Care and feeding of your deep litter

I adore my deep litter in my chicken barns. Today was a turning day. I turn the litter two or three times a year, then add peat and straw to top it off. As long as I don't overcrowd, the poops fall thru the straw and decomposes in the thick humus below. The peat neutralizes the odor. A couple times a year I need to add peat and straw. I also throw grain around. Chicken power churns the litter and keeps it turned over.

How do you maintain your deep litter?

I'm new to the deep litter. Where do you get the peat? And how often do you do a full clean-out?

I buy peat by the bale at Canadian tire...just easier to handle than a trailer full! I have not cleaned out my barn in three years. And it has a cement floor. The litter is a foot and a half in places. About three to five inches of straw with good moist soil that the chickens have created underneath.

Kind of do the deep litter I guess. I clean out the coops twice a year, early October and after the weather warms in spring, wherein I can actually get in there comfortably and clean it out. Probably mid March. During the months that are inbetween, I don't do alot actually. I used to always throw layers of peat on, but that actually became too much bother. So this year I have not. For the bedding in the walking area of the coops, the places that are not below the roosts, I use wood shavings, and add rice hulls and the straw that comes out of the nest boxes when I change them are all part of what is in the "walking" around area for the chickens. Once in a while, probably about every 2 weeks, I take some of that walking around debris and throw a very think layer over the poopy stuff below the roosts. That is when I remember. I do not focus on the deep bedding, just do that kind of action now and then. My coops do not have a bad odour. I think that is because nothing is disturbed below the roosts until the twice a year clean up time. At this point, everything in the coops comes out and we start all over with rice hulls and shavings as the main ingredient for the walking around area. Out of rice hulls now, so will be using shavings only. I think about one bale (we have earthen floors) of shavings is used initially between the two coop areas. I think the shavings help a great deal to absorb moisture and having lots of ventiliation (sofits open, lots of warm air rises and moves air around nicely) really is a boon to keeping the moisture down. My coops are dry as dry can be. So ya, basically, I don't really manage my deep litter too much, it kind of manages itself I guess. Good topic. Soon will be time to get those coops cleaned out, good crap for next year's gardens for surely. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

In Chicken House: Plywood insulated floor. About a foot of litter. Never clean it out but it does cycle through by being kicked out the pop door into the run. New clean shavings go in the next boxes and are kicked out onto the floor over time. Chickens turn it over on their own. No smell. Very dry.

In Turkey house (also insulated plywood floor) nest boxes are filled with straw and floor is deep in peat moss (cuts smell admirably). Also never cleaned out. New block of peat from Canadian Tire several times in winter - unwrapped but not broken up - turkeys love doing that themselves. Turkeys mix up the straw and peat on the floor themselves.

Water is always outside, interior stays dry but somewhat dusty. Feed hoppers inside due to wild birds stealing outside feed. Vegetable scraps etc. are fed outside so they don't rot inside.

Works really well.

Heda, do your birds actually go outside in the winter. Mine will not. Little princesses!

When I open the pop door - every day of the year - the birds burst out - every morning no matter what the weather. Even on the coldest day of the year chickens and turkeys are outside for most of the day - by choice. Remember though I have cold tolerant White Chanteclers and Buckeyes. Turkeys seem almost immune to cold.

We have a dry climate and not much snow. Lots of wind but the coops are in a protected spot.

Coop are very well ventilated - only closed up at night if the temperatures are below -25C and wind is out of the north.

I know I have too many chickens in the deep litters when I go to turn the litter and I have big pancake mats of poo. That is too many chickens for this type of bedding management and I have to break them up or carry them out. The poo, that is.

Heda, I think my chicken are scared of the snow!

I am like CynthiaM.  I try to do a clean out twice a year.  I have UNinsulated painted plywood floor in one coop that I put lino over and now rubber mats.  It does not work really well with the deep litter system.  It gets wet in the winter even with water and food outside.  Not sure why, coop is very well ventilated but I just can't seem to get it right yet. I to use chicken power to turn it.  Amazing what motivation corn and wheat can be!

The other coops aren't closed in.  They all have an opening that stays open to the covered Costco dog runs.  They are surrounded by shade cloth and it keeps all the wind out.  These coops are small, not counting the outdoor run and stay great thru the winter with deep litter.

Heda, mine rush out as well.  I keep my pop doors open to the covered runs and they are out by the time I get out in the mornings.  If I shovel around the coop they will push me over to free range in the winter.
Sue your chooks are wimps!!  

Yes, they like the snow about as much as I do. However, they do have big, muscular litter-turning thighs!

I purposely have small combed breeds as my buildings are not heated. I do provide heat lamps here and there as well as heated waterers. The concrete floor of the barn is cracked and disintegrating so water tends to run out. In the spring though we used to have flooding issues and the litter got soupy. I dug a sump pit outside the door of the barn and put in a pump. Works like a charm.

Great post . I never really know how to deal with the poop and floor of the chicken coop. It seems we are always cleaning it out. I am going to try the deep litter method. Cleaning it twice a year sounds great. Now if I could figure out how to manage those messy duck and goose houses, I would really be happy.

