Do you Clean out poop from the run?

[SamIamNam786]

Ahhh, the chicken run ecosystem is probably one of my favorite parts about chicken keeping. Once you understand how things compost, and how to mitigate weather problems, its a marvelous hobby almost.
What I do know is everyones goal is the same: provide the chickens with a healthy ecosystem. What works for some, may not work for others. It's important to at least consider which zone these effective measures come from. I'm zone 6a and have a covered run. The 4 seasons is such a welcomed blessing in keeping a healthy coop/run. I have come to enjoy the deep winter months knowing all of mother natures creepy creatures are taking a break. At the end of the day, my healthy coop tip is a dry top layer always. Mother Nature takes care of the rest. When its super wet I add a bunch of straw, which eventually breaks down, drys and mixes with dry dirt in the run. In a perfect world I'd have dry leaves for every rain event

I just checked out my zone, I'm in nj, so 6b similar to yours. I have soil, some tree bark, a bag of sand in one area to dust, which they don't even dust in that area , and just picked up some pellets bc it will rain again this weekend . I plan to add pdz and the pellets . Do i need to wet them, or can i leave them dry? I feel that bc I'm not cleaning the poop, its getting smelly esp on damp days . I just bought a huge tarp that will hopefully go up tomorrow. (Already have a covered run but water manages to leak through .

 

[sharrielee]

I have sand in mine, and I throw a bit of hay in once in a while because the like to scratch around in it. At the end of the year I kind of sweep it out to get majority of grossness out and add some more sand. But my run is also covered so in the summer the sand doesn't get too hot on their feet. I also like to collect fallen leaves and thow a bit in there for them to scratch around in.

 

[Hens1952]

I use the product shown below. My ladies [no roosters - a.k.a. "serial rapists" - need apply!] are in an Omlet enclosure with a dirt floor. I work the droppings into the dirt periodically and give them a bag of Koop Clean and let them spread it around themselves - once a year.

 

[jBabychickn]

I used this

That's usually what I do, pile on a couple of pieces of bark over it. Today I set up my coop for winter by adding 1/2 hemp and 1/2pine and DE. Let's see how many months I can go without freaking out about cleaning it, tbh when I cleaned the old hemp out today, I was like I think I'm wasting this bc it's still so clean. I dumped it on the floor to cover some mud spots. They enjoyed kicking through it. I also added in a bag of topsoil and a bag of all purpose sand in the middle of the run so they can dirt bathe in it.

Same here! —
Except I use Peet moss with the All purpose sand instead of Top Soil, I’ve just always bought the chickens Peet moss to scratch around in, not sure if there’s much difference between the two tho; I do believe the Peet is softer, however … Anyway, we definitely are alike in our winter preps/coop maintenances Happy Holidays

 

[jBabychickn]

I use the product shown below. My ladies [no roosters - a.k.a. "serial rapists" - need apply!] are in an Omlet enclosure with a dirt floor. I work the droppings into the dirt periodically and give them a bag of Koop Clean and let them spread it around themselves - once a year.

Oh, okay…this already has the coop refresher in it! That’s cool I think I’d still prefer to have the bag of it myself, so I can decide where and how to sprinkle it around, ya know... Like if you wanna have any heavier concentrated areas

 

[sharrielee]

Just looked up Sweet PDZ horse stall refresher, much cheeper than the Koop Clean. Verified can be used with chickens. I'm going to try that, it's quite a bit cheaper.

 

[Henny Wrenny]

Curious to know if you all clean out poop from the run? I added pine bark nuggets and mix it around and it seems to be ok for now. Today, the edges of the run are getting muddy bc of the rain coming in from the sides. I'm reading to use pelletized bedding, but then it turns to sawdust. Are ppl picking out poop from it or just turning it often and letting everything just eventually become one with the dirt floor?

I added hardwood wood chips a year ago from a local tree guy. They are wonderful. The run stays dry and smells like a forest. I wouldn’t use the pellets again. They didn’t do great with rain, were expensive and neither did the pine shavings I use in the coop. Since my chickens don’t free range due to the number of predators I do pick up poop frequently since this is where they spend all their time. It just seems healthier to me. But the wood chips make the need much less frequently. They eventually disappear into the dirt and need to be replenished. Just what has worked for me.

 

[SamIamNam786]

Same here! —
Except I use Peet moss with the All purpose sand instead of Top Soil, I’ve just always bought the chickens Peet moss to scratch around in, not sure if there’s much difference between the two tho; I do believe the Peet is softer, however … Anyway, we definitely are alike in our winter preps/coop maintenances Happy Holidays

I couldn't find peat moss at tsc last time I went, otherwise I'd have added that!

I use the product shown below. My ladies [no roosters - a.k.a. "serial rapists" - need apply!] are in an Omlet enclosure with a dirt floor. I work the droppings into the dirt periodically and give them a bag of Koop Clean and let them spread it around themselves - once a year.

that's expensive for straw and hay,no? Id
pay a little more and get the hemp. And add in sweet pdz from tsc.

 

[Clementine2022]

Curious to know if you all clean out poop from the run? I added pine bark nuggets and mix it around and it seems to be ok for now. Today, the edges of the run are getting muddy bc of the rain coming in from the sides. I'm reading to use pelletized bedding, but then it turns to sawdust. Are ppl picking out poop from it or just turning it often and letting everything just eventually become one with the dirt floor?

I do both... once a month I take off the top layer of soil and replace it with all purpose sand. I do use the pelletized bedding when it gets muddy and work it in so there is no loose saw dust.

 

[Nutcup]

bark takes a long time to compost, I don't care for the pellets, or big wood chips, nor does my cat! The few times I've scraped the run, I add the scrapings to my compost pile. The hens will tear through the compost when they have a chance, and they love it...