My run is a similar sq footage but the litter is much, much shallower (like I took off maybe 2" of material during my big clean out in summer), so that makes a huge difference. I couldn't imagine trying to turn 18" of material by hand!My chicken run composting litter is about 18 inches deep in the front of the run and tapers down to about 4-6 inches at the end of the run. My run is about 13X36 feet. That's a lot of material composting in there. It would be too much for me to turn over with a manual hoe. If I had a smaller setup or less composting material, I could get by with a hoe.