Categories: Kitchens

Deep Litter Method for Backyard Chickens (With or Without a Coop)

Published by

James marcus

1 year ago

What is the deep litter method when it comes to raising backyard chickens? It’s a way to keep healthy, happy chickens in a stink-free coop (no ammonia smell) by piling up shavings into a deep bed on the floor. If you use this method, the deep bedding also creates garden-ready compost simultaneously.

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We’ve discussed raising backyard egg-laying chickens on the homestead and how to use chickens to restore the land. We’ve even covered everything you need to know when raising meat chickens.

You are watching: Deep Litter Method for Backyard Chickens (With or Without a Coop)

In this podcast, I’m interviewing Harvey Ussery of The Modern Homestead to discuss the deep litter bedding method for your backyard chickens.

Harvey and Ellen live on a three-acre homestead in Virginia. Over the years, they have experimented with new strategies to feed and raise their flocks naturally.

Their decades of experimentation have made them experts on the subject. Their passion is to use the land and homestead holistically to support a healthy, diverse and sustainable ecology.

I believe that being good stewards of our land with integrated systems is essential. This permaculture approach of homesteading is one of my passions, so this is why I love how Harvey approaches raising chickens.

If you’re not yet a member of School of Traditional Skills, Harvey has a brand new class all about raising backyard, egg-laying chickens that you’ll definitely want to check out (among all the other incredible resources from our large group of knowledgeable instructors).

What is the Deep Litter Method?

If you’ve never raised chickens, you may have never heard the term “deep litter.” Harvey says the deep litter method, also called deep bedding, creates a healthy, clean chicken coop while simultaneously creating garden-ready compost.

Implementing the deep litter method has many benefits:

It’s the best way to utilize your chicken’s manure. Harvey calls the process “manure disposal going on automatic.” It turns the maintenance of your chickens’ waste into an easy, fuss-free system.
The deep litter method is an essential system for keeping healthy chickens.
It provides a sanitary (stink-free) environment for chickens.
It provides great scratching for the chickens to find little critters to eat, otherwise known as microbes.
Because this method is stink-free, it will actually help your chickens to be healthier (as well as your mental health)!
And finally, you’ll never have to “muck out” the coop, because what you’ll be removing is rich compost.

Is the Deep Litter Method Good?

Yes! The deep litter method is very good, especially for keeping a healthy, thriving flock in your backyard or on your homestead. This method works for more than just chickens, too. Harvey says he doesn’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to use it. As the list above mentions, it’s your manure disposal process “going on automatic”.

That means, once set up, there’s less labor involved. It will mean a more sanitary environment making the henhouse pleasant for the chickens (and you) because it doesn’t stink.

You can also utilize the deep litter method outside the coop as well. Creating a nice deep bed for your chickens to scratch and peck will help keep your homestead a cleaner, more sanitary place to be.

How the Deep Litter Method Works

Deep litter works so well because as the materials in the bedding become more bioactive, they interact with trillions of decompositional organisms.

This produces metabolites such as B12 and Vitamin K, which are immune-enhancing compounds. These compounds then support the health of your chickens.

The cycle goes like this:

As the chickens poop, the beneficial microbes jump to feed on the poop.
The organisms then break down the chicken droppings, returning them to the earth. Because most chickens aren’t outside all the time, this allows their inside time to be just as beneficial.
Finally, the deep litter method produces the byproduct of compost. This is the decomposition process. And we all know the benefits of natural compost when used for fertilizer.

Does Deep Litter Method Smell?

When following the deep litter method correctly, your chicken coop shouldn’t stink. It may smell of earthy wood shavings and animals, but it should never be an offensive smell.

One of Harvey’s and my favorite thoughts on homesteading comes from the teachings of Joel Salatin. Joel says if there are bad smells on a farm, there isn’t an animal or a manure problem, there’s a mismanagement problem.

Some “farm smells” are ok to have, but the terrible stinks (those that smell like ammonia or rotten, moldy materials) are not. One of the goals of managing a hen house is to make it so it doesn’t stink. We’ll talk about how to achieve this with the deep litter method below.

Are There Times to Not Use the Deep Litter Method?

When I asked Harvey if there was ever a situation where the deep litter method wouldn’t work, he had a hard time coming up with any. But in the end, he did say if your coop has water issues (meaning too much water runoff getting into your coop without the ability to dry out), then this method may be detrimental as there would be the risk of mold.

You may need to work harder at keeping a healthy deep litter bed than if you just kept a shallow bed that you cleaned out regularly.

This also brings up why it’s so important to know where you’re putting your coop (and other structures). Water is the lifeblood of a farm, but can be hugely detrimental in the wrong places. You’d probably be better off solving the water issue first, then adapting the deep litter method.

How Do You Build Up a Deep Litter Coop?

So the next question I posed to Harvey is, how do you get started? What do you use for bedding, and what do you do first?

Design of Your Coop

You need to know where you are putting your coop to avoid water issues and a lack of proper drainage. I think addressing drainage issues before starting your coop is vital. Harvey says that preventive remediation for drainage is best.

Once you have a good location for your coop, the best way to use the deep litter method is over an earth floor. Though a concrete or wooden floor will also work for this method, your coop doesn’t need anything fancy for a floor, the dirt will do just fine.

If you’re worried about the deep litter eating away the wooden sidewalls of your coop, you can create an inexpensive barrier between the litter and your coop with sheet metal or fiberglass. This will keep the litter from contacting the actual wood structure.

