep...I do that here, though we call it the deep litter method. I'm currently trying Paul's gardening method as well. I don't have my chickens penned but I use the DL in the coop for the same affect and do this year round. No smell, no flies, recycling of various materials and chicken poo into rich, balanced compost.

Being in a wet area actually makes the composting go more quickly and efficiently than areas that are more arid, so you are in the right spot to make it happen.

Vid on the DL method and how mine looks:

I place all the food scraps, garden refuse and weed/flower clean up I can into the coop, along with bags and bags of leaves per year, wood chips, pine needles, smatterings of hay that have been cleaned out of nest boxes and dog houses, etc.

Put in this....







And this....





And take out this....




No smell, just earthy and, if I filter out the larger pieces, it's a fine, silty dust just like Paul's. I finally reached good composting in my coop when I stopped using wood shavings and started using leaves, greens, twigs, bark, pine needles, etc. Basically, a bigger variety of materials and particle sizes and kept away from pine shavings...they compost much more slowly. I also stopped stirring it around or encouraging the chickens to do so...the variety of materials are fine for letting oxygen into the pack and by stirring it around I was losing valuable moisture from my bottom layers.

It was the deep litter method of cooping that let me see the worth of Paul's BTE method of gardening, as I'd already been doing this in the coop and found I could trap moisture there when I wanted and make lovely composted mulch much more quickly than I could if I put all my chicken litter into a pile somewhere.

BTW, nice to meet another hillbilly on BYC!

 

[henless]

I've wanted chickens for a good while, but the smell always kept putting me off. Chicken poop stinks. Chickens poop a lot. A lot of poop = a lot of stink. Then I came across the DLM. So glad I found that post on BYC. I read the whole thing and came to realize that I could possibly have chickens without weekly coop cleaning.

February will be 2 yrs since I got my first chickens. I've been using the DLM since day one and it has been a life saver! My coops never smell (unless there's a fresh poo), no flies and the chickens love to dig through all the litter. I use DL in the run and it keeps it from being a slimy, slippery mess when it rains. I remember as a child how slimy our chicken pen was. After it rained, it would really put out a stink!

My dl in the coop runs on the dry side. I have a lot of ventilation in my coops. I add water in the summer, but not as much in the winter. I'm still learning how to do it properly. Even though mine hasn't be "perfected" yet, I still love how easy & smell free it is.

I cleaned out my coop this spring and put everything in my compost bin. I don't think mine gets enough moisture to put it straight in the raised beds. This spring when I do my clean out, I may put some in the compost and the rest in the runs. I'll have 3 coops to clean, so I don't think it would all fit in the compost.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

When I clean my coop I toss everything in the run with some cracked corn or scratch grain. Leave it until spring and fill my raised beds. All the moisture and movement in the run turn it good quick.

 

[lazy gardener]

I also clean the litter out of my coop, and toss it into the run. It gets to cook there for quite a while before I feel that there is enough to rob for the garden. But, the girls have a new run, and flock is bigger, so their production should be better. Meat, eggs, poop, weed control, soil cultivation, insect control, companionship and endless entertainment. What more could anyone ask for from a single animal???

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Well I am very excited. Tonight it is raining, and yesterday the farm next door had horse feed delivered in paper feed bags. Sooo... Tomorrow I will cover my entire planting area with paper feed bags and then add a layer of horse poo. Oh and a nice layer of summers chicken run messing. I have a pile of fresh ,well 60 days in the chicken run, chipped pine branches and needles and dry leafs and other goodies to top it . Come spring it should be ready to plant in.

 

[lazy gardener]

I love hearing how everybody is taking advantage of all of the free for the taking mulch and amendment materials!

 

[Chicken girl 15]

The free and natural soil amendment is the only way to get it right. Its going to take years to purify the property we own but every layer of manure and leafs is a step closer to clean soil. Farmers all over would be happy to get rid of poo piles, ask the one you drive past , they might say take it.