Backyard Chickens: the deep litter method
Corinna Borden | Contributor
Wait. Not cleaning out the litter from the coop on a weekly basis, me being lazy, is good for the girls? This seemed to good to be true! The section continues.
Corinna Borden | Contributor
Wow. What a huge gift. It is healthier for the girls to live around microorganisms in their litter. And yet, summertime is for cleaning.
The Augean stables it was not, but there was about 10 inches of accumulated litter to be transferred onto the compost pile. Last August, we put pine chips 2 inches deep. Over the course of the year we added handfuls of pine chips and cedar chips. The cedar chips smell nice; yet we found cedar stains the outside of the egg, so it is better to avoid cedar where the girls are laying.
I don’t know if they care one way or another, but I love the fresh yellow and the smell of the new sawdust - should last about another week.
Corinna volunteers with the Westside Farmers Market and wrote a book about many things.
Comments
Julie
Tue, Jul 6, 2010 : 5:07 p.m.
I became fed up with work, took an early retirement, and sat back to watch the hens. I began my flock with hand-me-down hens from my sister. I knew nothing about raising them, just began gathering info, going to classes through 4-H and the county extension. I am pleased to see you gained knowledge through a book from 1969; my resource book was my grandparents', printed in 1909.
Jennifer Shikes Haines
Mon, Jul 5, 2010 : 6:40 p.m.
I've loved the chicken articles - I'm not in a chicken-friendly township, but it's making me less daunted about raising them some day. Your enthusiasm for your "girls" has been wonderful!