Quailswiss, thank you for your thoughts & questions. It's great to see more people getting on board with deep litter methods.
I agree you def need to improve a few things, unfortunately there are some potential issues I see with your idea. Please take my thoughts/suggestions with a grain of salt; ultimately you will figure out what is best for your quail & your needs.
I also hope you don't mind a long reply..
Let's start with the shavings: A fine dust (of anything) can cause lung irritation issues. You'd def want to mix other things into it & keep it a touch moist so that the dust is kept down. Sometimes when my coop/pens are a bit dusty, I come in with a water bottle (occasionally with LABs included) and spritz the area a bit.
The second issue I see: what wood are the shavings gathered from? Pine is okay for critters but cedar can cause big irritation issues. If the wood has been treated, it may also cause issues. So it's up to you to ask your wood turner what they're using & if they can save you the cleaner, non-cedar shavings.
To anyone else reading, I generally don't recommend getting shavings from local hardware stores. Not only could it have treated/cedar wood in it, but may also have metal shavings.
On to the topic of worms. I assume they're red wigglers/earthworms. I'm personally nervous of the thought of keeping worms as food for any non-wild birds. I read somewhere (and now wish I had a bookmark to the article) that earthworms eat things which may sit in their digestive system & transfer to the birds - making them sick. I would not feed my birds red wigglers or any type of earthworm based on that alone. Instead, I'd use worm compost directly for your garden, as compost tea, or another thing that doesn't go near your quail directly (like, not in their deep litter).
(For your chick, I'd stop giving them earthworms & research symptoms to see what's up. In the meantime, I'd add in a sprinkling of cayenne pepper in their feed for the next few days. I'd also add a bit of yogurt into their diet afterwards (alternate days, or in place of the pepper) to give them beneficial bacteria to beat out the bad stuff.)
An alternate source of living (and wiggling) protein are mealworms, black soldier fly (BSF), or fly maggots.
In that order of difficulty - easy to challenging. Mealworms are one of the BEST sources of nearly free protein for chickens & quail.
The only issue I have with them is I'm allergic to them. I gained this allergy from the aquarium trade - my partner used to keep aquatic frogs & fed them bloodworms (midge fly larvae). Their freeze-dried dust circulated into the air via the water filter & gave me a terrible reaction that lasted over a month, even after we got rid of the frogs & cycled out the aquarium completely. As they're related to mealworms, I gained an allergy to them as well when before I had no issue. Boo.
That aside, they are very easy to keep if you are able to tolerate them. I would recommend farming them in a well ventilated area (ie, outside) or garage. You can do a 3-drawer system or one big plastic tub, adding spent grains to feed them. Def search youtube for "DIY Mealworm Farming" - you'll see plenty of herp (reptile,etc) keepers who are more than happy to share their farming methods.
In the Spring, I plan to try a culture of BSF, which are apparently easy to gather & culture if you live just about anywhere in North America. I'm not sure of overseas, but I'm sure they're there as well. There are DIY youtube vids which basically set it up so that the larvae march right into a collection bag. Pretty cool; soldier flies marching.
Then there's the house fly maggot option. They're a bit trickier to culture & I don't recommend it unless you have a far corner of your backyard which you don't mind as a swarming ground for flies & lingering smells of a rotten corpse. It's however a great way to keep the local fly problem down - since you give the larvae to your birds, rather than have them mature & go back out into nature.
Now let's figure out your deep litter composition. Deep litter is like healthy compost or soil; it has texture. Using just fine wood shavings is like mixing fine clay; when it's wet, it's slop, when it's dry it's going to be a hard block. You need to keep it broken up with something else, like wood chips, grass clippings, etc.
The leaves that you have available sound good (as cherry) but a bit too damp.
Older, moist leaves may also harbour mites. You might be able to get away with mixing them in the dry wood shavings before you put them in the DL - letting the shavings absorb some of the moisture first. I would recommend for sure you keep your mowed grass & add it to your deep litter, but sparingly as too much will mould (like the leaves).
