The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[sunflower4you]

I use the DL method on a soil floor. It doesn't take any time except when I empty the coop in the spring into the veggie garden & compost pile. During the spring & summer I don't add very much to it. The hens are rarely in the coop except to lay & roost. During the colder months I usually take a pitch fork and turn it once or twice so the broken down compost is at the top to aid in helping the top stuff to break down. I usually add either leaves or saw dust to the coop every 6 weeks or so. Depends on how fast the other materials have broke down.

Why use it? The DL is great for my veggie garden. It improves the soil. ( I have found earthworms in the soil under 3 ft of DL in January after months of old temps & snow) There is no waste going to a land fill. My hens are very healthy since they have exposure to the great soil/compost. There is no odor (as long as you have good ventilation) for most of the time. Once in awhile mine has an odor. I just turn it and add some more material. Its usually because the poop is sitting in a pile under the roost for a few weeks

(I don't use poop boards)

Of course everyone use of DL varies. It just depends how much work you want to do. I've read of others who do stuff with it daily & others like me who do very little. I want my hens to be simple as possible to raise. And the health of my hens shows that I must be doing something right

Agreed. I think DL is a lot easier than cleaning out the whole coop once a week! Thanks to everyone for the ideas for different materials to add to the DL like leaves, pine needles, some dirt, etc. So far I have just been using pine shavings, but I think things will break down if I start using a variety of materials. DL can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. Simple is just start with a few inches of pine shavings and add a layer each month or as often as it needs it. Then clean it all out months later when it is too deep. Very low maintenance.

 

[ronott1]

the same can be said about this site. when i first got my hens, i was reading different threads and was astounded. I was upset, thinking-gosh-they are chickens, this seems way harder than i expected. then i found the older raising naturally thread and calmed down.
someone, I think mlowen, mentioned about mayonnaise. I always made mine in my food processor, but just stumbled on making it in a jar with a stick blender in minutes. this is fantastic, came out perfect and really simple. http://thehealthyfoodie.com/fail-proof-home-made-paleo-mayo-whole30-compliant/

I am with you for sure!

I grew up with chickens and we gave them a clean place to live, food and water. They gave us eggs and meat. I got into them again and is seemed like everyone was having sick chickens all the time that needed vet care. Did chickens change that much in 30 years?

I am still waiting for some terrible chicken disease to show up....

 

[ThePRfan]

Sounds good.

I can do much work,I just cant afford earthworms.

Earthworms can cause worms and other parasites if ate....

 

[lazy gardener]

Thank you for all the info lazy gardener I appreciate all the help. Yes I do have an incubator and it is a great idea to put the eggs in it after the shipped ones arrive. So, I will put the old eggs in the incubator after letting the shipped eggs rest 24 hours. then I will mark the shipped eggs and put them under her at the same time I take the old eggs out. I'll get the incubator turned on in the morning so it's ready to go no matter the day it happens.
I've another question: is it easy to move her at night to a safer area where the other chickens won't disturb her? I ask because hubby purchased a small hen house for me and I have it in my greenhouse. My plan all along has been to use it for a brooder house I hope to only have at most 2 hens brooding at the same time. I was a little surprised this girl chose now to go broody. I figured I would have the shipped eggs in the incubator in case someone did go broody over the next month. I think the temps jumping up triggered her or she's just being the Cochin hen she was meant to be.

Does your green house have wild temp fluctuations? That would be my only concern. Can you move her and get her settled on her current clutch until you're ready to set the new eggs?

Is deep litter method worth the time?
Why use it?

Yes, it' definitely worth it. Time? You'll be saving yourself scads of time, as well as materials by using DL. It works best on a soil floor. I'd love to hear from folks who are DL on a wood or other type of floor. I'm doing mine on a linoleum over plywood floor. Using pine shavings, because I didn't get a chance to gather leaves this fall. I had ammonia build up in December. Did a partial clean out (just under the roosts). Then, I put in a wheelbarrow full of compost and soil (that I was able to salvage from the garden) under the roosts. Then I moved all of the litter from the front of the coop to the back of the coop and put it over the compost/soil, and added a fresh layer of shavings over that, as well as in the front of the coop. So far, no more ammonia smell. It is a bit more damp than I'd like to see, but no odor when I go in. When using DL, my recommendation is: get that wood protected so it doesn't compost along with the litter! Get some good microbes going for the base: garden soil, compost, leaf litter, lawn clippings if you have them and they're not laden with ----icides. Add a bit of fresh litter over the top as needed. Have the flock help you to keep things stirred up: toss some scratch in so they'll go to town flipping things over. And finally: Never do a complete clean out: save some of the good stuff to inoculate the new litter you're putting in. One thing I'm planning to do is get as much aquarium sludge as I can from a friend the next time she does her tank maintenance. Good stuff, and I'm hoping that it'll do a good job increasing the bacterial load of my DL.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Very interesting to have someone be able to see the difference.

