Chicken poop when you don’t compost

[SamIamNam786]

Yes. It turns into 'dirt' eventually.

I haven't done anything to my run in 10 years, except add a bit more wood chippings if things get stinky. Don't need a thick layer of wood chippings, I keep mine about 1-3".

Is your run much larger and you have more chickens? I'm trying to compare amount of chickens and poop.... Crazy that you haven't cleaned it in ten years

 

[aart]

Is your run much larger and you have more chickens? I'm trying to compare amount of chickens and poop.... Crazy that you haven't cleaned it in ten years

Run is 8 x 50. I have 13 birds right now but used to have as many as ~30 in the spring and ~18 in the winter.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-coop-page.65912/

 

[Kiki]

I have a poop board that catches a lot, so I just clean it when I come home from work everyday by walking it to the patch And tossing it in. Takes five min. The bedding is hemp and only an inch or two thick over the floor of the coop. I haven’t touched the poop in The run , but when it rained yday I finally smelled the stench. I added zeolite all over, and it’s better, but that’s stench is what I’m trying to avoid.

In order to avoid the stink you'll need to keep the area from getting rained in.
Can you put a roof over the whole area?

 

[Kiki]

Is your run much larger and you have more chickens? I'm trying to compare amount of chickens and poop.... Crazy that you haven't cleaned it in ten years

I use peat moss and I only clean mine out twice a year. No smell.

 

[SamIamNam786]

In order to avoid the stink you'll need to keep the area from getting rained in.
Can you put a roof over the whole area?

Tbh the part that smells is the part that has no tarp, just shade cloth. I'm working on this. Today was bright and sunny so I pulled back the tarp hoping the sun would dry things further.

 

[aart]

In order to avoid the stink you'll need to keep the area from getting rained in.

My run is not roofed....but it does drain pretty well.

 

[Kiki]

My run is not roofed....but it does drain pretty well.

The amount and what is used in the area matters. Your variety of stuff prevents the stink I am sure.

 

[Sassy07]

Hey there! I would like to know what do you do with chicken poop if you don’t compost?! I only have 3 chickens but their poop every morning is almost 1/2 c . Imagine a month of this and it will be 15 cups of poop! What I currently do is throw it in a garden bed, the side that has no plants, just dirt. But I’m worried about having flies There soon. We don’t compost bc I have no clue about it. I have 1/5 acre land, and 1/2 of it is the backyard. So not a lot of space to work with.

I only have 4 birds. I've been burying it in my unused garden bed, but I have also scooped it and thrown it out like you would kitty litter scoopings. It's not a very large amount at all.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Is your run much larger and you have more chickens? I'm trying to compare amount of chickens and poop....

My run is 440 sq ft and I currently have 10 birds. But I can definitely see the run floor has built up several inches over the last few years (which is an advantage for me as we've had flooding before). I have a brand new pile of wood chips waiting so I plan on removing maybe half a cubic yard of "dirt" this fall and then replacing it with more chips for winter.

 

[SamIamNam786]

I only have 4 birds. I've been burying it in my unused garden bed, but I have also scooped it and thrown it out like you would kitty litter scoopings. It's not a very large amount at all.

So maybe I can remove the rest of the veggies in my current bed and just continue to use that area? Create a makeshift compost, by adding grass clippings. By next spring, maybe we can use it in some potted veggies.