[Lindeggs]

I have a large coop so I have a feeder and waterer in the coop.  I keep the feeder topped up all the time, and if I'm going away for a few days I add a second feeder to make sure they don't run out.  I also have water containers in different places so even if they knock one over they will always have fresh water.

I am currently feeding layer pellets but until recently was feeding a balanced ration of cracked and whole grains plus supplements.

I use a 'deep litter system' which means the litter in the coop is rarely cleaned out - it just gets deeper and deeper over time.  It needs to be kept well aerated so I throw some grain on top and the chickens do the hard work of turning the litter and fluffing it up.

My girls free-range full time so they get to eat an unlimited amount of grass and weeds, and scratch about for worms and bugs. 

Sometimes I make up a damp mash with all kinds of goodies - chopped kitchen scraps, the powder out of the bottom of their feeder, a bit of stale bread, crushed garlic, yoghurt, apple cider vinegar, and whatever else I think might amuse me and the chickens. 

For some reason whenever I feed them damp food out of a bowl they think it is especially yummy... even if it's exactly the same thing they have been eating dry for the rest of the day. 

[myfanwe]

I use a 'deep litter system' which means the litter in the coop is rarely cleaned out - it just gets deeper and deeper over time.  It needs to be kept well aerated so I throw some grain on top and the chickens do the hard work of turning the litter and fluffing it up.

Hi Lindeggs,

Could you please explain a little more, or point me to somewhere that I can learn more about deep litter systems? I have disabilities which cause the cleaning of the hen house to become a day long chore and would love to know about an easier system like that which I don't need to clean as often. 

Thanks!

[Lindeggs]

I use a 'deep litter system' which means the litter in the coop is rarely cleaned out - it just gets deeper and deeper over time.  It needs to be kept well aerated so I throw some grain on top and the chickens do the hard work of turning the litter and fluffing it up.

Hi Lindeggs,

Could you please explain a little more, or point me to somewhere that I can learn more about deep litter systems? I have disabilities which cause the cleaning of the hen house to become a day long chore and would love to know about an easier system like that which I don't need to clean as often. 

Thanks!

The simplest way of describing a deep litter system is a composting toilet for chickens!    The key is it needs to be kept dry - there is enough moisture in the chickens' droppings to get everything activated, and any more dampness than that will start to cause problems with ammonia - smells bad and bad for the chickens' health.  So generally it will only work inside the coop, not in an outdoor run.

The way I do it is I have the coop sitting directly on compacted soil, although you can also do it on a concrete base or even a wooden base if you're sure it's not going to get wet and rot through.  In my case the soil is covered in a layer of sand to guarantee good drainage, then a 10-15cm layer of dry litter. 

The chickens scratch through the litter, keeping it turned and aerated, and when it starts to break down you just throw a new layer of litter on top.

The hardest part is getting started but once the beneficial micro-organisms are well established it's a very forgiving system and you can keep adding to it indefinitely.

[myfanwe]

It sounds great, Lindeggs, thanks for explaining it to me. We've just had our lawns mowed here and there are loads of grass clippings (1 acre block) lying around. I will start it off with those. My chooks live in a covered coop, so it will keep nice and dry, and the floor is sand, so that should drain well. I'll give this method a go. I think it should work pretty well for us.

Thanks again!

[joyfull]

be careful with grass clippings - they ferment 

[Lindeggs]

Fresh grass clippings will be too wet and ferment into silage.  To use them in a deep litter system you would need to dry the clippings out first so they are more like hay.

Here's an article to get you started with deep litter.  Don't be put off by it sounding a bit complicated - I think the article is aimed at commercial operations, but the basics are the same in a back yard system.
 http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html

myfanwe it does sound like you have the ideal conditions for using deep litter, with your covered coop, a sand floor and 1 acre of potential inputs into the system.  In our summer I let one area of the lawn grow rampant and go to seed, then pulled the grass up by the roots and spread the clumps on a concrete pad to dry.  The grass has proved to be a very beneficial addition to the coop litter and the chickens spent a lot of time scratching through and finding all the seeds once I added it to their coop.

[GrannieAnnie]

The chickens may eat too much of the grass/hay though, which isn't good for them.

Our deep litter is shavings on a concrete floor, with bio dri and hemexsan mixed in, it keeps very dry and doesn't get eaten.

[myfanwe]

I have also got a half bale of mulching straw which I can mix in with the grass cuttings. I am on a pension and can't afford to buy in shavings etc. Is there anything else that people would suggest we use from around the house/yard. I've got a video on home composting that says waste/shredded paper is good in compost bins, but knowing my chooks they'd eat it, which I can't imagine would be any better for them than eating too much grass/hay? 

