chickens in VA
In the Brooder
Hi all,
I'm about to get my first chickens (4 3-year-old girls adopted from a friend) and am very intrigued by the deep litter method, but I have several questions. I'd appreciate advice and insights from anyone who has tried this. I've read a fair amount online about it, but there are many contradictory opinions out there!
1) The base: for the litter base before I add the chickens, can I use a combination of rotted forest leaves/garden waste such as weeds/grass clippings, or do I have to buy pine shavings?
2) Will the chickens, if they see a pile of leaves, etc., decide to lay their eggs there instead of in the nest box (which I'm also planning to line with something like dry grass)? I don't expect to get a lot of eggs anyway (the reason my friend is giving them away is that they're not laying much anymore, so they'll mostly be pets for me), but it would be nice to get the few they may lay in the nest box!
3) Is it okay to add a significant amount of grass clippings to the litter or not (some sites say not because grass gets matted and is too wet for the chickens)? Also, my grass clippings tend to be very long, since I don't mow regularly - they're more weed whacker clippings than mower size. I've heard that overlong grass can lead to impacted crops. I don't use pesticides or anything on the grass.
4) The coop I have (Eglu Cube) has drawers underneath the roosts to catch droppings - the recommendation is to line them with newspapers and then dump the whole thing. Should I add the newspapers/droppings to the litter in the run when I clean out the drawers, or would that be too many droppings in the run/deep litter (the run where the deep litter would be is about 9' by 4' - the chickens will be free ranging part of the time, though)? I don't have a proper compost pile elsewhere yet, as my garden is still very much in a state of flux with the occasional bulldozer appearance!
5) Should I add household food scraps to the deep litter too, like I would to a compost pile? Is everything (e.g. coffee grounds) that is okay for compost actually okay for chickens? I can't imagine the coffee being great for them...
6) Would adding the household scraps - or anything else about the deep litter method - attract bears? We have a lot of black bears around here (tonight I saw one ambling along about 150 feet from the coop) and what I've been told is that they're mostly attracted to chicken feed rather than the chickens themselves, and will just kill the chickens once they've already invaded the coop to get at the feed.
Thanks so much for reading - sorry this is so long, but I'm very new to this and want to make sure I don't screw things up for the girls!
I'm about to get my first chickens (4 3-year-old girls adopted from a friend) and am very intrigued by the deep litter method, but I have several questions. I'd appreciate advice and insights from anyone who has tried this. I've read a fair amount online about it, but there are many contradictory opinions out there!
1) The base: for the litter base before I add the chickens, can I use a combination of rotted forest leaves/garden waste such as weeds/grass clippings, or do I have to buy pine shavings?
2) Will the chickens, if they see a pile of leaves, etc., decide to lay their eggs there instead of in the nest box (which I'm also planning to line with something like dry grass)? I don't expect to get a lot of eggs anyway (the reason my friend is giving them away is that they're not laying much anymore, so they'll mostly be pets for me), but it would be nice to get the few they may lay in the nest box!
3) Is it okay to add a significant amount of grass clippings to the litter or not (some sites say not because grass gets matted and is too wet for the chickens)? Also, my grass clippings tend to be very long, since I don't mow regularly - they're more weed whacker clippings than mower size. I've heard that overlong grass can lead to impacted crops. I don't use pesticides or anything on the grass.
4) The coop I have (Eglu Cube) has drawers underneath the roosts to catch droppings - the recommendation is to line them with newspapers and then dump the whole thing. Should I add the newspapers/droppings to the litter in the run when I clean out the drawers, or would that be too many droppings in the run/deep litter (the run where the deep litter would be is about 9' by 4' - the chickens will be free ranging part of the time, though)? I don't have a proper compost pile elsewhere yet, as my garden is still very much in a state of flux with the occasional bulldozer appearance!
5) Should I add household food scraps to the deep litter too, like I would to a compost pile? Is everything (e.g. coffee grounds) that is okay for compost actually okay for chickens? I can't imagine the coffee being great for them...
6) Would adding the household scraps - or anything else about the deep litter method - attract bears? We have a lot of black bears around here (tonight I saw one ambling along about 150 feet from the coop) and what I've been told is that they're mostly attracted to chicken feed rather than the chickens themselves, and will just kill the chickens once they've already invaded the coop to get at the feed.
Thanks so much for reading - sorry this is so long, but I'm very new to this and want to make sure I don't screw things up for the girls!