Keeping Chickens - Deep Litter Method

This is one of the best explanations I've found on the deep litter method of keeping chickens. Gardeners are often warned to not put fresh chicken manure in their garden because the nitrogen is way too high. Add to that the warning of not putting freshly cut mulch around their plants because it will "burn" them. In the decomposition process the mulch robs the soil of any nitrogen and causes the plants to whither and die. Chicken manure and wood chips seems like a natural pair for making compost. I personally clean out my chicken coop about once per month and rake all of it out to the chicken yard to break down further. I replace the wood chips/shredded paper in the coop and it keeps it fairly clean for laying. Since we're in an area that has two short vegetable growing seasons (Spring & Fall) I am beginning to prepare the area for Spring of next year with the chicken manure compost. I am currently spreading rabbit manure in my Fall 2010 vegetable garden. The good part about using rabbit manure is that it can be applied fairly fresh and not cause problems. Building up my soil is continuing to be my biggest challenge here, especially with a limited budget and wanting  such a large area developed quickly. I am seeing the benefits on many of my regular landscaping beds as they mature. Organic matter, beneficial insects and micro-organisms take time to build up and balance out. Every time I see new life in my garden I know I'm just one step closer!

Rabbit Work

Things have finally dried out to a point I can work on some much needed outdoor projects. With all of the rain, I have reworked the placement of the rabbit hutches in the enclosure. We need more room to install an outdoor sink and a small door in the fence to back the wagon in for loading and cleaning out.

The hutches needed to be be painted too. With rabbits, you really have to be careful with the wood you choose to build the hutches. Being a part of the rodent family, they are constantly looking for something to chew on to wear their front teeth down. I have tried my best to cover areas in their cage with 1/2 inch hardware cloth. But, rabbits also like to "pick" at anything that sticks up too, including bits of wire. They sometimes will pull it loose and then chew the wood! So, choosing safe untreated wood is a good thing. When painting the cages, I only painted the outside and edges that were covered with some sort of protection.

As you can see, I also decided to add plastic bins under each cage. Believe it or not, rabbits pretty much drop their manure in the same area each time. It's usually near their food source. Knowing that, I positioned the bins to catch most of it. In the bottom of each bin I've added about 1-1 1/2  inches of sawdust pellets that are used in horse stalls (also in pet store cages) to absorb moisture.This is where I had planned on putting my composting worms, but with fire ant issues I have changed my mind. There isn't an effective way to organically treat fire ants and I don't want the rabbit yard contaminated.

The manure bins will save on some shoveling and waste. Another lesson I learned about too much rain is that the manure was breaking down so fast under the cages that I was losing a lot of it. Plus now it will be much easier to let the rabbits out of their hutches for exercise in a clean area. I will keep you posted on how its working.

Phase number three is to finish out the entire roof between the rabbits and chickens. I would like to be able to let the animals run loose in that area at times and not worry about the hawks and boy, do we have some huge ones here that would love a chicken or rabbit to eat!

Shoveling Manure

What does one do in Texas when it's an 80 degree day in January? Well, shovel manure of course! That is how we spent part of yesterday. I'm so very thankful, to say the least. What a trooper my DH is for suggesting we do it, even on his birthday. It will leave some funny stories for years to come on how he spent his special day.

This all started when a very sweet friend offered us a manure from her barn where she keeps cattle. It seemed like a such a wonderful gift that we just couldn't refuse. So we set a date. The amazing bonus that was also included in this was a tour of her wonderful home and collection of antiques. I especially enjoyed not only her knowledge of the history of these pieces, but many personal memories of pictures, toys and a glimpse into her life growing up. I could have stayed for hours.

Heading out to the barn with shovels and bags, her husband helped us load a few into the trunk of our car. (We really should consider getting a truck) It was then we headed back home to spread it our on the garden. We really could make many more trips to fill our garden area. Hopefully soon we can go back.

The manure we were able to get was definitely well aged, so we are ready for planting there. Yeah! Now come on rabbits, keep cranking out the poo!

If you are planning on picking up some manure the way we did, do your homework first. In some areas, hay fields are sprayed with an herbicide to "brown it out" so it can be harvested. The herbicide won't kill the animals, but passes through the digestive system whole and will be in the manure. What does that mean for you? Well, if you spread this out on your garden, the herbicide will kill your plants. It pays to ask where the hay was purchased from that feeds the horses or cows. Too costly of a mistake I'd say.