Results from First Year with Deep Litter Method

[motherjen]

Thanks for the advice! I am using a board to block the nesting boxes at night, then I remove it after dark, while they sleep. (Boxes are adjacent to the roost) So far it is working well. Boxes are open for egg laying at sun up. We have two boxes for 3 hens. I will get some decoy eggs ASAP. Thanks again.

 

[aCoolChick]

The DE is just for an outside dust bath area, a dry dusty area that chickens gravitate to get dust under their feathers. My cat does the same thing ... when I open the door, the first spot she heads for is a little patch of dirt that has no grass on it, that she cultivates herself by scratching it, then rolling over and over in it. I put just a little DE there, too, but not too much, as it is NOT good to inhale DE dust, for any living thing. The DE is to kill any parasites the birds may have in their feathers. It has nothing (!) to do with composting!

 

[OilyChick]

Guppy, mine free range out every day and I still use the deep litter. It doesn't really matter how much they use it or deposit feces upon it, if it is working correctly, it will still digest it and be beneficial. Over time it will pack down and start to compost in place and they will only scratch up and disturb the top layers. The underlying layers will be developing good bacteria and yeasts, attracting the right kind of bugs and start to be turned to soil like compost.

I have no smells whatsoever in my coop and I've had the same deep litter in it since last fall. I only add more when it composts down so low that I can see soil peeking through the areas the birds have disturbed. It's important to keep the ground covered, moderately moist and spongy/springy.

In a coop that does not have a soil floor this can still be accomplished by not disturbing the underlayers of the bedding/litter if you can avoid it. They will develop their own moisture that is trapped there and start the composting of materials all the same. If you want to help with that, you can add moisture in the dry months, but the litter should draw humidity from the air if you do not live in an arid climate.

Ventilation is the key to no smells as well....big, open windows and airflow at the floor level can really help.

"big open windows and airflow at floor level"...well I guess I lucked out on our design. This is a great thread and learning lots from it!

 

[OilyChick]

Thank you! One of our ladies uses mostly pine straw at her place and says it composts pretty well and quickly. If you have other things to mix in with it, it would make a great base for your mix. She has found wondrous black soil under her run since using the DL of pine straw there, when the rest of her soil is pale, sandy and not as rich.

Pine shavings aren't the best for litter though for a lot of folks it's all they can get their hands on, so it's okay if you never use pine shavings at all if you can get by with it. I use them on rare occasions...maybe once a year and not much. Sometimes I'll use them when establishing new pens, especially when it's spring and I don't have any leaves to use.

If you have any tree services that could dump you a load of chips you could use them in the mix as well...good stuff, especially for runs.

Will post this vid here as I've already posted it to the other DL thread and it seemed to help folks a lot to see the litter after it's been in use for 3 yrs....

This is beautiful looking litter! Thank you so much for sharing the video...now I know what I am going for. Can't wait to get my chooks and get cooking!

 

[melbelle2010]

Great advice! I would not have thought to save fallen leaves for the coop! (First time having chickens!) I will do that when autumn rolls around! We will have plenty here in NH!

 

[Mims]

Great advice! I would not have thought to save fallen leaves for the coop! (First time having chickens!) I will do that when autumn rolls around! We will have plenty here in NH!

Lucky you! I'm in barren west Texas, and have to work hard to find leaves!

 

[Beekissed]

Y'all grow corn in TX? Corn stalks and husks make for great additions to litter. Any trees in a local town? Those folks often sit bags of leaves out at the curb for the trash and even grass clippings. Grass clippings are nice to add when it's really dry in the coop and run. Weeds....woody stemmed weeds are great, so if you know of anyone clearing out weeds, you can throw those in there. Pine needles and cones are good too.

Anything that can decompose and bind with manure is a great option, just try to keep a variety going to get the most balanced composting action.

I'm canning corn nowadays and all those lovely shucks and cobs go in the coop. Come fall my corn stalks will all go there, as will all the other garden refuse such as tomato vines, squash vines, tater vines, etc. Any flower clippings, weeds, etc. that are cleaned up are carefully hoarded and placed in the coop.

Become a scavenger and you'll soon see what's out there you can use in the coop and run and it all becomes a bit fun. I've even used shredded paper from the office.

 

[Bobby Basham]

"big open windows and airflow at floor level"...well I guess I lucked out on our design. This is a great thread and learning lots from it!

As far as ventilation goes, somebody mentioned in another thread to use these around the coop at lower and upper levels. The eaves will be open (but screened), and I figured these adjustable vents could be at the opposite ends of the pitched roof to enhance some cross ventilation while using narrower vents to get an updraft at a lower level. It may be overkill, but at least I can "semi-control" some of the ventilation issues in this Arizona heat.

On another note, would three nest boxes be too many ? I plan on having 6 hens, 8 max. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

 

[Molpet]

As far as ventilation goes, somebody mentioned in another thread to use these around the coop at lower and upper levels. The eaves will be open (but screened), and I figured these adjustable vents could be at the opposite ends of the pitched roof to enhance some cross ventilation while using narrower vents to get an updraft at a lower level. It may be overkill, but at least I can "semi-control" some of the ventilation issues in this Arizona heat.

On another note, would three nest boxes be too many ? I plan on having 6 hens, 8 max. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

I put some of these in a 4x4x4 dog house I first used as a coop... works great until the litter built up and the hens closed them LOL
Until last month my 5 hens used the same box... for some reason they are using 3 boxes now. One hen was thinking about being broody and hogging the box. I moved her but they didn't start using the other boxes until she came back.

 

[Beekissed]

Nope, not too many.

If I lived where you live, that would not be the size of ventilation I'd opt for.....I'd have whole walls of open air situations. Actually, I live where it gets teens below in the winter and I STILL have whole walls of ventilation going on, though in the winter months I just have a half door plus 4 sq. foot size openings open, plus some pretty large cracks.

Of course, you are also be dealing with an arid climate, so any moisture you can retain in your coop would likely be a good thing, particularly at floor level, if you are doing DL.

Anyone out there doing DL in a coop in arid climates want to chime in on what levels/size of ventilation work best to keep your DL composting and the coop environment healthy?