Where did they come from???

[rjohns39]

I'm having trouble finding the video I wanted for you, but here are three. I'm trying to follow Joel's approach.

Walking in one of these greenhouses the day before the birds are done, there's no smell. Notice he has different animals in there all adding to the compost.

Same here, except when someone makes a fresh deposit.

And then for the serious compost pile

 

[JurassicBawk]

I have the 10x10 chain link pen (can't remember if I mentioned in this thread or the coop one) and do the deep litter method without a solid roof. Granted it is under my wooden deck so there's less water than if it was out in the open, but it works for me. I put weed block/hunter blind screen around the bottom of the chainlink to block the site of chickens from my dogs, and also to keep the shavings inside. Occasionally I have to rake it out from the doorway if they are playing and making big holes, but it's about 6 inches deep and I have yet to completely clean out the coop since I put it up just over a year ago.

The ground is dirt, then I add easy pick pine (horse stall) shavings in occasionally, along with leaves from my yard. They get non-rotten food that I'd normally put in the compost bin, like pepper tops (they LOVE the seeds) and vegetables, and they eat what they want and scratch the rest into the ground. They've got an old tire full of sand for scratching/bathing in and a bale of compressed timothy hay in case they want to eat it or jump around on in, and it gets moist/wet depending on how hard it rains occasionally. If it rains very hard, like the hurricanes we had come through this year, I add some PDC horse stall deodorizer. Basically, treat it like a horse stall since it seems you've got horse experience.

 

[lazy gardener]

6" deep? Won't that overflow outside the run?

When I built my run, I put 2 x 6 boards around the whole bottom of it to help contain the DL. But, even without it, sure, some would leak out, but not an issue in my happy little world.

 

[Sassysouth]

6" deep? Won't that overflow outside the run?

??? My run is only partially covered, perhaps less than 10%. The rest is bird netting/ welded fencing over it, and it has "never gone bad" either fast or slow. The secret to DL is to have it nice and deep, (minimum of 6") and use a wide variety of materials. The poop simply melts into the ground. No odor. We just had several days of driving rain, and there was standing water in the run during the worst of it. Yes, the litter got wet, but it's so loose and spongey that it quickly absorbed all of the moisture. I can't imagine how nasty that run would have been if it was the bare ground fecal impacted soil that is often the paradigm of "what a chicken run should be like". Deep litter actually needs some moisture in order to compost properly. Just like a compost pile. If it's too dry, it simply won't compost. Of course if it's constantly too wet, it can go anaerobic.

A compost tumbler can be useful if one keeps a "manicured" yard, and does not have a lot of compostables. I have one, but really found that it was a waste of money, and it does not function as "claimed."

So you do deep litter in the run? I thought it was only a coop thing.

 

[Crooked Chicken]

If done right, compost will never stink. I use deep litter in my winter housing and it never smells. Now all I need are pigs to finish it in the spring.

pigs?


I am so happy that I learned about poo boards here on BYC -- they are awesome for cleaning the area under the roosts. I use Sweet PDZ (horse bedding material) in them and a big slotted kitchen spoon to clean the poop out. Easy and stays nice and fresh. Other than that I just have to scoop duck poop out of a couple lower nest boxes or from the straw/woodchip mix on a portion of the coop floor. Note: the roost on upper left is too close to ceiling so need to shorten legs on roost. They do sit there anyway,

 

[lazy gardener]

So you do deep litter in the run? I thought it was only a coop thing.

Nope, it can be both coop and run. Ideally, the coop should be bare soil, with good drainage. My previous coop, a cattle panel affair with a 4 x 8 loft over an 8 x 12 lower level was the perfect set up. Upper level not deep enough for DL, but lower level was awesome. I still use that as a grow out coop, and when ever the birds have access to it, that is where they like to hang out. New coop had vinyl over plywood, and not as easy to manage with DL style.

The run is wonderful with DL, and I've harvested some awesome compost out of there. Last fall, I built a pile of garden debris/leaves that was about 3.5' tall. The birds worked it during the winter, and I had fantastic compost from that pile.

 

[Wilmer Gehman]

I read basically the whole story last night and very much enjoyed it! keep it up!!!!

 

[rjohns39]

Sorry @KettermanHillCoop if we got overly carried away. You've been through a lot in the last few days.

 

[Sassysouth]

More found birds
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-to-stray-chickens-and-i-need-advice.1205482/

 

[peckpeckpeck]

Keep us posted with pix of your flock as they settle in.
Also love to see the extended run!
BTW thanks for a great story. This is just the beginning!