Backyard cleanliness

[HungryHippie]

Hi guys. I’m new here. I did try searching several keywords before posting this question, hopefully I didn’t just miss it. There’s a long winded version and a short version of my question below.

To try and keep this as short and sweet as possible-
I’m trying to decide how worried I need to be about the risks of chicken poop in my yard?

The longer question is- I understand the basics: wash your hands, keep chicken stuff (and the chickens) outside, have chicken boots, etc.
But we reeeally love being outside and so does our playful dog. If I let the chickens have access to the whole yard, wouldn’t that pose risk of disease to us humands and/or the pup?

Partitioning the yard is an option, I had just kinda been hoping that for the chickens sake, and my yards sake, that they could forage the whole yard.

 

[KMedley]

I’m new as well! Would love to hear answers on this. I feel like my chickens may be more interested in the weeds/woods than the yard, but I won’t know until they’re old enough to live out in the coop!

 

[Cleona]

I clean up every few hours and have specific footwear that I wear in the run cleaning up - although impossible to keep it totally clean 24/7. I couldn't leave chicken poop for days and clean the coop daily too.

Not sure about the risk of infection though; I would be more worried about the hens picking up disease from poop laying around and flies descending on it.

 

[dawg53]

Chickens will not only eat the grass, they will dig holes, scratch out flower beds, and basically go where you dont want them to go and will poop everywhere. When the grass is gone, they dig up the roots looking for bugs and worms. Then the yard looks like a miniature minefield pocked with shallow holes. Dogs love to eat chicken poop, so no worries about stepping in it. Your dog wont have dog breath no more, it'll be foul smelling cecal poop breath and dont let your dog lick you or you'll smell like cecal poop as well. Speaking of cecal poop, it is tough to remove from sidewalks, driveways, anything that is cement. Before you sit in your lawn chair, wash it off with the hose. There will no doubt be poop on the seat as well as the backrest, if your luck is like mine...it will be cecal poop.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
We have space, and the chickens are never in our back yard or on the decks, front or rear. They do get to part of our yard and rearrange the mulched beds very effectively. They are fenced out of the veggies!
Plan on a chicken yard!!!
Dogs love to eat poo, and everything @dawg53 says is so true! Dogs also love to kill chickens, and need to be trained to leave them alone. Don't think things will be fine without real effort on your part!
We have 'barn shoes' and 'barn boots', which sit by the door, and are only worn out there, never anywhere else, or in the house.
Chickens are fun to have, the eggs are great, but house trained? No way!
Mary

 

[Eggcessive]

We have 2 yard chickens who live in a small coop away from the big coop outside of out yard. Those 2 are so spoiled, that they come to the front or back door and beg for cat food. We made a mistake of giving it once, LOL. They only get a small bit close to roost time now. We have a sidwalk all around out house, and patio in the back, and sidewalk out front. Our chickens refuse to poop in the grass, preferring to poop on the sidewalk and patio, making it easier to check and pick up poops, and for the dogs not to miss any. My dog’s fecal exams are always negative, and they really love the deserts. We have a small garden and flowers in the bed. They like certain things like, kale and begonia blossoms, but pretty much leave the other things alone.

 

[Folly's place]

'Clean' and "backyard' are never congruent, unless you have sealed concrete and disinfect it daily.
Mary

 

[Eggcessive]

We did have to train our dog with a shock collar to never go near the chickens, since we lost one and had a couple roughed up early on when they would fly into the yard. They are trustworthy now with grown chickens, but never with young chicks, so make sure they are not out with young ones.