chicken pooper scooper

[pawsplus]

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The sand or soil WILL eventually get nasty. By then it's too late to do anything about it! It takes me about 5 min. twice a week to scoop the run and coop, and it means my sand should last almost forever and my exploded pelletted bedding 3-5 months!

How long have you had 38 chickens in 580 SF? I'm betting that in a few years you'll have a nasty mess. I didn't scoop for several years--I had soil then and figured it would break down, etc. But eventually things got smelly and nasty and I had to take drastic action! I don't want to go back to that. I had 3 chickens in 100 SF so a feet per chicken ratio even larger than yours!

 

[Rosaleen]

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Here's an idea. You can buy a standing dustpan (made out of plastic)... Couture out a center square and insert a piece of hardware cloth using a nail to puncture the plastic and attaching using wire or nylon ties.

 

[fireguy56]

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The sand or soil WILL eventually get nasty. By then it's too late to do anything about it! It takes me about 5 min. twice a week to scoop the run and coop, and it means my sand should last almost forever and my exploded pelletted bedding 3-5 months!

How long have you had 38 chickens in 580 SF? I'm betting that in a few years you'll have a nasty mess. I didn't scoop for several years--I had soil then and figured it would break down, etc. But eventually things got smelly and nasty and I had to take drastic action! I don't want to go back to that. I had 3 chickens in 100 SF so a feet per chicken ratio even larger than yours!

Paws, First of all I don't see my run area becoming a "nasty mess" as you feel it will. The majority of poop "my" chickens produce is when they are roostin, not in the run. We do collect that on poop trays and clean weekly. I was just giving "my opinion" that I cannot see meyself "scooping poop" on a regular basis. That is why I built a large, enclosed, predator proof run. That is why I built a large hen house and maintain it for the health of our chickens. I put sand in the run over the natural dirt present for a reason. Good drainage and the ability to absorb the droppings. I think the rain and sun, along with natural decomposition will take care of the small amout of droppings my chickens leave inside the run are. I have no odor issue what-so-ever. I'll post some pictures of what the area looks like 3 years form now....without scooping poop.

 

[aoxa]

Quote:
The sand or soil WILL eventually get nasty. By then it's too late to do anything about it! It takes me about 5 min. twice a week to scoop the run and coop, and it means my sand should last almost forever and my exploded pelletted bedding 3-5 months!

How long have you had 38 chickens in 580 SF? I'm betting that in a few years you'll have a nasty mess. I didn't scoop for several years--I had soil then and figured it would break down, etc. But eventually things got smelly and nasty and I had to take drastic action! I don't want to go back to that. I had 3 chickens in 100 SF so a feet per chicken ratio even larger than yours!

Paws, First of all I don't see my run area becoming a "nasty mess" as you feel it will. The majority of poop "my" chickens produce is when they are roostin, not in the run. We do collect that on poop trays and clean weekly. I was just giving "my opinion" that I cannot see meyself "scooping poop" on a regular basis. That is why I built a large, enclosed, predator proof run. That is why I built a large hen house and maintain it for the health of our chickens. I put sand in the run over the natural dirt present for a reason. Good drainage and the ability to absorb the droppings. I think the rain and sun, along with natural decomposition will take care of the small amout of droppings my chickens leave inside the run are. I have no odor issue what-so-ever. I'll post some pictures of what the area looks like 3 years form now....without scooping poop.

Your run is beautiful! Plenty of space for all your chickens! I don't poop scoop either, but I do rake. I agree, seems like most of the poop is in the roosting area.

 

[Aria]

My husband purchased a pooper scooper at Tractor Supply $9.00. It is small compact and does a wonderful job. Our Barn is always CLEAN. We put the pickings in a 5 gallon plastic pail and empty on our garden. Regards, Aria

 

[Shell-in-NE]

The idea reminds me of a Sh*t Shaker, used to clean horse stalls.

 

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

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I love this idea!!! We have lots of horse forks.

 

[turbodog]

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I've seen that one before. I've got the fork and hardware cloth, I've just to get busy and make this!

 

[pawsplus]

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I hope it works for you!

All I'm saying is that I thought it was working for me, too. Years 1-5 it seemed OK, but after that, things started getting VERY nasty. By year 7 I wanted to die. I didn't have sand yet at that point, though, so perhaps that will make a difference for you.

One of the reasons I added sand, though, was precisely so I COULD scoop the poop (it's impossible in dirt). Mine poop a lot when roosting, but they certainly poop plenty during the day, too, and given what a total PITA it was adding the sand (bag by bag, by myself!) I don't want to risk having to remove it all and replace it, well, EVER! So 5 min of scooping a few times a week seems well worth it!

I also have a gardener SIL who refuses to accept ANY b-day or Christmas gifts from me other than chicken and horse poop, LOL. She wants all she can get. So I scoop the coop and run and several times a year I have a small trash can full of chicken poop w/ some shavings and some sand--she says it's GOLD for her composter!

 

[LAndrews]

So last week I asked how people cleaned the chicken stuff out of the sand in their runs. Well, I got some scrap together and made this thing like a dust pan with hardware cloth in it to sift the sand out O the poop. Easy and cheap the bottom is a piece of 3/8 plywood with the middle cut out with a jig saw.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YBMSFHZ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3LDYY9JWKE0VP&th=1