Results from First Year with Deep Litter Method

[Beekissed]

It's in the 30s-40s in the day, 20s at night here. Winter has begun...finally! Because...after winter is SPRING!

I have two different trough feeders I built...one is for when the litter is lower, in the summer months. It's got 2x4 "feet" on it that keeps the trough 4 in. up and then the added 4 in. deep of the trough keeps it pretty much out of the DL, but they still manage to shovel litter into it now and again. My winter trough is on 2x6 feet, so it gives me a few more inches of height to deal with the deeper bedding I rake in there for winter...but I always have to tip that trough also and dump out the DL when I go to feed. Going to place my heated dog bowl waterer in there today up on a pedestal but will still be scooping out bedding all winter from the water. I may devise a waterer that's heated but less of a mess today...have an idea. Will see if it works on these old birds......

 

[beverly evans]

This is a very interesting thread. My situation is a little different as well as my experience. I live in Portland, OR, where we have steady rain for months on end. I have 4 hens. My hen house is elevated, with a wood/vinyl floor. I use straw on the floor and in the nesting boxes and sprinkle everything occasionally with food grade DE. I remove the straw from under the roost once a week and add it to my compost pile. That works pretty well.

My run is about 4x15, with about 4x6 covered, and the rest open to the elements. It is all enclosed in wire mesh, including the top. The uncovered portion of the run gets pretty muddy in the winter, even with good drainage, so I have been experimenting with how to keep the mud down. I started by just spreading straw on the ground. This worked pretty well until the real heavy rains came. I added grass trimmings from the last couple of mows of the season, and then threw in leaves as I generated them raking the lawn. After a couple of weeks, what I had was a soggy mat of muddy organic material that was starting to stink like a poorly aerated compost pile. Leaves really don't have a chance to dry out and get crunchy here. They fall when the rains start. I scooped everything out and spread it around my garden, lightly turned under the dirt in the run when we had a couple of dry days, and threw a very thin layer of straw down along with a few leaves-not near as thick as before.

Any suggestions? I like the idea of deep litter and the manure getting turned in with the organics to form a nice compost, but it is just too wet for that, and I don't have the funds right now to put a cover over the entire run.

And even if you covered the entire run rain would still manage to wet the ground. I get a bale of hay for starters and spread it around. The rains goes through and it works for awhile. I put the bale on a pallet with a tarp over it and use it til its gone. After the season the hay has mostly broken down nicely for the compost. I also got something called a "skid" that a company threw away on craigs list. It is just a really big pallet that I put on the ground in the run. It gave them somewhere to get off the wet cold ground and they pop up on it a lot when confined to the run. In the summer I prop it against one side of run for sun shade. win-win.

 

[beverly evans]

Here are our eggs from ee, and poduction reds.

This was posted back in July so don't know if you'll see this but whatever. Production Reds are supposed to lay the really big brown eggs, right? It looks like the EE laid the big one? Is the smaller one a pullet egg? Right now my EEs lay my biggest eggs but the ISA Browns, a line of the same genetics as the Reds, lay really huge eggs. How big are yours? : )

 

[RoseMarie1]

It's pretty nice here today so I was able to get out there for a bit and throw in some more DL under mines roosting area. It's getting pretty thin now. lol I didn't do much since I still have this mess in my chest I was a little scared to stay out there long. But man that DL is looking awesome in there!

 

[Beekissed]

It's cool, isn't it? I really wish I had known about it and used it all those years ago instead of raking out poop...what a nasty chore and then it had to be composted before being used. Rose, are you feeling any better? I hope it clears up soon.

