Bright_Spark
Well-Known Member
Thoughts please. Is it doable, or better with shavings/ pellets?
Thanks
Thanks
When I'm busy at work I do just skip out poos and put clean straw on top in the week then dig out the wet at the weekend, it seems to work well and there's no reason to dig out the wet everyweek (other than a fear of having to do the major end of winter deep litter dig out having done the rotten egg smell too much as a child!)
Lots of clean on the top is the key to sucess
I deep litter with straw, my horses are loose in a barn and I just skip out everyday and then in the summer I'll muck the whole barn out.
Not by hand,
With a loadall.
Daily Care
Remove only droppings whenever possible
DO NOT under any circumstances dig out the wet - urine exposed to air will immediately give off an ammonia smell
that's why we take it out when the horses go out first thing, floor allowed to dry and bed back down at teatime
even weekly I think it gives them their own underfloor heating
I did find that it was easiest to build the deep litter in the summer months - better for drying out the poo. My last deep litter bed was good for 2 years.
Done properly, deep litter is a deep, firm bed, dry, comfortable and not smelly (until you disturb it). Whilst it can save a lot of time on a daily basis, a lot of care must be taking over the skipping out of solids - it has to be spotless. Someone spoke about lifting the wet, but if the bed is deep enough and firm enough this will only disturb the deep litter and cause problems. In a properly made deep litter bed the liquid should sink to the bottom and in a properly designed stable it should drain away out of the stable.Thanks everyone.
Sounds doable then. I did wonder if it would be more stable- experience of straw beds before is that they seem to a) flatten down and b) slip about more so leaving bare bits, this should work out better.
This would be taking poo out daily (should have mentioned that).
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