Excellent question, and if you ask 10 people, you might get 12 opinions! Here's my take: Chickens walk through their own poop all the time. I have yet to see them wear boots, or scrape the poo off their feet. When you put that poo in your compost, the microbes in the compost start to work on it right away. So, yes, go ahead and put that wonderful poo in your compost pile. Now, some folks actually keep their compost pile in their chicken run, adding all garden debris, and household scraps (non-meat, non-dairy). The chickens eat what they want, including all of the wonderful bugs that are attracted to a thriving compost pile. Personally, I would not choose to put any kitchen scraps in the chicken run unless I am confident that they will be eaten fairly soon. I don't want to advertise free food to the local predators and rodents. So, my household scraps that are not chicken worthy go in my big compost pile, or in my worm bin, or in my compost tumbler. My lawn clippings and miscellaneous garden debris go in the ground level of 2 story coop, garden waste that is of interest to the chickens go in their run. My poor, poor husband... he has given up on me! When he sees some less than table worthy stuff sitting on the counter, he doesn't dare to touch it, because, it's inevitable that he'll do the wrong thing with it! (The ultimate mis-direction of kitchen debris in my household is to put it in the trash!) When they free range, they have full access to the big compost pile. Let your girls work your compost pile. They need a job to do, and it will keep them busy and happy for hours.
