Best way to manage the poop

[ashannon]

I'm wanting to start another group of birds in our yard again. Last time we had chickens and it was just a lot to try to clean up their poop all the time. Our coop just sat on the ground. We wanted to get quail this time. Has anyone come up with an incredible way they'd like to share about how to keep the poop easily and quickly cleaned up?

 

[OkChickens]

I had a 20x30 coop attached to the barn at my last house and it had a dirt floor. We used straw and we only cleaned it out about 3 times a year. I had plywood under the roost to catch the poop at night and about twice a week I would rake it off and throw it on the compost pile. It only took me maybe 1 hour or so to rake the straw up and shovel it into a wheelbarrow one morning while the birds were free ranging. I cleaned it in March, June, and in late August. Very low maintenance. I had about 45-50 birds in it on average. The most I ever had was 70 and it took a little longer to clean out but not much. They make a big compost pile.

Nate

 

[teach1rusl]

Are you talking outside or inside clean-up?? For inside I like a dropping board (easy to scrape daily), but I don't know whether that'd work with quail or not????
For outside, raking with a fine tined rake once a week.
Keeping any animal correctly takes a little work/effort

 

[CluckyJay]

Deep litter method. Give it a bit of a stir before adding a fresh layer of bedding to the top. As long as you add enough and do it often, you don't need to "clean" the coop very often. If it builds up, once or twice a year, scoop it out and then compost it. Super simple and awesomely efficient.

Lots of planning now can totally make keeping your chickens much easier on you and your family. Try and make them work for you, not the other way around!

Make sure that it doesn't get wet from rain though. The key is keeping the bedding dry with a little bit of moisture in it. Like a compost heap. You don't want it to be wet or damp, just enough moisture so it isn't super dusty.

If it smells bad, you need to stir it and add more brown matter (leaves, straw). A dusting of agricultural lime is beneficial as well!

 

[Barred Rocker]

I put pine shavings thoughout my coops but I also have a poop catcher under the roosts which makes clean up much easier.

 

[Hunter0704]

Under the roosts in my coop I put two "boot trays" from Lowes. Each morning I can remove them, hose them off, and return them cleaned to the coop for another night. Love the boot trays!!!! Saves on shavings or whatever you are using on the floor of the coop.