I'm glad I'm able to get my feed from the mill so I can have it made the way I want it.

Putting it in the run is the best way to keep the run healthy! Keeps it from becoming a slick, muddy, unhealthy, "bad bacteria" breeding ground!


One thing you always have to ask someone when they talk about their deep litter is if they have a dirt floor inside the coop. If they do, it will do a bit better at composting indoors that if the floor isn't dirt.

I also have vinyl on mine and I do use the deep litter in there. I put a little dirt in when I get it started so that there is some level of ability to breed some good bacteria from the addition of the garden dirt. But I put it out on the run whenever it gets on the deep side which is more in the winter than summer, of course. It makes very healthy soil out there.

I just don't understand this, at all. We have put hay down on the ground and shoveled the hay/pine shavings/poop out of the coop and the ground is so slippery that I have to take baby steps to avoid landing on my behind. We put leaves down in the coop, the addition and on the ground and it is much less slippery but as the poo builds it starts to get slippery again.

I must be doing something wrong. We can't afford to do it but I want to move the coop to a new area, get a front loader and scrape the ground where the mess is.

 

[The Kibble Goddess]

Just wanted to let y'all know how i do deep litter. I have a coop that is open on the South side, no solid wall, just hardware cloth so we get plenty of sunlight, air, and yes some rain. But even a blowing rain only comes about 2' into the coop, which is 12' square with an attached 12' square covered run. I have a dirt floor also. I throw grass clippings, weeds, anything green in during the summer as much as i can get. Because we don't generate much bio-mass here yet, I put in a square bale of STRAW every month starting in midsummer till i get the level up to 12". I try to always keep the litter at least 1 foot deep. I don't turn the litter, as in the winter i suppliment my chickens' feed with scratch. I toss in a pound in the morning and a pound in the evening and they turn the litter just fine. I also toss in the compost bucket from the kitchen every night so they have some thing to munch on in the morning before i get out to feed. Generally every speck is gone by 8 AM. I toss in a 5 gallon bucket of coffee grounds every week (thank you Starbucks!) and they turn in with in the hour. I have access to round bales of spoiled hay, but i don't add that to the litter unless i chop it up with the mower first as it tends to mat and can harbor spergillus mold. I feed fermented mash outside, and i keep there water outside as it keeps the coop cleaner. I clean the coop in the spring if i need the materials for the garden, but i can let it go forever if i want. Basically my coop is a large, covered compost heap My core flock is about 20 hens and roos and 4 guineas, with many more in the summer. My crew free ranges after lunch till dark in the winter, and sunup to sundown in the summer. The litter doesn't decompose much in the winter as it is too cold, but it disappears pretty fast in the summer. My flock is very healthy and happy, lays eggs like a champ even through winter, and i attribute this to the extra nutrition found in the litter and the fun they have keeping busy scratching and pecking all year long.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Sounds good.

I can do much work,I just cant afford earthworms.

Earthworms can cause worms and other parasites if ate....

Keep in mind that there is an "acceptable load" of parasites for the host. What you want is a bird that is healthy and a few worms won't bother it at all. We were talking about living in a sterile bubble just yesterday. This is not a desired life for any creature. Your birds will love the worms. As long as they are healthy and strong, the worms won't be an issue. Plus, there are natural anti-worm ingredients you can add to their feed that will eliminate many of them.

 

[potagergirl]

Does your green house have wild temp fluctuations? That would be my only concern. Can you move her and get her settled on her current clutch until you're ready to set the new eggs?

Hubby changed my plan of moving her. Instead he is going to finish the chicken house that sets behind my greenhouse and put all the roosters in there along with some of the hens. He can't get it done until Saturday which is fine I will continue to keep a close eye on her.
I had someone telling me about a similar situation last night. She said she left all the eggs under the hen and added the new ones. Three days before the first batch was to hatch she took them out and put them in the bator. She added more eggs she had on hand to keep the number of eggs up. Once the hatch occurred under the hen she slipped the ones from her brooder under the hen and took the substitute eggs out. I understand what she is saying I'm not sure I want to risk this.
Either way I turned on the incubator just in case so I can watch the temp and keep it stable over the next couple days/nights. Wow owning chickens is fun and sleep depriving =)

 

[armorfirelady]

Sounds good.

I can do much work,I just cant afford earthworms.

Earthworms can cause worms and other parasites if ate....

Don't tell my hens. Earthworms are one of their favorite treats.

 

[COChix]

One thing we do with our coop and run, I failed to mention before, is spray it down with a lactic acid serum, which is basically a bacteria remediation agent. It increases the beneficials in the soil/bedding and helps break down or eats salmonella/ecoli and other non beneficial bacteria. Helps keep everything nice and healthy, we also spray it on the dog poop and all of our veggie and herb gardens as well.