A couple of months ago when I
ran my comparison
of chicken tractors, chicken pastures, and deep bedding systems, I felt like the last was
the least. Since then, I’ve changed my tune.
To recap, deep bedding
consists of raising livestock on thick layers of dry bedding, like
straw, autumn leaves, or whatever you have on hand. The manure
from the livestock mixes in with the bedding and starts to compost,
heating up the coop. Meanwhile, you keep adding fresh bedding on
top, so the animals are never walking through their own waste.
Although I still don’t
think raising chickens on deep bedding without access to pasture is a
good idea, after a month in which snow kept our flock’s pasture nearly
completely covered at all times, I’ve discovered that our hens
thoroughly enjoy deep bedding in winter. In fact, on cold, wet
days, they may not set foot outside the coop once, especially if they
can trick me into feeding them inside.
Meanwhile, the biomass-loving
side of me gets pure joy from scuffing my feet through the deep bedding
on the floor of the coop. The top three or four inches are fresh
leaves, but below that is a dense pack of compost that will clearly be
a boon to my garden in the spring. At first, I thought it was a
waste of good organic matter to use up two bags of leaves per month in
the chicken coop, but clearly I’m getting a value-added product out of
it. I suspect I’m also capturing more manure than I have in years
past, which will mean less storebought compost for the garden.
Clearly, deep bedding is a good tool to have in your shed, especially
in the winter.
Deep bedding
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About The Author
Anna & Mark
Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton are a pair of back-to-the-landers who have been homesteading for over a decade.
I know you guys are aware of Robert Plamondon but I thought I’d post a link to his deep litter page. It’s got some really interesting poop (pun intended) from some 1940’s Ohio Extension Service bulletins. The long and the short of it is that you need to keep the litter fluffed & preferably limed, turning the poop under every day or so. They found that mortality dropped immensely when chicks were reared on this used litter and that even on poor quality feed they gained weight *better* than chicks eating high quality feed on litter changed fortnightly.
http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html
I’m using wood ash (free & not so caustic) in place of hydrated lime and leaving about 4″ of bark / soil on the floor when I steal litter for the compost piles. When I clean out the coop it’s amazing how little poo is still visible below the surface.
Thank you so much for that link!!! I am very aware of him (and am even reading his book right now), but for some reason didn’t think to look for deep litter on his site. (Maybe because I assumed he was all about chicks?) Anyway, I’ll be reading that closely and then changing our ways. I really appreciate the data.