 

[RoseMarie1]

It's cool, isn't it? I really wish I had known about it and used it all those years ago instead of raking out poop...what a nasty chore and then it had to be composted before being used. Rose, are you feeling any better? I hope it clears up soon.

you and me both Bee, I am past ready for this mess to be GONE! On my second round of meds now. My daughter also had to take 2 rounds of it. Hubby hasn't gotten it thank goodness!!! He's been sleeping on the sofa to avoid it. lol He said he was coming back to bed tonight. lol I'm not contagious now with me on the 2nd round of meds. It's just still in my chest and I can't handle the central heat being on when I sleep so it got pretty cold in here last night and night before. Both nights it got down in the low 20's I think they said on the news. I have never seen so much congestion in my born days. It's like it's on steroids or something. I mean just plain horrible! Gross I know but fact.

 

[Beekissed]

Are you using a vaporizer or humidifier? Both could help when you are using forced air heat....I can't stand that stuff either and it always leaves my sinuses congested. Running a vaporizer can thin out those secretions and help loosen them up so they can be expelled more often and faster. I'm sending you mental chicken soup......

 

[RoseMarie1]

Are you using a vaporizer or humidifier? Both could help when you are using forced air heat....I can't stand that stuff either and it always leaves my sinuses congested. Running a vaporizer can thin out those secretions and help loosen them up so they can be expelled more often and faster. I'm sending you mental chicken soup......

lol
yep got the humidifier going during the day and the vaporizer at night time when it was so bad I couldn't breath. That really helped! The thing is, it IS coming out, it's just making more faster like it's on steroids! lol This mess is something!

LOVE the sending mental chicken soup! LOL Have eaten me some chicken and rice and sister in law brought me some of the BEST cooked turnips I have ever eaten in my life. She mixed kale turnips and mustard together and cut up small pieces of pork to season it. Man I ate two bowls even without cornbread it was soooo good. lol Then last night hubby helped me make up some gumbo using smoked pork and some okra and tomatoes and some stir fried onions. Been wanting something really hot like soup and stuff so I made a big pot and he helped with it. He's been trying to get us some wood cut today for the fireplace. It sure was nice out there today and I sure did want to hang out there but the wind started getting chilly to me so I figured I better get back inside.

 

[Beekissed]

It was pretty here today too and it got warm enough to go without a jacket but still with long sleeves. I got the heated water bucket set up for the dog and heated watering for the chooks, so that's the end of winter prep for them. All tucked in.

Will be making a literal VAT of chicken soup tomorrow!

Cooking down chicken bones, backs, carcasses, giblets and odd ends and pieces for stock for the canning of chicken on Saturday. Also canning some deer meat. I'm going to debone all the chicken before placing it in the jars, so will have plenty of bones for the stock and then will save all those for dog munchies later on. Already have deer bones saved in the freezer for later dog treats...am thinking about cooking those down too, for making of venison stock. Might add the carcass and such from the Thanksgiving turkeys to the deer bones to give them some added flavor and fat in that stock.

Can't ever have too much soup....

 

[RoseMarie1]

It was pretty here today too and it got warm enough to go without a jacket but still with long sleeves. I got the heated water bucket set up for the dog and heated watering for the chooks, so that's the end of winter prep for them. All tucked in.

Will be making a literal VAT of chicken soup tomorrow!

Cooking down chicken bones, backs, carcasses, giblets and odd ends and pieces for stock for the canning of chicken on Saturday. Also canning some deer meat. I'm going to debone all the chicken before placing it in the jars, so will have plenty of bones for the stock and then will save all those for dog munchies later on. Already have deer bones saved in the freezer for later dog treats...am thinking about cooking those down too, for making of venison stock. Might add the carcass and such from the Thanksgiving turkeys to the deer bones to give them some added flavor and fat in that stock.

Can't ever have too much soup....

nope you can't ever have too much soup. I made almost 20 qt.s last winter and man they have came in sooo handy! That link I shared on here the other day from the Mennonite lady Gina, she has a couple soup recipes on there that I used and canned. They were really good to.
Man kind sounds like you got a lotta bones and will have lots of broth. I've got to get us a turkey for Thanksgiving and for Christmas to. Haven't done that yet.