Cleaning Chicken Poop In Coop!

[emeded]

Quote:
I would be careful with a sand. Sand is dangerous, especially the one you can buy in homedepot or other stores. Sand contains silica which is very dangerous if inhaled. Now chicken being a chicken, they dig a lot and breed a lot of this. Having a good screened kid sand is very expensive. Even one for kids sandbox are not that clean and still contain silica. Not sure what exact effect can silica have on the chicken health or eggs quality, but maybe something to consider.

 

[turtlebird]

two words.....poop boards.
I finally installed some a month ago. WHEW! It has saved so much time and $$$. Just a piece of plywood under the roosts. Scrap it off every couple of days into a bucket and into the compost. Sure beats dragging the coop cart through the snowbanks to the ever-growing compost piles full of shavings.....so easy, and it cuts down on the humidity in the coop also~! WHy did I wait soooo long?!

 

[7L Farm]

Didn't read the whole thread. I clean poop daily. I need the fertilzer. GROWS THE BEST PRODUCE MONEY CAN BUY.

 

[Sassafras]

The poop board certainly is AWESOME. I do a daily scrape into a small pail and toss in the compost pile. There is no smell in the coop, even in the summer.

 

[ashandvine]

This has been very helpful to a sortof-newbie with a DH freaking about what to do with poo and shavings. He's never had chickens and is a bit of a germophobe.

He does like to build so the slides and boards sound great. Because we are in Maine with wooden walls and high humidity I plan to vote down his powerwasher idea. Since lino offs VOCs I will use another like the melamine or really old lino sheets under RIVER sand and top dress with grass cuttings, pine needles, hay and shavings as needed. Most of this is free to us and composts readily under our berries or fruit trees which need mulching anyway. River sand is rough, good for cleaning feet, and breaks down into silica dust much slower. Dust is bad for chix and people so it has to be cleaned out once a year after sprinkling with water to keep down dust. Maybe we could do without it...?

 

[cjwaldon]

Check out this thread for another idea.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-graphic-gross-poop-pictures/210#post_8887088

 

[dw31]

actually, i advise avoiding bleach water because if that water were to somehow get into their food then it could kill them. and if it doesn't get into their food, what about the ground? chickens a lot of times will peck around the ground for insects and if the bleach is washed onto the ground it most likely will kill them...

 

[Ky Chicken Chic]

OK, call me crazy I'm new to these things they call chickens, but I've always wanted them so I'm gonna do it. I have dogs I'm what some might call "over protective of". I just prefer to say I'm cautious and careful because they're my responsibility. I'm planning the erection of the grand coop. Have everything situated in my head except....THE POOP !!! It's going to be a "travel by night operation". In other words, once I put the little chicky girls up each night I plan to move their coop, so in the morning they have all new bugs, guts, grass, etc to munch and they don't beat the heck out of one spot. NOW.... being "cautious" of possible chicken poop type diseases and knowing how two of my dogs will eat and smell anything .....WHAT DO I DO TO CLEAN THE AREA I JUST MOVED THE COOP AWAY FROM ???? I know bleach will kill parvo in grass but not sure about chicken poop diseases. I use DE for other things, but knowing the smelling noses of dogs and how DE is dangerous for them to breathe....WHAT DO I CLEAN THE GRASS WITH ????

 

[tolby]

WHAT DO I CLEAN THE GRASS WITH ????

The big benefit of movable coops is that the droppings enrich the soil, so you will get loads of nitrogen added - why kill the grass with bleach and ruin it? Dogs are dogs, they can handle a bit of poo, stop worrying!

 

[Den in Penn]

Some people have been know to wash, with a hose, the poop into the ground after the coop has been moved.