Spring in full swing here on the farm!

Well another weekend has ended and my aching body is in need of something that smells mentholated. It never fails that the days seem shorter then my to-do lists. For every single item crossed off, I always find myself adding more in it's place. It's like bellying up to one of the yummy Las Vegas all you can eat places, u end up adding waaaay more food then you can handle at one sitting.

It's no different when Spring hits here on our farm. My want to get done lists and my need to-do lists are waaaay too long for me to finish. But hey! That's what makes this homestead stuff fun right? It's the fun projects that we want to do and the not so fun chore things that need to be done in order to make the homestead run efficiently.

One of my many, many things I worked on this weekend is the deep litter chicken coop floor. I wanted to share this with you since it works awesome for us! First thing you will need is the obvious,chickens and a chick run or coop. The other is a good source of carbon material such as leaves (what we use) hay, straw etc... A limited amount of garden tools will make the job easier as well. Things like a wide leaf rake, wheel barrow and a way to pick up your brown carbon stuff are the simple basics.

Once you gather all your good composting materials, you will want to spread it in your run or coop area. I like to build it up at least 6" deep. Others that do this say the deeper the better. Once your material is down you will find that your birds will go crazy as they scratch and peck through it all. After a few months of the birds doing all the dirty work for you by breaking the stuff down, you will then want to transfer it over to your compost pile. This is a great time to add the greens and wet it down good. A few months of resting it should turn into a wonderful mix of dark garden goodness. It's a good idea to turn and water it a few times a week as this will aid in a faster decomp.

If you look on the WWW you will find all types of different ideas on how to do this and what other folks do for deep bedding. None of it's wrong or right! Just try a method that you like and get those birds to go to work for you and your garden. :)