Planning in Cleveland

[clevetromba]

For deep litter you need to have a water proof floor. Many people use vinyl flooring over their plywood floor. If you have a dirt floor then no problem. I have a concrete floor, so again, no problems. The key to reducing mold is to stir it to put air into it, no matter what litter material you use. Hay will cause more mold. Any organic material will mold. Some more than others. Just be sure to keep turned, like compost. Many times the chickens will scratch around. many times not necessarily. I use straw and pine shavings, and sweet PDZ and DE added once a week or so. With our cold climate I prefer the warmth of the straw. I will be adding a poop board under the roost though. Then my litter will last longer. They really poop a lot at night. Hope this is helpful.

Thanks for that advice, I didn't know about needing to water proof the floor. Do you then use the spent litter with Sweet PDZ on your garden after the litter is removed? I see that it is a zeolite, which is a molecular trap for ammonia, I wonder if the ammonia can then be extracted to be available to plants, or whether the zeolite particles themselves alter the soil chemistry at all. I guess I don't expect you to have an answer, I'm just wondering out loud.

 

[chickwhispers]

You're Welcome! There are articles here on BYC that tells about Deep Litter better than I explained it. You might want to put "deep litter" in the BYC search. Some of the articles are very detailed.

 

[cabinchicky]

hi, sorry I have been away. I have a sealed plywood floor only so far, coop built in October '13. I am against straw for the reasons you said, the mold and my allergies. we use pine shavings, not the sawdust type. I also use leaves from my yard. gather them when dry n bag them. I try to add more of one than the other the next time. I read from others the straw takes for ever to break down. we try to rake all bedding to one area before adding new in a pile and let the girls search pile and mix it with what was down before. hope this helps some.

 

[chickwhispers]

Yes leaves and pine shavings work. I use pine shavings mixed with the straw because I have the space to wait for that to break down and they help cushion the floor and insulate. But the straw really doesn't get as moldy as leaves. If you are turning your litter regularly the mold is kept at a minimum though. If you don't put down a waterproof floor though your litter will rot out your plywood.