About to give up on droppings shelf

[chickengeorgeto]

... About a month ago I put a droppings shelf in my coop. I’ve used sand( not good), sweet pdz and DE so far. It just seems to me to be less sanitary than just scooping from the shavings every couple days. I do like not having the shavings(pine) in the manure as I will be using it as fertilizer. The last time after scooping, I put a very thin layer of sweet pdz, hoping that would be better. Otherwise I’m thinking of removing it and going back to scooping from the pine...

Why not do what chicken farmers all over the world do and turn and pulverize (shake up) the pine shavings and add more shavings on top of your current layer of shavings when it seems advisable to do so? Pine shavings make a killer fertilizer when they are composted or spread on the ground and turned under. Besides straight run chicken poop will very likely kill every plant in your garden because it is much to strong to use without an amendment or dilution of some kind.

 

[aart]

Pine shavings make a killer fertilizer when they are composted or spread on the ground and turned under.

Pine shavings take forever to break down into good soil. Turning them under will suck the nitrogen out of the soil thus depriving the plants. Better to use as top mulch, the nitrogen for poop will be diluted and filter down more slowly.

Besides straight run chicken poop will very likely kill every plant in your garden because it is much to strong to use without an amendment or dilution of some kind.

True Dat^^^

 

[WhiteRockCrazyBird]

I have about 10' of particle plywood poop boards for my 11 hens. Every day, I use a $1 squeegee to scrape the poops into a bucket. Works great! I once dusted the boards with DE, worked even better! Love that the pine pellets underneath stay clean!

 

[ESUTT]

I had a black and white Phred many years ago. He was an awesome cat. But, he had long hair. He used to hang out by the mail box and jump out and smack my neighbor when she went jogging on our road! When some one drove into the yard, he'd go running to the door, growling!

That’s hilarious! I trapped my Phred from our pole barn. He was feral and probably only six weeks old. I turned him loose in our wood shop and he hid out for probably two weeks. Then one day he decided he was tired of being lonely and jumped in my lap. Been spoiled rotten ever since.

 

[ESUTT]

Thank you all for your wisdom. I think I’m satisfied with the dusting of pdz. I switched to using a four inch drywall knife for cleaning and just scrape pdz and all into a bucket. Working good. Just something I had to stop being hard headed about.

 

[IamRainey]

Every day, I use a $1 squeegee to scrape the poops into a bucket. Works great!

You and me, CrazyBird! Works great and nothing goes in my compost pile that isn't enhancing my humus and, eventually, my clay soil!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Pine shavings take forever to break down into good soil. Turning them under will suck the nitrogen out of the soil thus depriving the plants. Better to use as top mulch, the nitrogen for poop will be diluted and filter down more slowly....

Chicken litter (broiler/fryers) is sold as a fertilizer for crops and pastures in my neck of the woods. It is customary and almost mandatory that the farmer straighten out the cutters on his disk harrow and cut up the turf on pasture land before applying a top dressing of chicken poop. This better enables the land to sop up the Nitrogen (protein or Ammonium Nitrate) leaching out of poultry manure.

 

[4 Georgia Hens]

My coop has a main level and a loft The loft is like a rectangular box, with raised edges so bedding will stay up there. The roost is overtop the wooden “box”.The bottom of the loft is a dry-erase board and my bedding is river sand. I scoop the poop every few days like a litter box. I don’t use sweet pdz or DE. And, if it is to clumped, I just use a shovel. Good luck!

 

[IamRainey]

That’s hilarious! I trapped my Phred from our pole barn. He was feral and probably only six weeks old. I turned him loose in our wood shop and he hid out for probably two weeks. Then one day he decided he was tired of being lonely and jumped in my lap. Been spoiled rotten ever since.

LUCKY you!

I tried to "save" a feral cat that was hanging with my pet cats and whom my kids had named and fallen a little bit in love with. I won't describe the general mayhem of trying to catch him one time when he was in the house eating from my cats' bowl but let's just say it involved replacing draperies AND hardware, cleaning up copious amounts of blood (mine), 3 different antibiotics/ERs/doctors until I finally ended up spending a morning in an ER getting an antibiotic drip and a cast.

In the end, I got the cat vaccinated, got his balls lopped off (which, by that time, was sweet revenge) and -- surprise, SURPRISE! -- we never saw Smokey again. BUT I got this staph infection right in my thumb joint to remind me of the experience and teach me a very healthy respect for feral animals.

Oddly, once the cast came off and the infection was cleared up, it was not painful until about 3 decades later. Now, at 70, I feel that thumb joint any time I flex it too much. Thanks, Smokey! At least he picked my non-dominant hand to tinker with...

 

[lazy gardener]

Animal bites/scratches can be disastrous. I read an obit several years ago. Cause of death: infection received when she did a good samaritan move to help a turtle across the road. IIRC, she did NOT get bit, but got a nasty infection from handling the turtle. It eventually killed her.