Deep litter method

I'm surprised that this topic wasn't discussed already!
The deep litter method can be practiced with any livestock. It's especially useful for quail, because they can't free roam like chickens, so they have to be kept in aviaries or cages. Joel Salatin discusses this method in his book "You can farm", listing its main benefits:

keeps soil nutrients stable and in place

provides good sanitary conditions

creates warm bedding (decomposing layers produce warmth)

encourages bugs for birds to eat

The idea is to create a thick layer of bedding (straw, hay, wood chips, soil, sand, etc) and then keep adding fresh layers on top, while the bottom layers decompose. Like compost, it can't be too wet or too dry. Quails like to burrow in it but they're unable to dig much, so they need some help with stirring it every now and then.
Then a coop (or aviary, barn etc) can be emptied in the spring and the perfect compost/mulch is ready!
Pictured here are two of my hens enjoying their siesta after kicking up some bugs.

My chickens have deep litter wood chips in their coop. When confined there they will actively scratch and turn it which keeps the top surface fresh and clear of poop. I add a few barrows of new chips every other month or so. When they have access to their larger run, or free range in the garden, they spend much less time working the litter in their coop and it can develop a bit of a crust of poop - especially under the roost bars. About once per week I go in with a fork and turn any crusty bits.

All this to say that I really like the deep litter - it's a much better solution for me than hard standing which would need to be human cleaned much more regularly. BUT it's not as low effort as some people advocating it indicate and you do need to pay attention to how much they are turning the top surface. In the context of quail and pigeon in this thread I imagine that the surface disturbance is less simply because they aren't as heavy, so the human management will need to be more attentive.

I am a big fan of the deep litter method for those times when animals need to be kept in one place. I have seen it work very well.

I can give an example where it did not work so well for me though. I had a 20x30 hoop house that I put my 30 chickens into for the winter. I thought I would do the deep litter method for a few months. I would alternate between straw and wood shavings. One issue was that it was on a slight slope. So by the time the chickens got done scratching around, it would all end up at the bottom end of the greenhouse... and the top end was bare dirt. I would rake it to the top... or add the new mulch only on the top end. Between those chickens and gravity... it would keep ending up downhill. It also seemed to be breaking down fairly quickly. By the end of the winter, I only had maybe 4 inches of "mulch" on the bottom end, as it was breaking down more quickly than I expected.

In the end, the chickens had a nice warm place for the winter, and the next spring I had some crazy tomatoes growing in there, but I doubt I will try it on a slope again :)

While quail aren't quite the scratchers that chickens are... I would still advise people to try to find flat ground when doing this method... or you will be doing extra work spreading it out again

Matt McSpadden wrote:One issue was that it was on a slight slope. So by the time the chickens got done scratching around, it would all end up at the bottom end of the greenhouse... and the top end was bare dirt.

Great as a continuous system for compost creation (maybe with retaining walls...?), not so good for deep litter. I can imagine the frustration!

Nice one!

After 3 years having Chickens we cut the amount from 300 all way down to 30 birds and give our 2400 sqm (25,900 sqft)  paddocks a complete makeover and implement all lessons learned.

Especially our Barred Plymouth Rocks are egg eater so some roll out boxes need to be made.

We want make most things needed by ourself and this idea is based on words, an old farmer tought me als school kids were still allowed working 12 hrs in their holidays.

Boys, you see all the bits and pieces behind the shed?
These make a successful farmer like I am.
These bits and pieces were worth a try but ended as failed projects.

so here we go.
The first Project will be a safe coop and with fenced outside feeding terrace.
Yellow lights keep Mossies at bay (Lemon Balm and Lemon Grass failed..
Locked against theft (we lost about 20 over the time)

...and to follow the topic, a chicken pit (they call it here in Thailand)
I believe that this coop under shading trees with deep litter bed shoots two brids with one bullet.  Compost for the food forest and even more happy chickens in a more comfortable accomodation.

Nancy Reading wrote:

Matt McSpadden wrote:One issue was that it was on a slight slope. So by the time the chickens got done scratching around, it would all end up at the bottom end of the greenhouse... and the top end was bare dirt.

Great as a continuous system for compost creation (maybe with retaining walls...?), not so good for deep litter. I can imagine the frustration!

