What do I do with all the chicken poo?

[weluvchickens]

Totally jealous of your compost bin... thank you for posting the pics and the info on how to manage. There's not an Orscheln's here in Indy, but there is a Tractor Supply store. They have a 20pound bag of DE for sale for $13, however, it doesn't state that it is food grade on the packaging even though it says to feed it to livestock??? My plan was to use it in the coop, mix with feed, and to put in the compose area, though now I totally want to revamp my compost pile!

 

[Gifa]

TY! Our compost pile has served us well for over 6 years. Hubby likes to kick off the spring by using our small spot tiller in there to give it a good wake up churn and then give it a nice drink of beer! LOL


Re: The DE.

If it says you can feed it to livestock, and it's at Tractor Supply Co, then you're fine. The stuff you have to watch out for is the pool grade stuff... From what I understand, the difference between the two kinds is whether it came from a freshwater deposit, or a saltwater deposit. You want the freshwater deposited DE... you are most likely to run into the saltwater deposited DE at a pool supply store.

 

[roostercluck]

I use dirt/ sand as a litter basically like a cat. It only smells when you need to clean it out or after a really bad rain.

 

[EpicBlueAcres]

I use a cat litter scoop so all the sand gets sifted out other than what gets stuck to the poo itself. Thankyou for the soil change tip, never though of that

 

[MacGuyver]

I never clean poop. Ever. I hate cleaning poop. I built a hoop house with expanded metal flooring. I move it every three days. Once I move it to a new spot, the birds all go scratch up the area of the pasture where the hoop house was. by the end of the day, I can't see or smell any poop there. We just keep moving it so that they have fresh grass and scratch areas.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I recently bought 12, 50 lb bags of DE. Each bag cost about $23.00. Ouch! Not cheap!

~ Aspen

 

[mistressangyl]

lots of great ideas thanks

 

[weluvchickens]

Thank you for all the info!

 

[ZaksGarden]

I use pine shavings in my coop and I would estimate 75% of all poop lands on the dropping boards under the roosts. In the run of my coop I use river sand, which I sift daily for about 5-10 minutes. I take that poop to my compost pile where I compost any kitchen scraps the chicken's don't get, grass clippings, leaves, shredded paper, dryer lint, chicken feathers, etc. I mix the compost pile once a month, and all of that chicken poop acts as an accelerator, or compost "heater" that gets and keeps your compost pile good and hot. It helps your pile turn into usable compost. Anyone who deals with smell in compost does not have a good balance of green-to-brown.

As far as odor in the coop / run there is VERY little, I do sprinkle DE in the run and coop area about once a week. I think sometimes people have unreasonable expectations for chickens. As any livestock, they are going to smell a little at times.




I have tried a lot of different things for sifting the sand, and this is by far the fastest, easiest, and most effective. It doesn't just get big pieces of poop, it gets almost all poop. I bought it as a restaurant supply store. (Oh the irony)

 

[Shenanigans1]

can you explain more