If you have a long stretch of patio, a driveway, or sidewalk - mow on a dry day when there's no rain in the immediate forecast (ie, the next 2 days are clear). Spread your clippings (or leaves) as thinly as you can with the space you have available. Every afternoon, shake the clippings about by raking them up & spreading on the sidewalk again, or using a fork to turn them. You want it so they're dry top & bottom. Once they're dry, you can bag them long-term & store them somewhere that they won't get wet [like a garage]. You can also put them in a 5g bucket outside if you seal the lid tight. If they're not dry they will mould (usually white) & if packed too tightly will become anaerobic.
As for spent hamster/critter shavings: I personally wouldn't do it. I would rather compost this stuff to the worm bin. I cannot tell you if they're safe, but I can say that if your critters pick up anything, that it
may be transferable to the birds. You'd also have to consider the thought that your eggs (that you'll be eating) may be sitting directly on rodent feces. At the very least, it's going to be adding stink (ammonia/droppings) into what would have been a fresh deep litter to start with. You also say straw is in their mix, I wouldn't use straw in deep litter.
It has a hollow core which mites could use to harbour in.
Your Possible Mix -
If I were to use what you had, I would mix my deep litter this way:
- 5 parts Wood Shavings/Dust (from your wood-turner)
- 5 parts Dry Grass Clippings
- 5 parts
Dry Leaf Mould
or 2 parts
Damp Leaf Mould
- 1 part Wood Ash & fine charcoal (take out chunks bigger than a quarter)
Make your first mixture in something like a 5gal drum or a wheelbarrow. Stir it together & let it sit a day. Stir up again & check for mites from the leaves, dampness & smell. If you don't see any mites, then there's enough ash, if you see some then you may need to increase the ash a bit more.
3 inches is an alright depth for quail, so do what you're already doing there.
I would also add in:
- Handful of crushed egg shells or oyster shell every 4sq' of pen size. This will encourage the quail to mix up the compost.
- Handful of scratch (seeds) to encourage the quail to turn the deep litter further. Add this on top, after you put in the litter.
- Any spent herbs or flower heads you have from your garden (so long as it's okay for birds in general).
- A spritz of LABs to start up with - introducing beneficial bacteria. 1tbsp of yogurt/kefir mixed in 1c warm water.
Your possible maintenance routine:
Daily:
- Use a hand rake & mess up the litter every morning/night as needed. Basically only if it looks flat/crushed or wood dust is clumping. If they're turning it on their own, you can skip this.
- Feel the litter for dampness. If it's too damp, more wood shavings are needed. Sprinkle some in, rake it up a bit & mark it down on your mixture list to add more next time.
Weekly:
- Use your hand rake to mess up the litter, regardless of how well it looks. Once you do that:
- Check deep litter for mites & check birds as well - under their feathers.
- Check for dampness.
- Check for clumping of wood dust. If so, add more grass next mix.
- If deep litter is dry, spritz with LABs (refresh every time) to keep dust down & make sure beneficial bacteria is present.
- Toss in some new scratch/seeds.
Eventually you'll figure out how much of what you need, depending on what's available, what's too damp/dry and what your current climate is like (ie, more humidity if it's raining a lot).
Deep litter that is ready to move to the garden/compost is fairly dark, somewhat decomposed & smells closer to rich earth. If it stinks like ammonia or mushrooms, it's either well past cleaning stage or your litter ratio/mixture is off. A good litter may even smell really good (sweet), and clean enough that you could dig your hand through it without it getting slimy.
I confess, sometimes when I get quail poop on my hand while working I'll pick up some DL shavings to wipe it off..of course I do wash my hands when I'm done!
Did I get everything, Quailswiss? Please let me know how this turns out, any issues you may run into, and/or anything that turned out super well.^^