Hah! I hadn't thought about that. If you make it longer, and add some manure, keep things in piles... you've pretty much got a chicken tractor on steroids system that I heard about from Geoff Lawton.

I use deep litter in my coop as well.  It gets cleaned out once a year or so.  My experience is a little different than some people have suggested.  A properly designed coop will be bone dry all the time, so no real composting happens.  The litter/poop/missed food breaks down into really small fine stuff, but doesn't compost at all in my coop.  The way I deal with that is to remove all the bedding once a year straight into the (very large) run.  The chickens love piles, so they work through it all again and the rain and time actually do it turn into really excellent compost.  It still creates a crust like Michael mentioned so I use a garden fork and break it up now and then.  Each turn releases a bonanza of worms and gets the chickens working through it all yet again, and makes it nice and loose.  Then I go in with a wheel barrow and sift the loosened material.  From there it goes straight to the garden.  It took me a couple years to get to the point where it was really producing a decent amount of soil, but it's paying off now in a big way.  One additional lesson I learned is that you really need to continually add as much organic material to the run as possible if you want to get a lot of compost.  I try to add lots of grass clippings and weeds all summer and it really makes a difference.  The chickens can't make compost from nothing.  The more you add, the better.

I remember a design that used a slope to move compost > nutrients > soil downhill, I think it was Geoff Lawton's idea in the Greening The Desert project...? Or somewhere else... They placed a compost pile on top, chickens moved it downwards while scratching, and there were rabbits too... that wouldn't work with quails as they're not strong enough to move the soil that much, but with some help from gravity that could work.

Matt McSpadden wrote: One issue was that it was on a slight slope. So by the time the chickens got done scratching around, it would all end up at the bottom end of the greenhouse... and the top end was bare dirt. I would rake it to the top... or add the new mulch only on the top end. Between those chickens and gravity... it would keep ending up downhill. It also seemed to be breaking down fairly quickly. By the end of the winter, I only had maybe 4 inches of "mulch" on the bottom end, as it was breaking down more quickly than I expected.

In the end, the chickens had a nice warm place for the winter, and the next spring I had some crazy tomatoes growing in there, but I doubt I will try it on a slope again :)

While quail aren't quite the scratchers that chickens are... I would still advise people to try to find flat ground when doing this method... or you will be doing extra work spreading it out again

I built a fully enclosed coop/run. It is 24' wide and 36' deep. 12'x24' has a roof and walled on 3 sides. There is a slight slope along the 36' deep length. It falls 28" over the 36' so roughly 3/4" of fall per 12".

The area under roof has less issues since it stay pretty dry and the chickens mainly use it to dust bath. I have our 8 rabbit breeders suspended on wire in that area and so there is some scratching and digging but not as much as the area not under roof. The material does move down the slope but it moves rather slowly.

Since the lower 12' x 24' was a later addition, I had a 2x6 along the bottom of the original 24'x24'. The 2x6 is not setting on the ground, the top of the 2x6 is 10" above the ground. I added another 2x6 12' down the 36' run. So the 36' side, that is sloped, has a 2x6 every 12' breaking it into 3 sections. I put the wood chips, grass clippings, etc at the very top only. The chickens work it down and it collects to a depth of 11"-12" at the 2x6. I rake the top couple of inches over the 2x6 and harvest what is left to add to the garden.

I used to screen it all with a 1/2" screen but now I only do that when I am making potting soil. I found that after I rake the top few inches, what is underneath is not too hot for garden application.

My experience would be that I agree with Matt and if I had a flat spot, that was not low enough to hold water, that would have been an ideal spot for my run/coop. But, adding the 2x6's and using the deeper part that collects there has been very manageable and I think most anyone could make it work. If you have a steeper area, I could foresee some issues with the material moving along too rapidly. Adding things to slow it down, in closer intervals may be the solution.

Here are a few pictures. This is the transition from the original 24'x24' area to the new 12'x24' area. The slope runs from the top of the picture to the bottom.

Matt McSpadden wrote:...One issue was that it was on a slight slope....

