It's that time of year again, when the deep litter gets the deepest as garden waste is deposited into the coop and then the fall leaves arrive. Every year I thank God for having found out about composting deep litter~not just deep bedding~and the benefits to my coop and my life with chickens.
No smells, no fecal matter with which to contend and pile up for composting before use on the garden, no flies...haven't seen a fly in my coop for 4 yrs now. Clean feet, which leads to cleaner nests and eggs, and something for the chickens to do when the snow is deep, not to mention a place in which they can dust all winter long.
First leaves of the season....
Before that, I piled 15 full cart loads of weeds, grasses, and garden waste in the coop and spare pen, where it will compost quietly all winter long under a thick layer of leaves. Come spring it will be returned to the garden as rich, dark, and lovely compost.
This time I was careful to NOT include my tomato canning scraps in the litter compost....did that last year and had literally hundreds of volunteer tomatoes in the BTE garden!
I've got two sets of people in town who will save me their leaves...and I mean TONS of leaves...this fall. One of those persons mulches their leaves, so that comes in handy for putting into the garden and around fruit trees. The other leaves their leaves whole and those are great for the coop. Both of those households received eggs this summer.
Love how these chickens work for me as much as I work for them and this deep litter is just one way they do this.