Great Advantages Of Having A Deep Litter Chicken Coop

So what is the deep litter chicken coop, otherwise called the chicken coop deep litter method?

Well…

I am going to tell you.

And just how good it is for your chickens and also for your garden.

The Deep Litter Chicken Coop In Your Back Garden

Let’s talk about how to decrease the amount of time you spend mucking out your chicken coop.

While simultaneously increasing the health and well-being of your flock.

There is in fact a philosophy of keeping chickens called the deep litter method.

This is by no means a new concept…

This is probably a pretty standard procedure back in the day, but now with the increased popularity of backyard chickens.

Some of these old just gotten or even lost ideas of what really is the deep litter method.

It is basically creating composting the bottom of your chicken coop.

How The Deep Litter Method Works

Here’s how it works…

Traditionally, you would have gone once a month to muck out everything in your chicken coop and put it on your compost if you have one.

Not all of us do that though…

If you do not have compost, it is a good idea to start one now you have backyard chickens.

Yes…

Now is a good time to start if you decide to go ahead with a deep litter chicken coop.

Stir the compost a few times after about 6 months.

And when it breaks down enough, you can put it in your garden, and it will thank you for it.

Deep Littering For Chickens, What You Need To Do

This method eliminates all of that having to muck out your chicken coop once a month.
Go in and scrape down the perches and any of the areas where your chickens have pooped.

Then, take a fresh armload of bedding material, and sprinkle it all around onto the chicken coop floor.

You must stir it as you need to break up all of that waste in there.

The birds will roost in the same place every night.

And you can collect their droppings from right under their perches.

If you leave those patties of chicken droppings down there.

That’s when you start getting that ammonia and that really foul smell happening.

If it does not rise and gas out your chickens first, that is…

Sending to the exit at great speed.

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You want to break all of that up and introduce the new brown chips into it.

And eventually, when the bedding gets to a certain thickness, it will start to break down.

Now you have got a whole host of beneficial insects and micro bios chad that’s in there.

Creating and breaking down that bedding material every couple of weeks of your deep litter chicken coop.

Then go in the chicken coop, scrape down the perches put a layer of fresh bedding in there and take a little handful of chicken scratch which the birds love.

When you toss bird food in the bottom of the chicken coop floor.
Your chickens will start digging around for the food that has fallen through the bedding.

And they do all of that raking for you.

Now if your birds aren’t that industrious.

Which I doubt that very much when it comes to food.

Just take a rake and just knock up any piles that you see and aerate it by turning over the bottom bedding yourself.

The bedding should be about a foot deep, and you only have to add new brown material maybe once a month.

Then you can put this into your garden beds or into your compost.
Clear all the poop from the window sill if you have a window in your chicken coop, that is…

Take all the nesting material out of the nesting boxes and just shed it on the floor as well, so that is just part of your new layer.

Refresh the nesting boxes by putting some herbs from the garden in there.

Now interestingly enough herbs especially the really fragrant ones are natural a pest repellent.

That’s right!

So they work beautifully in this method, and they’ll just break down and become part of that compost.

If you use diatomaceous earth in your coop and in the nesting boxes, this will also help fight disease.

Any sort of little pestilence diatomaceous earth does not work with this system.

Because it’s too effective of a microbial killer, and it actually will impede the process of the organisms.

That, you do want in your coop, the good microorganisms that are in their breaking down and fighting the bad ones.

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You can put whatever is from your wood-burning fireplace if you have one, just make sure it’s all cool and broken down.

Just use that wood ash to treat your birds.

And you can also put it in their nesting boxes as well.
Just not too much.

Put more underneath the straw than on top, this will also help have a go at the microbes that are harbouring at the bottom of their nesting boxes…

And in the springtime, you can take out this beautiful composted material and can put it straight into your garden.

As much of the composting has been done for you in the chicken pen itself.

It has been able to age, the airing is done by your feathered friends.

As they will scratch around their coop floor for any goodies they can find.

Now, spring is a superb time to do a clean, so you are ready to do a really thorough cleaning and remove all the bedding.

Casteel is a completely non-toxic soap and some:

• spearmint oil
• peppermint oil
• thyme oil

Any of those that are really good at fighting organisms and have micro bacterial properties.

You can spray down the entire coop.

Remember to do all of the corners of your chicken coop.

Don’t forget all the perches and the crevices, and take the pressure washer or a good nozzle on your hose for this inside your coop and really just get it really clean.

Let it dry out for a couple of days and then add more bedding back in.

Now, in the course of the summer, you do not really want to have deep bedding in your henhouse, as that will create heat if you have a deep litter chicken coop.

You need your chicken coop to cool in the summertime.

So I would put very little bedding material down in those hotter months.

Just do not add big thick layers on the chicken coop floor like you would in the wintertime.

So, a deep litter chicken coop.

I don’t know if you have heard of it before, but done right, you are going to do most of your composting right in your chicken coop with your chicken’s help.