The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[ssterling1776]

I do have deep litter issues. Like I have stated. I have never deep littered and this is my first year. I have noticed it is keeping my floor damp. I have wood floors in the coop and now I worry about wood rot. Could I put sand on the bottom to prevent that? It just started when the weather got nice and the coop thawed out. All the talk of ammonia smells in corners had me digging out my corners and they are all damp wood under.

You can put down a pond liner or thick plastic liner. Go up the wall with it a few inches. This will keep the moisture from your DL getting to the wood. I had the same concern, my floors are wood also, this seems to work well.

 

[darkmatter]

Wow...I'm really liking that setup. Good photos! Thanks for sharing!

I wish I had dirt floors!!!!!

What size is the overall hen house dimensions?

Also - It looks like you're using something like stair railing for roosts? What diameter are they?

Mine is an old garden shed 8ft x 12 ft footprint and it is raised up from the ground. The temperature inside stays the same as outside...but I sure wish I had it working in such as way that the deep litter and body heat made it warmer in there! I wonder if there's hope for the litter creating that much heat in a coop that's raised?

The overall dimensions are 8' X 12', I actually built the foundation sized so I didn't have to cut down the 4' X 8' plywood sheets and they overlapped the foundation to shed water, otherwise rainwater would run down and seep into the wood base and cause rot.

The roost poles were ripped from boards to a 2" X 2" size, then I hand planed the bevel, (they're not stair railings). Note that the top roost has been removed. I did make a mistake originally in that the top roost was too close to the wall------the chickens left streaks on the wall, so I removed the original top roost, now all the droppings fall into the deep litter to make that wonderful garden compost fertilizer.

Trying to create a composting pile in a raised coop is a lose-lose proposition. If you do manage to get the composting going, it will rot everything it touches, even linoleum. Mine is safety in the dirt pit.(could you dig a foundation and move the coop to it minus the floor?)

 

[poultry 101]

How to y'all keep the wAter out of y'all's coop?

 

[delisha]

Thank you all for the suggestions for my dampness issues with my wood floors. I defiantly need to do something come spring. I think covering the floors with something over the wood is what I might do. Those floors are 50 years old at least. I like the added heat in the coops from the deep litter and I would like to keep it for the winter months. It is cold out this morning. About -13, the coop temp reads 30 inside. Still freezing, but, warmer than outside.

 

[loanwizard]

I see all these solutions to keeping the dampness off the wood. I have a dirt floor so it doesn't matter to me, as I have said before, I liken it to the forest floor, BUT.... why not look to solving the dampness instead of putting something under it? I may be way off base, but... Oh well

Where is the dampness coming from? Do you have enough chickens that the poo isn't drying? Then how about some more carbon, brown matter, leaves, hay, straw, lime, DE, etc.....? Do you turn it (rake it) to get the damp part out in the air? Is there enough ventilation to dry it? Is there water coming in, a leak or whatnot? I am just curious.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Trying to create a composting pile in a raised coop is a lose-lose proposition. If you do manage to get the composting going, it will rot everything it touches, even linoleum. Mine is safety in the dirt pit.(could you dig a foundation and move the coop to it minus the floor?)

I've had good luck with the DL in the raised coop w/vinyl flooring. BUT...I did put a layer of dirt from the garden on the floor as a base layer originally. That really got it composting well but it sure doesn't seem to add warmth to the mix!

Of course, I leave the coop very open. I read a lot about the Woods Style coops after seeing JackE's coop that he built on that premise. I'm hoping Jack will stop over to this thread some day and tell us about his experiences with that coop style too.


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ETA: Lionwizard- I don't have a dampness problem but I put the vinyl in there at the beginning before I ever had chickens. I was just thinking it would be much easier to clean. I also figured that wherever there are animals there will be things that I don't want getting in the wood. It was all just thinking about easy ways to clean stuff at that point in the game

 

[Leahs Mom]

OH...and next coop we do I'm going to figure out how to have it set down like yours, DM. I'm thinking about rigging a little more housing in the spring.

How many birds do you have in that coop? Looks like quite a few! Are they able to access outdoors all winter?

Another Question: How much space between each roost on your roost ladder?

 

[JeffOeuf]

I just did a little Googling and a little calculator work with regard to compost generated heat. Using the available data, In a coop 8' x 10' with 7' ceiling height the compost would have to be at least 7 inches deep, perfectly blended between carbon and nitrogen and very moist to generate an 18 degree (F) temperature increase. That's based on a perfectly functioning compost pile generating 1,000 btu per ton per hour and having a density of approximately 37 pounds per cubic foot. If you cut the moisture level down to something that would be comfortable for the chickens (and acceptable to chicken keepers), that efficiency drops like a rock.

That also assumes that the compost can reach its heat generation potential spread evenly and thin, which is contrary to all the available suggestions.

If I had a ground floor coop with a bare ground floor, I would probably be all over deep litter. But with an elevated, fabricated floor, I can't see its advantages. Having composted pretty seriously for many years, I just can't imagine having the floor of the coop damp enough and deep enough for any decomposition to actually take place.

I guess I'm also lucky in that my girls spend around 14 hours per day outside, so I'm only dealing with half (or so) of the litter generated.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Jeff -

Mine definitely doesn't increase temperature but it is composting nicely.

I think part of the heat generation with DarkMatter's coop is that it is partly BELOW GROUND LEVEL if I understand correctly - I think he said he dug down to make a pit. That would immediately help with raising temperature I'm thinking.


Also - I'm heading down to AutoZone for that pad heater later this morning. Going to try the 60 watt 8.5 x 5.5 right on the cup necks to see if that will keep them open. We're back in the teens again.

 

[darkmatter]

Nice coop darkmatter!

What do you do with all the babies that hatch from those broodies? Love the "idiot roosters" coop....llol

Nice to have you on the thread!

MB

I keep the hens, and I keep a age progression of roosters, usually about three. The oldest "cock-of-the-walk" keeps the younger ones in line and I only keep the nicest gentle ones for replacement. Its when people have too many roosters of all the same age that fights and hen abuse takes place. The surplus roosters meet their fate. I once cooked down a tough old rooster and made 57 burritos out of him, very tasty.


You should also be secure enough from predators:



My Garden shares a fence with the chicken run and I let the chickens into the garden in the fall when I'm done with it and let them glean/till/fertilize all fall/winter long:





The Chicken run itself is planted with Illinois everbearing mulberry trees, apples, persimmons, and wild plums to provide free food for the chickens. I originally tried free range, but the predators convinced me that won't work, so I built a large run and planted shade & food for them.