Cleaning the run

[Love My Chickies]

Looking for advice. I've read about the deep litter method for the coop, but not sure how to take care of the run. We are almost finished building our coop and my babies will be living there very soon. For now, we will have a smallish run, but will add to it as finances allow. It will be about 4 ft wide and about 8 ft long. It will be covered with hardware cloth. About half of that will be covered with a tarp for shade and rain. The ground is grass and some dirt. How do you manage cleaning/poop?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Deep litter is much more commonly used in the run, not the coop. Any photos of your set up thus far? Depending on number of chickens vs the set up size, deep litter may or may not work, as it's sort of a composting system so you'd need enough volume of litter to "digest" the poop.

If you're planning on picking up poop daily, then almost any sort of litter would work.

 

[Love My Chickies]

I wasn't sure about litter in the run, with the rain. Right now I have 4, one is a very small breed, but I'm not sure how many will turn out to be roosters.

 

[Love My Chickies]

The run is on the other side of the coop, you can see through the second photo.

 

[yakitori]

I’ve never had to clean my run... I do add new leaf litter/wood chips/ mulch from time to time... or take out some of the bedding when I want to use it as compost for the garden, but that’s about all.

The coop is dry and cleaned out maybe once every 3 months or half a year, depending on season.

I found that having enough woodchips will prevent the run from being muddy after extensive rain.

 

[rosemarythyme]

View attachment 2735487View attachment 2735488
The run is on the other side of the coop, you can see through the second photo.

I would advise against deep litter in your coop because of the wood floor. Deep litter needs some moisture in order to compost so is generally done on a dirt floor.

 

[Love My Chickies]

I would advise against deep litter in your coop because of the wood floor. Deep litter needs some moisture in order to compost so is generally done on a dirt floor.

We were going to put some extra vinyl tile we have on the floor, to make it easier to clean.

 

[3KillerBs]

Here is my article on Deep Bedding, which is what you can do on a wood floor. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

To never ever have to clean in the run you need to achieve the perfect balance of carbon (the litter), nitrogen (the poop), and moisture to get the composting to proceed at the perfect rate. Some people achieve this. Others find that the litter will eventually pile up to the point where it's spilling over the door frames (tip, build the door frames so that the door is up off the ground), and they have to shovel some out. Others find that they develop an odor that isn't solved by adding another layer of litter and thus they have to shovel out and start over.

While the idea of a never-clean run is appealing, I personally don't want to do it because I want to generate compost for my garden.

 

[Sally PB]

While the idea of a never-clean run is appealing, I personally don't want to do it because I want to generate compost for my garden

Ditto on this. This fall will be time for me to shovel some wonderful, rich litter out of my run. I'll add a bunch of fallen leaves for them to work on to start next year's garden gold.

 

[Marie2020]

Looking for advice. I've read about the deep litter method for the coop, but not sure how to take care of the run. We are almost finished building our coop and my babies will be living there very soon. For now, we will have a smallish run, but will add to it as finances allow. It will be about 4 ft wide and about 8 ft long. It will be covered with hardware cloth. About half of that will be covered with a tarp for shade and rain. The ground is grass and some dirt. How do you manage cleaning/poop?

This is my method, Ive added wood chips into their run only yesterday and no slug trails this morning for the first time ever. Plus as already said woodchips is great at absorbing the wet.

Another big couple of plus's for me is, these wood chips can be used again to add around any flower beds and if you have clay soil as I do, I've been told by an experienced gardener that it can be mixed in to break up the solid clay.

I've used deep bedding inside my coop for a few years with no problems at all. I use bentonite clay too keep out the most of the bad bugs then add wood shavings and finally straw, currently I am using barley straw.

As a preventive against mosquitoes I add a sprig of lavender and rosemary then wipe around the inside of the coop with a damp rag with a few drops of eucalyptus oil.

The deep bedding can be added to a composting bin or collection.