Josh Hoffman wrote:...But, adding the 2x6's and using the deeper part that collects there has been very manageable and I think most anyone could make it work. If you have a steep area, I could foresee some issues with the material moving along too rapidly. Adding things to slow it down, in closer intervals may be the solution...

The part of my run that I get the most compost from is the 20 or so feet nearest the coop.  That area is pretty flat.  The rest of the run, 30 or 40 feet, is a pretty steep decline.  I put a couple logs across the run to catch some of the stuff the birds knock downhill.  I just brought in some trees that I had down on my land.  I left a couple branches on one side to keep the logs from rolling downhill.  They do a pretty good job of gathering compost on the uphill side.  I figure sooner or later the logs will rot and they will become mini terraces across the run.  Eventually maybe the whole thing will be stepped rather than sloped, but I'll have to add more logs for that to happen.  Right now it's just a couple random logs, I need to add more somewhat on contour for that ever to happen.  For now, the couple logs I have are serving a purpose.  The chickens also like to dig holes on the downhill side of the logs to dust bathe.  Maybe they feel more sheltered doing it next to the logs?  Who knows what chickens think.

I utilize the deep litter method both in my chicken's coop and in their run. I have my chickens living primarily in an enclosed space but they get supervised time out in paddocks for grazing. The deep litter method creates a nice carbon sink for their droppings and leftover foodstuffs. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen and I do not want unpleasant odors to persist.

I primarily utilize pine shavings in their coop for their softness and exposed surface area. In their run, I dump in arborist wood chips if I have it on hand. The larger pieces take longer to break down and persist longer. Where I might clean out my chicken coop every year, I have not dug out my run in about three years. I have observed that through their scratching, they smaller lighter stuff gets tossed through the run's fencing to the outside perimeter. I will rake this material up and deposit in places that I intend to grow plants. It is awfully convenient that my hens have thrown the stuff through a quarter inch sieve for me to pick up!

Trace Oswald wrote:A properly designed coop will be bone dry all the time, so no real composting happens.

Timothy Norton wrote:I primarily utilize Pine Shavings in their coop for their softness and exposed surface area. In their run, I dump in arborist wood chips if I have it on hand.

This is probably regional and dependent upon if you free range or not.

Since it stays very hot here (chill hours are around 450 a year or so) the coop/run is open at the top and on the south side. Since it is on a slight slope, we get some ground water intrusion on the north and east walled side (during torrents) and coming in when the wind blows sideways while raining.  

The chickens roost in the rafters and some other lower spots. This allows us to use the same deep litter of wood chips/grass clippings/leaves, etc. for the entire coop/run. We could not do this if we experienced colder temps.

Josh Hoffman wrote:...
Since it stays very hot here (chill hours are around 450 a year or so) the coop/run is open at the top and on the south side. Since it is on a slight slope, we get some ground water intrusion on the north and east walled side (during torrents) and coming in when the wind blows sideways while raining.  

The chickens roost in the rafters and some other lower spots. This allows us to use the same deep litter of wood chips/grass clippings/leaves, etc. for the entire coop/run. We could not do this if we experienced colder temps.

Josh, I love your setup.  Excellent job.  I agree completely of course.  You are in a far different climate than the one I'm dealing with.  We get -20 every year, -30 sometimes, and I've seen -40 two days in a row a few years ago.  My roost area has to be very tight with no drafts at all while still having a lot of ventilation.  Any moisture or drafts on the birds while roosting will cause bad frost bite here.  I love the amount of ventilation you are able to provide your birds.

Trace Oswald wrote:We get -20 every year, -30 sometimes, and I've seen -40 two days in a row a few years ago.  My roost area has to be very tight with no drafts at all while still having a lot of ventilation.  Any moisture or drafts on the birds while roosting will cause bad frost bite here.

WOW!

That brings in a whole different challenge I cannot even imagine. A lot of the other comments on the deep bedding are making more sense to me now that I understand that.

I have a childhood memory of this method being used in barns with horses, cows, pigs, when temperatures could get to -20, maybe even -30 degrees Celsius. Near the end of winter, a heavy draft horse was almost touching the roof of the barn, because the bedding was so thick. This method has been mostly abandoned especially with horses, because they're heavy and they pee, and the ammonia was causing thrush even with seemingly a lot of fresh straw on top of the decomposing layers.