Deep litter base

[NeilA]

What’s members use as a deep litter base
Do to circumstances I need to cut down my time at the loft after work so weekends will be my cleaning day mainly
I know dry droppings are best but what do you use to set the process off
Also in my ybs I use easy bed or Aubiose but do find it dusty after a while I’m not sure if that off the droppings or the easy bed breaking down

[CHARLTON34]

Hello NeilA, I've used Easy Bed, Strawmax that's an extruded pellet that breaks down & absorb moisture & Elephant Grass, I think over a longer period they are all dusty when cleaning out or replacing.
Out of these the Strawmax is good, but once they breakdown it's dusty, I have grills in one side & lift these to clean, not sure you'd find one that wasn't dusty unfortunately unless other members have other ideas.
Regards Dave.

[NeilA]

Cheers Dave

[Devo1956]

Hello NeilA, I've used Easy Bed, Strawmax that's an extruded pellet that breaks down & absorb moisture & Elephant Grass, I think over a longer period they are all dusty when cleaning out or replacing.
Out of these the Strawmax is good, but once they breakdown it's dusty, I have grills in one side & lift these to clean, not sure you'd find one that wasn't dusty unfortunately unless other members have other ideas.
Regards Dave.

The easy bed is a good product, keeps the floor dry. i always used a blow torch, before replacing.very good Dave.

[Andy]

I sometimes use the wood pellet cat litter. Once it breaks down a bit it makes a good base and can just be topped up if needed and spot cleaned.
The other thing I have found good is bird sand. I would put a sprinkling of limestone flour on the floor first. We use it in our bird aviary in the shop. It’s easy to clean out every week. We just sieve it once a week. After this it is as good as new. Just needs topping up every so often. I may use this myself this winter.

[Murray]

I've tried a few things over the years but always go back to scraping the floor. Dust is always the issue.
I found the best thing was a layer of pea straw. The droppings dried and fell through it. Good clean dry pea straw is hard to get these days.

[Diamond Dave]

I use one called Bedmax its a wood chip but a little heavier than the others and it doesnt break down as quick. I use it as a sort of "semi-deep litter"
I think the dust is caused by when you walk in and out of the loft especially over the finer stuff.
Being that bit heavier it doesnt blow around quite so much either.
I disenfect the floor underneath once a week by moving it over to one side, spraying the floor and pulling it back over then doing the other side. (Let it dry first)
It goes down about 3 inches thick and when it starts to. show the floor where it has blown to the edges, I just rake it back over again which also stops any build up.
Quick and very easy - usually change it after about 3 -4 months. (Spose that depends on how many birds in the section)
Hope that helps.

[Murray]

I was in the loft cleaning and feeding and putting grit in the boxes of the pairs with big babies, when crash one of the cocks knocked the feed bucket on the floor.
I swore. Mildly More at myself for leaving the bucket where it could get knocked over. But the floor needed a good sweep anyway, and it was only a tin of feed.
I was talking to a bloke I do not like much at all last year. We just seem to disagree. But we were talking about cleaning lofts. He said that when the day comes that he can't keep a shed clean, he will give it away.
I had to agree.

[Spieker-Loft]

We use very fine cat litter as a base and over the base of cat litter we put fairly small beech wooden chips. Only clean it about 2x a year if even its always dry and most of it gets crushed down again when walking in the loft. I seen this method in a video of a very successful Racer in germany named Klaus Steinbrink been doing it since about 3 years and never had any problem with it.

[NeilA]

We use very fine cat litter as a base and over the base of cat litter we put fairly small beech wooden chips. Only clean it about 2x a year if even its always dry and most of it gets crushed down again when walking in the loft. I seen this method in a video of a very successful Racer in germany named Klaus Steinbrink been doing it since about 3 years and never had any problem with it.

Does the litter not go a bit dusty I tried it some years ago and found this but maybe they have improved the product