How you deal with litter absolutely depends on where you live!

If you're on the coast, you really don't need to do complete clean-outs, IMO.

We used to clean diligently, but now we never do; just add new shavings, and take out buckets of shavings/poo/etc. occasionally. It is dry, friable, and turned over regularly by the birds. And apparently the micro-organisms reach some sort of equilibrium, and all is well! Not very scientific, but I do think it happens - our girls are happy, and the litter is dry.

I was about to say that I think one reason why deep litter works here is because we are a very dry climate, but ipf shows it is good on the coast too.

I do think that having not too many birds is key. The turkeys deep litter is more difficult to manage than the chickens - there aren't as many turkeys but they poop so wildly. Finding peat moss has been a wonderful thing! The turkeys do prefer to nest in straw (the basis the song "Turkey in the straw!")

And my geese live outside in an open dog run. They seem to like it and I give them plastic dog houses that can be pressured washed once in a while. Stuff those with straw but they seem to only go in when they are nesting. They hate missing anything that's going on in the barnyard.

The hired man used to clean out the chicken house when I was away. He mistakenly thought this was a good thing. We had to have words about it because for the first few weeks after he cleaned out the house the new litter smelled terrible. It takes a while to work up to the right environment I think.

Sue, or anyone, could I use hay instead of straw as my top layer? I use deep shavings, and want to use up some old bales of hay. I know it's very different from straw, but do you think there's any reason not to use it in there?

I don't think it would be as warm as a top layer but as long as it was mold free and dry I am sure the chickens would adore kicking it around! Might it pack together?

Farmchiq, I don't recommend hay as it goes moldy very quickly. You could give it a try but I have never had much success with it. Even in the outside covered pen if I give it for a treat, I have to keep an eye on it as it can get yucky and I have to remove it. Straw is hollow and doesn't hold the moisture like hay does.
I actually use a green feed rather than straw. Has all the seed heads on it and a few other goodies that they scavenge around for and end up breaking it up really well.

I used very dry grass clippings once and had the same problem, Coopslave.

About how much peat do you put on top? before the straw?

So it's an inch deep, 2 inches deep?

I keep adding peat throughout the year but I started with 2 parts wood shavings, I part peat and one part straw by volume. It was about 2' high but got crushed down. When the peat goes in, there is enough to cover the soil, 1/2 to 1 inch. Now it is about a foot of soil below and straw topping it off. The chickens love to dig through the straw so they can bathe in the soil. They know it is down there.

Now a question from me. If I put red wrigglers in there would they freeze in the winter?

Schipperkesue wrote: Now a question from me.  If I put red wrigglers in there would they freeze in the winter?

You know, I bet they wouldn't. If there is composting going on, then their should be some warmth??
Of course, when it get's to -40 won't matter much.

Has anyone else tried that?

Yes, the soil under the litter never seems to freeze solid.

And after all, red wrigglers ARE the Cadillac of Worms!

.

Good to know. I guess they are only the Cadillac of Worms to fishermen, not poultry men.

HigginsRAT wrote:
In regards to turkeys, worms are intermediate hosts of the cecal worms, which are all part of the life cycle of Blackhead which may kill turkeys.
Might be fine with chickens but I'd not "add earthworms" to a deep litter for turks without finding out if this was a risky practice or not.  Might run it by yer vet or a poultry pathologist first before doing it?  
Tara

And....earthworms (not sure about red wigglers, are they different, who knows, I know I don't) (and also other things, we cannot avoid these hosts) can be a host for the gapeworm.  Gapeworm can affect chickens horribly and can cause death.  Been there.  Done that, as I know many have on the forum, there has been massive discussion about gapeworm.  I do not worry too much about gapeworm, because my birds free range and I cannot control the slugs, worms, nor grasshoppers that they eat (which CAN, not saying DO) carry the gapeworm.  I would not encourage masses of worms in my chickenhouses, might be encouraging a gapeworm outbreak.  The earth will decompose on its own, you really don't need worms to help with that.  About the temperature of the deep litter.  A dare is in order.  In the midst of the coldest part of winter, let's say January, why doesn't someone that goes really really cold, like colder than -10 (celsius) do a test.  Dig a small hole in the deep litter below the roosts and put a temperature probe in there, lets see how far down the mass freezes.  I think I will, cause I would really like to know.  Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Thanks for this post, Sue.

Our deep litter didn't go so well this year, and I think it was missing the peat factor, so I'll do that this weekend (add a couple bales of pete, that is). I will say, last year we only had an alfalfa bale for use in the coop and it didn't go badly at all, but I didn't layer it in thick either. The chickens ate some, scratched up and broke the rest, and it all turned to dirt really quickly. It smelled like dirt, as well, whereas the straw we've been using just smells like gross after it has been in the coop for a few days. Ultimately, there's still a couple leaks in the roof, so I think that just destroys the process as well by adding too much moisture.

We'll do one good gutting of the coop again for the end of september and then continue with peat, see how that goes!