deep litter or bare floors

what do fellow fanciers put on the floor , my youngbirds at moment are on sad and lime which i riddle through every day , when they start racing i take it out and just have bare floor and clean out every day ,my widowhood cocks are on bare floor also

I once tried a deep litter of sawdust and shavings,I could not make out why the birds would not come onto the floor to eat after a week or so.
I started to clean out and had to go and answer the phone, when I came back I had left the scraper leaning against the side of the loft and there was an army of Red Mite climbing up the scraper handle out of the deep litter so the poor birds were getting eaten alive when trying to eat from the hopper.
After that I reverted to spraying the floor with bleach, and brushing floor whitener on to dry the bleach never any problem after that.

hi ian, i scrape out every day and use floor whitener on the floor and perches....

You can keep your deep litter give me the bare floor anytime, with deep litter you can never see the condition of the birds droppings if they are watery or solid plus it you use deep litter you are causing dust in the loft from the fine sand and whitener

With bare floors you can still use the loft whitener but brush it up once you have scraped the droppings up bruched the floor with it doing this you are removing the risk of dust and also the pigeons breathing the dust in.

totally agree thats why i have bare floors

hi, just run out of the colombine floor whitener yesterday and the shop who usually get it from wont have any for a month!!! what goods that???
other corn shop dont sell it so im stuffed, cant get any unless i travel all the way to wakefield for some......

david i think that the floor whitener is too dusty for them try to do without it and see if theres any difference in the pigeons

David you can use lime but use a small amount brush it over the areas you want to then remove it with a brush and scrapper no dust and you have your whitener

You can also use some orinary flour until you get some floor whitener.

I would say deep litter is good only when:You dont have time to clean out everyday
Sure your birds are healthy and disease free, will ensure constant health
Absolutely dry loft.
If you are a lazy fancier LOL. joking.

i scrape out every day niel....what do you do? i only have 12 obs though so there is not a lot to scrape out...lol

its much better as you can see exacly what there droppings are like a big clue to there health

yes, i like the floor whitener ian....plus it makes the loft smell nicer, and i think it makes it easier to clean out as well if you do it every day....

yes i use lime they say it kills mites and keeps away the lice

used to use lime years ago but it got on the back of my throat and i stopped using it....
i think ill have to just take a drive over to wakefield and buy a few bags to last me a while as i do like the colombine powder.....plus its cheap...lol

how much is it and how big of a bag is it

hi ian, its made by versele-laga and its a 5kg bag but its only 2.50....when i use it when ive swept up i dont throw it away i save it in a food tub with a lid on and use it again and its just as good as the first time, its great stuff.

thats fairly cheep might use it as like you same the lime burns your throat

i think they will do bigger bags, maybe at wakefield they will have them as ive been told its a good shop that keeps everything fanciers want....all different corns etc

ill probably get 25 kilo bag

i think they do this stuff at www.taylorschoice.co.uk. .................amanda

thanks amanda, im stuck without it as i use it every day and cant seem to get hold of it at the moment...

no problem, im always ordering stuff from them, i find them very good on prices and delivery,
dam im stating to sound like a advert

lol....have you got shares in it...
clicked on link and internet couldnt show page so ill try again, whats the delivery prices amanda or does it vary depending on what you buy? and does it take long to be delivered?
thanks amanda...

ive only ever paid £5.35 for next day delivery, and ive ordered some larg items like 28 bird basket, Chris is on P.b. under the name taylorschoice, so if you can see what you want send him a pm, Hes really helpfull, i think they will be open really late tomorrow as they are the marking station for the national flying club. hope that helps David