Deep litter
57
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4
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3
PODCASTS
Search complete. 57 mentions across 4 episodes found for "Deep litter".
Sep 10, 2026
Matt DuboisGUEST
Got a lot of chickens out there in the Henchanted Forest at the factory, and they're in the coop.
Matt DuboisGUEST
So, you know, we can show people the coops in operation, because a lot of people don't believe until they come kick the tires, pop the hood about the deep litter system and our philosophy in raising backyard chickens.
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24 MINS LATER
Carey BlackmonHOST
Mm-hmm
Matt DuboisGUEST
... he's like, "I gotta have someone come in, change the water.
Matt DuboisGUEST
They gotta da, da, da, feed it." They're like, "With your setup, with the external feeder hopper, and the water system, and how big it is, and ventilation, and the deep litter system," he goes, "I don't have to do anything." I'm like, "Thank you." What a great point.
Matt DuboisGUEST
Chickens are easier than a goldfish now with one of our coops.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
[laughs] I'm just kidding.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
We are gonna talk about getting started with deep litter for the year, [smacks lips] and I'm going to tell you everything you need to know, uh, to get this easy composting system going right in your chicken coop if you are thinking about doing it this year.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
So, um, if you do decide to do that, this is definitely the way to go.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
Obviously, there's gonna be other information in this podcast.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
[laughs] But I do have a little tiny rooster in the room with me right now, and he just made a very loud noise.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
But I, I, I bet you didn't hear it.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
Anyway, okay, let's get into deep litter.
Dalia MontrosoHOST
I wanna start out by just explaining what it is and why some people do it and how to do it.
Matt DuBoiseHOST
Here's a question that came up.
Matt DuBoiseHOST
Does the deep litter system make you have a higher chance to have salmonella? Right? Right.
Matt DuBoiseHOST
And I can see how people might think that because it's the deep litter system.
Matt DuBoiseHOST
If I was to ask you, Kristen Warren, does salmonella thrive in the deep litter system or do you think it's just, it doesn't make a difference? What would your thoughts be?
KristenHOST
I would say it doesn't make a difference.
Matt DuBoiseHOST
Interesting.
KristenHOST
I don't know.
Matt DuBoiseHOST
Well, here's the point.
XanderUNKNOWN
We can talk about that, too.
Mackenzie MillerHOST
So is it safe to deep litter method in central Texas where temps get to 110 degrees? The deep litter method sounds great, but the heat it generates from composting does not seem ideal for chickens that need to keep cool and really hot temps.
Mackenzie MillerHOST
The thing is the temps do not go down much at night.
Mackenzie MillerHOST
It can still be 90 degrees at 11 p.m. First of all, that sounds terrible and very hot, but there are ways that you can deep litter without, having it generate a lot of heat quickly.
Mackenzie MillerHOST
Even though it's a composting process, When you have something as absorbent as the hemp bedding, it takes the moisture from those droppings and absorbs it almost immediately.
Mackenzie MillerHOST
So that stops the generation of heat and slows the composting process way down.
Mackenzie MillerHOST
In places like central Texas where it's death weather, what you can do is, I call it a dry litter.
Mackenzie MillerHOST
application so you start with smaller layers like one to two inches the droppings fall on top of that it's absorbed almost immediately and then you just kind of keep adding really really small layers on top of that because that allows the heat to disperse rather than getting like trapped between those layers and being activated by moisture to generate the heat So deep litter is possible.