Deep Litter Bedding System for Chickens - Your Best Bet for Manure Management

[Benable7]

Great info, thank you for doing this!

[Sonny9257]

Hey Dan, there seems to be some confusion about what manure does in the garden. While there may be a few nutrients that plants can absorb, mostly what Manure does for a garden is to feed the Worms, and it's their Casings that Plants can actually feed on. If you want a Knock out garden, once you add the compost & manure, throw in a dozen new Night-crawlers too, then 2-3 inches of Mulch to keep the Wild birds from eating the worms. You'll Soon have More Food & Worms than you know what to do with.

[MillyVanillification]

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

[TheBigpunn421]

great idea

[LadyGardenHoe]

I can't wait to do this! Thanks for this video.

[banjodan99]

@LadyGardenHoe It worked good, but I abandoned it because it was a lot easier to just let the birds free range, and I didn't need the compost for anything. I have all the cow manure I could ever want, lol.

[LadyGardenHoe]

@banjodan99 All the cow manure you could ever want. Sounds like you're in paradise then.

[soullierefamily]

Thanks for the info! This is great! BTW the quote about smelling the farm...its from Joel Salatins book You Can Farm I believe!

[banjodan99]

@soullierefamily Thanks! I've been meaning to get some of Joel's books. I decided to get into this kind of farming after reading "The Omnivore's Dilema" by Michael Pollan, which had a long section in it about Joel's farm.

[Stormclouds777]

I have been composting my chicken manure, because I was afraid to put it on the garden by itsself. Ive read its too nitrogen ritch to use by itsself. Have you ever tried to use it by itsself?

[banjodan99]

I'm far from being an expert gardener, but large amounts of chicken manure can give you too much nitrogen and burn your roots. A little wouldn't hurt, but composting the manure is probably better than using it directly.

[rizzy1977]

Beautiful . This is the only deep litter video on the net!!

[frank2796]

Great video. Thanks.

[miked32]

Thank you very good info.

[SPCkeith]

where do you get the corn stuff at for the litter and is there anything else you could use?

[banjodan99]

You could use anything that you would make compost out of. Hay or straw would work. You could get the corn silage from pretty much any dairy farm.

[SPCkeith]

ok thanks, not many dairy farms in TN lol but i can probably buy hay. who would you contact for hay? could you go to the co-op and buy it or what??? thanks again for any help.

[banjodan99]

I guess you'd just have to find a farmer that cuts hay. A good place to start would be to stop at a farm supply store like Agway or Tractor Supply and ask around about farmers in the area that you could buy from. (Don't buy hay from the store though, its a lot more expensive than buying directly from a farmer). If you use hay for the bedding/litter, its good to mix it with other stuff like wood chips, vegetable scraps, or whatever else because hay alone tends to pack down hard get nasty.

[SPCkeith]

ok thanks if you don't mind the questions what is the going rate for a bale of hay? its been a long time since i have been in this kind of stuff so im sure $2.50 a bale will get me laughed at very hard.

[banjodan99]

I don't mind questions at all, glad I can help. The price of hay definitely went up a lot in the last couple of years, but it varies quite a bit by region too. Its always cheaper in Upstate NY, for example, than it is here in CT. Around here, $5 a bale is pretty common for decent feed hay for cows or horses. But for chicken bedding, you could get some ugly hay a lot cheaper, if its a little moldy or full of weeds or something.

[ThanksgivingWalk]

Well done, very informative video. Thanks for posting it on line.

Life is so much easier when we can learn from each other's successes and "lessons learned."

[Michigansnowpony]

I just found your channel and we're trying the same thing in our chicken yard this year! (Made some videos myself on it) We came across an article in Hobby Farms and decided to go for it. We're not doing it in a chicken tractor though, but our whole yard. I'm always on the lookout for mulch hay (beyond our own). Now, are you putting that compost from the chickens right on your garden beds or composting it down further in a regular bin beforehand? Thanks, R.

[banjodan99]

To tell the truth, I haven't done much with the compost. I grow my garden inside a pen that has cows in it all winter, so if anything I have too much organic matter in it already (didn't use enough lime this year, and my peppers and tomatoes are suffering). I've pretty much abandoned the deep litter chicken coop in favor of plain old free-ranging, with the birds getting closed up in their coops when they roost for the night. I haven't seen a bug in weeks!

[Michigansnowpony]

(Cool -- you're on the computer at the moment!) We have a group of six older hens who free-range, but they are so destructive and pooping everywhere that my husband wanted to pen up our young, up-coming flock. I prefer free-range for the bug and weed benefits, so we thought the deep mulch method was a good compromise. But I'm thinking what we scrape up out of the yard may still need further breaking down before applying it to the garden beds. We'll see. Love your Highlands BTW!

[ELROY4444]

Nice demo. About how often do you add litter for 3-4 chickens? And do you remove the fully composted material? If so, how often? thanks, i'm a total city girl, just learning...

[banjodan99]

I throw more litter in whenever it starts to look like its breaking down, and you definitely want to add more if you can see or smell a lot of manure. You can take out the composted stuff whenever you want.

[melroyc]

nice presentation

[nags2bitches]

What do you use for bedding ? I use Hemcore which is a brand name for chopped hemp stalks, looks similar to what you use and rots down beautifully as well as being a bit antiseptic and deoderising.

Top tip for new chicken keepers, in the wild they eat about 85% greens; that's mostly grass but other leafy stuff too, so a handfull of grass clippings when you mow or the weeds when you dig will keep them happy as well as left-over greens from your own table.

[Sabei0990]

It seems like it would be harder for me then the latter way, city person.

[csbarrett14]

smart thing for your chickens.shows you care for their health, and do you throw them any grass, or do they get it in the chic. trac?

[banjodan99]

Thanks. They don't get any grass now, but when the grass gets tall enough to put my cows out on pasture, the chickens will go with them. I do throw them some loose hay from the barn, which adds to the diversity of their litter, and I think they are eating grass seed out of it, but I'm not sure. They definitely seem happy, and my newest hen that I put in the tractor has gotten quite a bit bigger even though she was already mature, so I would say that this is a good way to raise them.

[kellyellykiki]

thank you so very much this has been the best description and look at deep litter i have been able to find. Im just new to the whole chicken keeping thing so fantastic for a first timer.

[banjodan99]

Thanks, glad I could help.  Chickens are easy to keep. The most important thing about deep litter is to have enough litter in the pen or tractor. Leaves, grass clippings, hay, pretty much anything works. Diversity is good, too.

[csbarrett14]

they really are easy to keep! Hope the chicken project goes well.

[CMLovejoy]

It probably also cushions their little feet.

[HLCpromow]

If you have an odor problem add a lil quick lime. A small (few handfuls) amount will dry the manure and rid you of any smell.

[meeputube]

It also generates some heat for the chickens.