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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Deep Litter for Chickens

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Uriel <uriel@nasalam.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Deep Litter for Chickens
  • Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:47:18 -0500


Thanks, Harvey. I figured something like a trench must be involved. That makes it out of the question where I am. I've had to go to raised beds simply because there is so little soil over the rock in some places -- of course there are lots of other advantages to raised beds that I happily benefit from. So I'll have to stick with deep litter over a wood floor for the poultry. Fortunately they can be outside a good deal of the time here.

Uriel / SW Missouri

Harvey Ussery wrote:
An essential point, Uriel. Of course an earth floor is an opportunity for diggers like fox, dog, I guess mink, etc. The solution is to dig in a barrier around the entire perimeter of the coop. When I built my current poultry house, the one with the earth floor, I dug a trench almost 24 inches deep (yes, a *lot* of work! I used a nursery spade to keep the trench more narrow and reduce the amount of soil to be moved) around the foundation. Then I nailed 24 inch flashing onto the bottom girt (is that the word?) before nailing the board 'n' batten siding down on that girt.

One half inch "hardware cloth" (galvanized, welded wire mesh) could be used instead of the flashing, and might even be a superior alternative.

I've never had a problem with the bad guys digging into my poultry house. (Only losses inside I've ever had were a few ducklings to a big black snake--pretty hard to keep those guys out!)

~Harvey

PS: It occurs to me that you could also run single-strand electric wire around the perimeter at about nose level. That would require regular maintenance (prevention of weed/grass growth over the wire) but should be a strong deterrent to curiosity seekers.





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