Posted by debbie coleman on September 11, 2011 at 4:01am
hope I pick the right group.i am a first time chicken owner.We have not gotten our chicks yet.We bought a premade coop. It will hold about 7 chickens.The coop is a kind of a barn looking coop. with a cage that is attched to the house. .Which we plan to move every couple of days to keep the groud fresh. In the mean time we would like to build a statoinary coop for the. It will be covered.What I want to know is what you think of the deep litter system. I hope i aid it right. If i read the info that I did find it says to make layers of dirt and sawdust.Please advise as I realy dont know what I am talking about but it sounded like a good Idea. The coop and its run will be about 10x12 or should we make the run longer .WQe have the room
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I am not familiar with the system of mixing dirt and sawdust, the chickens will do that themselves if there is dirt under the sawdust. I've kept chickens for 12 years and use untreated sawdust in my run. A deep layer, 10cm or more, should last a year depending on the number of birds. The advantage of this system is that it dries the bird droppings, the birds scratch around and break the sawdust down which is a fantastic addition to the compost pile.
In my opinion, the more room your birds have, the happier they will be and the less fuss and noise they'll make. No matter where you move them, they will make the ground bare quite quickly and I'd tend to leave them in one spot over summer, making less work for yourself and allowing the birds time to make a really nice dust bath for themselves.
Replies
I am not familiar with the system of mixing dirt and sawdust, the chickens will do that themselves if there is dirt under the sawdust. I've kept chickens for 12 years and use untreated sawdust in my run. A deep layer, 10cm or more, should last a year depending on the number of birds. The advantage of this system is that it dries the bird droppings, the birds scratch around and break the sawdust down which is a fantastic addition to the compost pile.
In my opinion, the more room your birds have, the happier they will be and the less fuss and noise they'll make. No matter where you move them, they will make the ground bare quite quickly and I'd tend to leave them in one spot over summer, making less work for yourself and allowing the birds time to make a really nice dust bath for themselves.