What Materials Do You Need?

So what are the best materials for building up your deep litter? Harvey has a lot of tips, so let’s discuss both the characteristics of the materials as well as what materials work best:

Deep Litter Method Characteristics
- High Carbon – Because chicken poop contains a lot of nitrogen, you need materials that have a high carbon content in them to balance out.
- Loose and Absorbent – You want the materials loose and absorbent to keep the litter dry. This is so the chickens can efficiently work the manure into the bedding. The microbes that help with this method need oxygen. More oxygen can get in if the materials are loose and absorbent.
- Decomposable – If the materials decompose and break down well, then it all goes back into the basic elements of the earth.
Types of Deep Litter Materials To Use
- Kiln-Dried Wood Shavings – You can buy kiln-dried wood shavings at most co-ops.
- Wood Chips – You can use wood chips even though they are much coarser and have larger particles. Chips are usually made from clearing areas on the side of roads or lands, such as chopped limbs, and then put into a chipper. Just don’t use them when they are still green. Put them outside to dry first if you need to.
- Wood Shavings – Wood shavings can also be used. Shavings are different than wood chips as they are a byproduct of mills cutting tree trunks, turning them into boards, and then taking the shavings from there. Sometimes you can also find wood shavings from cabinet shops.
- Leaves – Leaves can work well as long as they’re completely dead and dry. If you rake up leaves that are too damp, you’ll introduce an environment for mold into your coop.
- Shredded Cardboard – Shredded cardboard can be a great option, especially if you have access to plain boxes.
- Refuse From Agricultural Products – These are things like corn stalks or buckwheat hulls.
- Straw – Straw can work well as long as you keep an eye on it to make sure it’s not getting compacted. Homesteading Hack: Be careful to avoid mold, called aspergillus, which is a growth that can cause severe respiratory distress in animals and humans. If your straw is compacted, add more straw and mix it in well. If you find it’s not decomposing well, you may need to remove it to continue composting in a conventional compost pile.

What Materials NOT to Use for Deep Bedding

There are some materials that aren’t recommended when it comes to the deep litter method:

Hay – Do not use hay because the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio generates too much ammonia. Ammonia is what you don’t want.
Cedar, Aromatic Woods and Black Walnut Shavings – Do not use these types of wood as they contain oils that are harmful to chickens.

How Thick of a Bed Do You Need?

I asked Harvey how thick each bedding layer should be once you have chosen your design and materials. He says that your structure will determine how deep you can go, as some structures may have depth restraints.

If you start entirely from scratch, the perfect depth to start is four to six inches, but even up to twelve inches works well. The depth allows the loose decomposable materials to absorb the chicken manure, have access to enough oxygen, and be able to be stirred up by the chickens in order to break down into compost.

How to Manage Your Deep Litter Bedding

Litter maintenance is essential for the method to fully and functionally do the desired job of creating compost (and being stink-free). To know how to maintain it, learn from your chickens and their bedding. They will teach you.

At some point, the deep litter will overtake your area. It will start to smell of ammonia. This smell means that there is excess nitrogen being produced. It also means your nitrogen is gassing off. You want it to stay in the ground instead. So add more high-carbon litter material.

Your nose will tell you when it’s time to add more bedding, but you also want to learn to get on top of the ammonia smell, so you can add new litter before you smell it. Make it your goal to add less material more often, meaning smaller and less frequent applications.

You want to avoid adding too much carbon material at once, so start by adding a couple of inches at a time. Remember that the season you are in and how hot or cold it is outside may also affect this process.

How to Clean Out the Deep Litter

Next, I asked Harvey to tell me what happens when the litter area gets too full. I asked if that’s when you muck out the stall. His response was, “You will never muck out!” Mucking out refers to removing manure and other materials from an enclosure where animals are kept.

Because with the deep litter method, the manure gets turned into compost, there is never a period where you need to “muck out” the stall. You’re simply removing the rich, garden-ready compost and spreading it where needed throughout your yard and garden.

This is much more pleasant than mucking out stalls.

To clean out your deep litter, simply move the top layer off to the side until you reach the compost layer. Scoop out the compost and redistribute the top litter.

Does Deep Litter Work for Outdoor Coops?

What about chickens that don’t live full-time in a coop? Can this deep litter method work for their enclosure?

Yes! For an outdoor chicken run you can use the same method of deep bedding, as thick of a layer as you can manage. But in this case, any decomposable material can be used, not just high-carbon material. You can use scraps from the garden like old pea vines, spent crops, clippings from plants, and even grass clippings.

For the outdoors, you don’t have to be fussy about the process. Harvey says, “Just throw it out there.”

Homestead Hack: Use grass clippings sparingly, no more than an inch or two at a time as they can become matted and problematic for the chickens to spread.

Zero Waste Homestead

Harvey says, “The pathway to zero waste on the homestead is our goal.” We agree that using what we have and striving to create a zero-waste homestead is vital. We have an obligation to the land we are using. This is the holistic management system and what permaculture is all about.

So decide where your coop will go and what materials you will use, then get started. Allow a few tries of your new deep litter method to teach what works best.

And enjoy all of the things you will miss out on, like the endless mess and the stink! With the deep litter method, both are gone! And you get terrific, accessible, and easy compost to use all over your homestead.

Where to Find Harvey

Be sure to check out Harvey Ussery’s book, The Small Scale Poultry Flock, and his website, The Modern Homestead, both of which are an amazing wealth of information. Or come take his class at School of Traditional Skills.