can we talk chicken droppings??

[aart]

I am actually totally shocked by how much seven 3-month-old birds can poop.

Wait until they start laying, poops will get much larger!

I use mostly larger wood chunks in my run as I'm not making garden compost,
and like that they don't break down fast so they keep working(breaking down the poops) for a long time.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Wait until they start laying, poops will get much larger!

I use mostly larger wood chunks in my run as I'm not making garden compost,
and like that they don't break down fast so they keep working(breaking down the poops) for a long time.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

My current deep litter is also largely based on larger chunks of wood based material. I am not trying to build a garden compost so I, too, prefer the slower breakdown of the materials. Much of my base is wood chips from hardwood based sources I was fortunate enough to move into a home where there was a large pile of aged wood chips from a tree that had been taken down and I have a nice neighbor who supplies wood chips for smokers and other uses who gladly let's me take as much as I want in trade for a few cartons of eggs anytime I need them. Mixed in with this is anything from yard clippings to the hay that I clean out of my nest boxes every time I freshen it up to leaf litter from the fall or corn husks from when we put up large batches of freezer corn each summer. I love the fact that my run has no mess no odor and pretty much no flies. The current litter was put in last April or may, has been added to but has not been cleaned out at all. I do occasionaly throw out a minimal amount of wood shavings when I strip out some of the deep bedding from my coop. It really is just using what I have available so it never cost me a thing. It's about as close to 0 maintenance is one can get, other than adding something to it now and then or tossing a handful of scratch in so the birds will do the work of turning things over I don't have to do a thing with it