Yet another chicken question ...

[MsWildFlower]

Our chicken coop has a wooden floor. The way the coop is constructed it is very hard to clean (only about 3 feet tall and flap is probably less than 1 foot tall) ... so I often put it off

Today when I tackled it there was a strong smell of ammonia. I'm so ashamed... Anyway I was reading something today about 'deep litter' which means you only have to clean the coop out once a year. Could you please tell me more about it or point me somewhere to find out more info. I would imagine that my coop would be too small to do it with as I'm imagining that you add to the litter instead of taking it away and putting down fresh stuff. Is that right?

We had been using hay as the flooring but I now have access to wood shavings which I am told is better as it doesn't provide mites with a home.

So after all that, can you tell me how I should be looking after the girls floor please!

[Thomzo]

Basically the more litter you put down, the less often you have to clean it out as the litter absorbs the moisture which causes the smell.

If you use wood shavings, make sure they have had the dust extracted. Breathing in dust can cause lung damage in chickens. I get wood shavings from a furniture maker friend. I put a stocking over the end of the vacuum cleaner hose and then shove it into the bag of shavings. The dust is drawn into the vacuum but the shavings can't get through the stocking.

Make sure you don't use cedar. It's poisonous to chooks (I think).

Zoe

[mauzi]

Hi, I haven't used deep litter with chickens but have with horses and other livestock. I did some of my equestrian training in Germany and they used a deep litter system their. It was very effective but in a larger space of course. In that system you removed any obvious droppings/wet areas and then added new litter. The stables were cleaned out twice per year.

[MsWildFlower]

Woohoo!

I've manged to get 100kg of wood shavings for $45 NZ dollars which would be about 20 'punds' (My parents are Geordies). So I am going to do a mini-deep litter trial in their house and see if I can prevent the ammonia smell ... until I can build a new house for them that is.
I have 2 four week old chicks that I need to build a chook tractor for first

Thanks for the suggestion about vacuuming the shavings to get rid of dust.

The things that get me smiley nowadays, honestly I've become a weirdo, except for on this site that is

[mauzi]

weird is good

[maggienetball]

I don't know if it is possible for you, but If you put a shelf under the perch you only need to clean the shelf. Then you can clean out the main floor much less frequently because it won't get soiled so often.

[maggienetball]

Also, if you are prone to red mite attacks, leaving wood shavings in situ for a long time doesn't seem a good way of preventing infestation. I only mention this because red mites drove my girls insane a couple of years ago and consequently drove me round the twist to. I was forever burning bedding. You may never have this problem though.

[marshlander]

I clean mine every 3 or 4 days - Always on the lookout for any possible problems and I don't want to have to wash my eggs and wash the bloom off at the same time. I find an old dustpan makes a nifty cleaning tool.
Is there any way you could raise the coop to save your back?

[godfreyrob]

Got to agree with the droppings board below the perches - these catch just about all the droppings.
I made mine like trays (out of wood) that slide in/out about 4 inches below the perches.

If you put a couple of layers of newspaper on them, liquids get absorbed and its easy to roll up the newspaper and put the whole bundle on the compost heap. I do this every 2/3 days.

Saves a lot of work and my straw bedding on the floor stays dry a lot longer.

[red]

yeh we have a board, and i put newspaper on top.. but the chickens moved it all about!
the board is good as we cn walk it round to the compost heap and clean it straight in.

[guyandzoe]

I have used deep litter both on a commercial scale under thousands of chooks and now, under 50.

Hay is no good at all because it is not absorbent and it is rather nutritious (which is the whole point of it) and grows moulds and bad things too easily. The ammonia is produced by the anaerobic breakdown of wet bedding and raw dung.

Straw is little better in a deep litter system unless you add to it daily which is not the point of 'deep litter' as we understand it nowadays but it does have its uses - as in the Balfour system: Google it!

For a deep litter system use wood shavings. Put down at least 6 inches of it. The chooks will move it about sufficiently to aerate it and it will have time to dry.

Now in a small chook house this may not work because they are pooing all night - but you have a dropping board to catch that, and they may not rootle about so much in their sleeping quarters.

The system relies on the chooks moving the litter and on it remaining dry. So always remove heavily soiled or very wet litter (say under a leaking drinker) which is obviously not drying.

We have some small problems during our winters when the litter may not fully be dry and we have to manually turn it now and again to encourage the chickens to scratch around some more. We clear it out when the depth becomes a nuisance - ie when you can no longer close the door or there's no room under the ceiling!!!!!! This comes to about once per year.

[oldfella]

Whats a chook tractor ?

[Annpan]

Whats a chook tractor ?

I think we ought to put an explanation up on the 'ish' homepage to explain this... I had to search the web extensively when I was confused about it...

It is basically a movable chicken run without a bottom, you move it onto a piece of land than you want pecked over - beasties removed, grass eaten, weeds eaten and ground pooped on, they are sometimes attached to coops, sometimes free standing.

You can buy commercial versions of them (some with wheels on), but they seem pretty simple to make yourself. They seem the most popular in countries with no foxes... for obvious reasons.




To add - I don't have any chickens ...yet, but am preparing for their eventual arrival

[Thomzo]

I made a really easy chook tractor by taking an old desk from work. I took the top off (or rather someone else did that for me) leaving just the legs and the frame. Then I wrapped the whole thing with chicken wire. I left a "skirt" of about six inches that flaps onto the ground to give a little bit of fox protection. I would post a pic but it's dark outside so can't take one.

The tractor is quite small so i move it around a lot during the day and it's not fox proof so only use it when I'm around.

Zoe

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Bit late with this, but I've started using chopped linseed (the "straw" from the plants, not the seeds themselves) and so far I'm really pleased with the results. It is very absorbant, red mite don't seem to like it much and it doesn't steal nitrogen nearly so much (I am told) as wood shavings, so the resulting manure is richer.

I got a 40kg bale for €28 from an equistrian supplier and based on what I've used so far it should last me about a year: it goes a long way.