Mumsy, I too am wishing your little silkie well.
Completely off topic, but going WAY back to when Deep litter was being discussed, I thought I remember reading a recommendation from Bee not to clean out a coop while using deep litter, except maybe once a year? Maybe I am wrong and read that someplace else? So when you are talking about cleaning out the deep litter is that what you are doing?
I use DL too, we still have freezing temps here (a little bit of thawing every few days). And I haven't really cleaned out any all winter. The warmer days the last few weeks I have been going out and pulling out some of the straw under the roosts and tossing it out on the snow to help melt it, but that is the extent of my cleaning it so far this winter..... Am I doing it wrong? It doesn't smell....
I think using DL is a little different in warmer climates than it is in where the poop is frozen for 5 or more months out of the year. DL can include the litter and poop breaking down into compost assuming there is enough moisture. But, where I live, there are a couple of issues:
1. in the winter, say Oct thru March/April, the poop freezes. that stops any compost process.
2. in the summer, the hens are hardly in the coop, so the amount of poop is limited, making for an incorrect ratio of brown to green, carbon to nitrogen
3. in the summer, it is
dry, and there isn't enough moisture for the composting process to start.. I'm not interested in adding moisture to the coop.
4. in the winter, the frozen poop makes a crust too hard for the chickens to scratch into to mix it up, requiring human intervention.
So, my northern form of DL is this: start with fresh hay in the fall, add more to the litter to cover poop as needed, so it is definitely layered. Come spring, remove enough to make room, and keep going. This fall, I did try leaving the entire summer accumulation just to see if it would be able to offset the freezing temps enough to start composting - my real compost pile works in the winter because of the quantity, and you can see it steaming under the snow. I was hoping sufficient mass would make it work, but it didn't.
Next fall, I will clean it out. It is so deep in there now.
eta: I read the excellent link leahsmom provided - I would add just one thing - that while the purpose of DL is not to make compost, it is the process of the material breaking down that provides the best benefits.
I don't think you are doing it
wrong - just differently than you would if you lived on the west coast, or southern states.