I've never heard that too much grass was bad for chickens, before. My dad used to spread the cuttings from the lawn down in his chicken coop every time he mowed and the chooks would have a marvellous time kicking it about.

Will await further advice, and thanks to all those who have replied, so far. Sorry to hijack this thread. Perhaps I should start a new one? 

[myfanwe]

I've been getting some very good advice in another thread about setting up a deep litter composting system in my chicken coop, and rather than continue to hijack someone else's thread with that discussion I thought I would start a new thread.

I hadn't heard about deep litter composting until I started using these forums and am very interested in it. It's a system where you use your chicken coop/cage to create compost.

About.com has the following explanation:

The deep litter method is one sustainable method of managing chicken litter in the chicken coop that many small farmers use. In the deep litter method, you're basically forming a compost pile of your chicken's poop right on the floor of the coop. Like a compost pile, you begin with a layer of pine shavings or other organic matter in the "browns" category. The high-nitrogen chicken poop is the "green."

You simply add enough shavings to keep the floor composting nicely, and the chickens do the aeration for you with their scratching behavior. Scattering corn on the coop floor encourages them. The litter has beneficial microbes - think of it as probiotics for your hens.

Once or twice a year or less, you clean the coop out. The resulting material can mostly be used directly as compost, though if you notice a few spots that are fresher than others, you might throw it into the compost bin for a while.
http://smallfarm.about.com/od/farmanimals/a/deeplitter.htm

My chicken coop is constructed of steel (an old tool shed converted) with the lower half of the walls made of steel and the upper half made of wood and mesh. It is covered with a steel roof and has a small, enclosed area with no windows at the back where the roosts and nesting boxes are placed. It's very draft-proof and weather proof and has a sandy floor which my girls love to dig dust baths in.

I live on a one acre block with a small orchard and lots of grass, so was planning to use grass cuttings and garden waste as the 'browns' for my deep litter.

GrannieAnnie says that the hens may eat too much of the grass/hay if I did this and that it is not good for them, yet I have read elsewhere on the forums, that a hen can have a diet of 75% grass.

I'd be grateful for anyone to chime in on this thread with your advice, experience etc with using deep litter. I am on a pension and can't afford to buy in shavings or straw very often, so the idea of being able to create deep litter from whatever I can glean from my land is attractive.

[joyfull]

When they free range they nip the tip of the grass off - if they eat long pieces they can end up with impacted crop. Cut grass quickly starts to ferment and go sour - turning it into sillage - great for cows but not good for chickens. If you dry it into hay this makes a good feed for horses, rabbits etc but hay isn't too good for chickens either so is usually not used as bedding.

[Lindeggs]

I just noticed you're in Australia!  Perfect!  I have found fallen leaves to be the best dry litter ever.  If you don't have your own deciduous trees, go around your neighbourhood and offer to take all your neighbours' leaves.

So far I am using plum leaves, oak leaves, and macadamia leaves (from when the tree threw a tantrum and dropped a heap of leaves in mid summer).  The mac leaves are quite leathery but the others are great.  I also have pine needles from cast-off Christmas trees.  

[myfanwe]

Ah ok, so that's where I was getting confused. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I've been tossing a handful of weeds and such that I had pulled from the garden into the coop for my girls which they have so far only been picking the seeds from, so I am assuming that is still okay to do?

Is there anything else I can use for deep litter that I don't need to buy in? I am trying to do this all in a manner that doesn't cost me a lot of money as I am on a very low income and getting chickens in the first place, was meant to save me money, not cost me more.  :blink:

[myfanwe]

Hi Lindeggs,

I created a new topic under the subject "Deep Litter Composting" and there have been a couple of replies there. I wonder if the mods could move the other posts in re to this subject into that thread, please? That would be fantastic.

I am loving this forum and the information and advice from everyone is terrific, please keep it coming. 

[Lindeggs]

Are you anywhere near a rural/agricultural area?  I don't know what kind of crops are farmed in your region but are there any by-products that you could get free or cheaply from a friendly farmer?  Do you have any home equipment like a mulching mower or a chipper that you could run coarse bits through?

[myfanwe]

Most of the crops grown around me are pineapples and macadamia nuts so not sure that any of their byproducts would make good chicken bedding. Pineapple offcuts would be prickly I think.

The man who mows our yard uses a ride on mower which cuts the grass into very short little clippings, nothing long or huge in there, and that was why I thought they would be suitable for our coop. There's also a deciduous tree in the yard that drops a lot of soft, brown leaves, but it also drops seed pods in spring. I don't know what type of tree it is and would worry about the chooks eating the seeds until I am sure it won't harm them. I need to look it up, I guess. I think it might be a money/honesty tree, though. The leaves would make perfect bedding as they're soft and crumbly and there's a lot of them out there right now.