Any tips for cleaning a grass run?

[jettgirl24]

Hi All,

My flock has been out in their new run for about a week now and I'm starting to notice lots of poop but I haven't really figured out how to best clean it because the run is grass. I know the grass won't hold up for too long with all of their scratching and voracious eating and once it's mostly gone I think I'll put some sand in there or something. I haven't made a final decision on that one yet... But how do I clean it in the meantime? I tried to take a rake to it yesterday and all it does it tear up the grass without getting any of the poop. Should I even worry about cleaning it or just wait for them to tear it up and deal with it then?

 

[joletabey]

Mahonri- then you need to see mine!

We have to mow it. I made it huge because everyone said it would be tromped and scratched to pieces in weeks, but honestly, we have to mow all of it except the area right around the coop. And there have been chickens in it for at least 4 months!

And mine is full of poop that I don't know what to do with either- glad to hear someone else is just picking it out by hand!

 

[Mrs.H]

Have you tried hoseing it down?

 

[jettgirl24]

I haven't... We've still been getting tons of rain so I'd be a little worried about making things a soggy mess out there. Once it dries up I'll definitely try that though!

 

[teach1rusl]

Yeah...I love having a grassy run, but it does make clean-up a pain. The rakes with long thin plasticish tines seem to do better in grass, although it won't get it all. Today I put on a rubber medical glove and went around cleaning up poop piles in mine...lol. I have no pride any more when it comes to poop

Added it to compost.

 

[Mahonri]

I've never seen a grass run last longer than about 3 weeks. By then it's been eating and scratched out. That's when you put sand or DE or both in.

 

[illegal avian]

Try wiping it with Wrindex!

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Same here...I mow mine too. It helps to have few chickens compared to your run space. Plus I do freerange mine when I'm home...

 

[jettgirl24]

I definitely wish we had more room for a run. We've only got a 5300sf lot so we did what we could with what we have... It's about 9ft x 12ft and I can already tell my four will have that thing torn up in no time. I'm definitely making plans now for refooting it later in the summer before the rains start back up because I am SO not about to deal with a mud pit next winter

 

[Ozark Chicken]

We had to run the weed eater for nearly two hours. Cant mow it, too many rocks. then there is the trees and honeysuckle forest. The area around the coop gets pretty trampled and nothing grows underneath the coop but that has become the dust bath area