Chicken bald back

[theoxtish]

Hi,new to the forum so I'm sorry if this topic has already been covered. I've just got a walk in cage for our Eglu Cube and we think we'd like to try deep litter. Can anyone give me advice as to what type of wood or chippings to get? There seems to be a lot of different advice out there. Many thanks.

[Chortle Chook]

Hello and welcome

 

I'm not that familiar with deep litter however . . .

 

Do you have a roof over the top that will stop the rain making the base all wet? I suspect that is quite important otherwise you will end up with a soggy mess and mould.

 

If you do have a roof (a transparent shower curtain is often all that is used), then I'd highly recommend the horse bedding 'Aubiose' for the base of runs and houses. It is availabe from Omlet but also available from many horse supply shops. Having used all kind of things including: newspaper, wood chippings, play sand, straw, small gravel, etc. etc. I can really vouch for this. It keeps things nice and dry and makes poo picking so easy. It really is worth any pennies spent on it when it comes to making for an easy life.

[hammy72]

I use wood chippings in their run and rake it over every few days to stop the droppings building up. They have aubiose in their coop and nesting area. Have just added a sprinkling of BioDri to keep the run fresh and dusted their house with Diatomaceous Earth (both bought from Omlet)

[egglicious]

I'm very new at this but have been doing some research on deep litter as well. I think wood chips are the best, pine or aspen is what we use here in the US, but if we could get aubiose here I would do that as many folks talk so positively about it. Like the said I just think it's very, very important that the run stays totally dry or you will end up with a huge soggy mess...

[Redwing]

Its tricky to deep litter chickens properly

 

I have woodchip in my big run and I throw the odd bucket of Aubiose in to soak up any damp but the floor is a good 6 inches deep in litter, Its never been changed and its been over two years but it will need a massive dig out soon!

 

I honestly dont think you could acheive the same in a cube run, if you put some boards around the bottom of the run and let the bedding get a few inches deep I think thats the best you can expect but in a reasonably small space it may not work. Woodchip is your best bet and cover the top of the run too!

[BocBoc]

Woodchip works for us too - our run has a cover at the top so keeps most of the rain out. The chickens constant scratching keep the chippings on the move so we only dig out and replaced once a year-ish. It doesn't smell and the girls seem to like it