[Chookster]

 

help - my chickens live in a shed and i need to get deep litter sorted.  What do you guys use to make it up?

Mine are currently on straw and wood shavings but I'm wary of the poo!

I want the best for them.x

[colliebird]

help - my chickens live in a shed and i need to get deep litter sorted.  What do you guys use to make it up?

Mine are currently on straw and wood shavings but I'm wary of the poo!

I want the best for them.x

Mine live on fine, dust free shavings (not the big shavings).  Poo is easily picked up because the shavings absorb it.
I use shredded paper in the cardboard nest boxes and these can be burned every couple of days.  Shavings and nest boxes are sprinkled with  Diatomaceous Earth
and perches scrubbed and sprayed daily with Strike Back.

Hope this helps

[GrannieAnnie]

Deep litter is where you just keep adding new bedding on top of the old stuff, which is what we do to a certain extent.  But you must have a well ventilated shed, so that when the chickens dig around in the new stuff and mix it all up like they do, the bedding remains dry. 

If the bedding gets wet for whatever reason the deep litter will smell terrible of ammonia, which is what mine use to until Brian put in the louvres instead of windows.  Now, except in the doorway when it rains, the litter stays dry and friable until cleaned out once a month or so.

but I don't like straw for this as it soon gets matted with poop.  We use shavings

[Chookster]

ok guys then so shall i just turn it and add more straw and shavings? I have to say - for my nesting boxes i get free chucked out fruit boxes (either blue plastic ones or the mini balsar wood type crates for a while til they're no good any more or a fresh start is needed).  I do change the bedding in that mostly on a daily basis if it needs - i tend to find that they use one box for the laying and they keep it clean, they share it so far.  I have a ladder made out of branches that they perch on and there are 3 vents in the shed 'walls', a window that's wired but half covered with glass and the hole where the big square vent went for the shed is their pop hole where they can come and go as they please.  When it gets really cold though i will cover the whole window and make a bit of a porch maybe for the pop hole.  It does stay dry in there and i'm aware it can only work if it's dry.  However, despite the fresh air, change of nest box and turning the litter i still get a few flies. hate to sound obsessive (i'm pretty rustic and prould of it) but is this ok? I suspect now it's turned a bit colder the flies will disappear anyway.

what say you guys? anything else apart from straw, wood shavings and paper i can put in there??

for the outside bit before they come into their house, i always immitate the autumn... to lower the amount of muddy/pooey chicken feet or whatever makes their feet mucky...

i go to the woods and get some rubble sacks full of 'forest floor' - you can't buy that in the supermarket LOL! I use it in their run areas so their turning it and 'cleaning' feet at the same time. bit like a welcome rug i guess. keeps their house a bit cleaner.  I just make sure the bits of bark and twigs doesn't contain any sharp brambly bits.  I also gather leaves and stuff and they just love crunching and scratching around in it all - ANDit attracts bugs for them.

but there must be something else needs going into deep litter?

[GrannieAnnie]

Something else that will help keep it nice and dry and not smelling of ammonia is things like Stalosan F or Biodry.  I've never used them before, but I have some biodry coming tomorrow from Bowden and Knights to try in the houses.

It helps soak up any moisture there is in the bedding.  apart from that, there is nothing else I would put down for them!

I don't worry about a few flies, but I never get many of them, they seem to prefer it warm and damp!

[Foxy]

I use deep litter for the ducks, stalosan on the floor, then easibed, then build up layers of very finely chopped straw, works a treat! When I take the top level off the easibed is usually dry underneath. I then top up with chopped straw.
With my chooks I have stalosan on the floor, then a thick (3" deep) layer of easibed on top. I dont poo pick and clean out about every 3 weeks. I do have large sheds and work on a max of 50-70% occupancy. It werks for me!