Do you Clean out poop from the run?

[rosemarythyme]

My chicken run composting litter is about 18 inches deep in the front of the run and tapers down to about 4-6 inches at the end of the run. My run is about 13X36 feet. That's a lot of material composting in there. It would be too much for me to turn over with a manual hoe. If I had a smaller setup or less composting material, I could get by with a hoe.

My run is a similar sq footage but the litter is much, much shallower (like I took off maybe 2" of material during my big clean out in summer), so that makes a huge difference. I couldn't imagine trying to turn 18" of material by hand!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Our run used to be a garden and still has a lot of grasses and other tough green things growing in it, so no, cleaning it is not necessary. The chickens scratch and cultivate it, looking for bugs and weed seeds, and any poop that survives their vigorous attention - the dogs take care of.

 

[SamIamNam786]

So I’ve been good at cleaning it daily over the last couple of weeks, I’ve laid paver bricks every few feet so I can hope to collect poop and don’t need to bring a bunch of germs into the house. It’s been working well!

 

[Granny23]

I know some people really like sand. Maybe it depends on where you live and if the run is covered or not. I live on a lake and when I first got poultry, I used free sand from the lake. When dry and fresh, it was OK. But when it got wet, mixed with duck/chicken/goose poo, the sand really smelled bad. I was constantly replacing it with fresh, clean sand. It was a lot of work.

Now I only dump organics in my chicken run and let them compost in place. It works much better for me than when I used to have sand as litter.

My coop is 4ft × 8ft and fully enclosed. They sleep in it or walk through it to get to another part of my yard. Ive tried a few different things.
The dirt floor it was built on, fluffy small animal shavings, (we get the Santa Ana winds. OMG what a nightmare that was!) the mulchy wood stuff you put around your plants (I had some extra. NEVER again) and the sand. The only problem with the sand is a couple of my cats love it! Need I say more?
It is so easy on my feet. I don't wear shoes often. It easy to clean too. I actually have 6 50lb bags of play sand waiting to be dumped.

 

[Granny23]

I use play sand in 50lb bags for my small coop. I scoop my 4x8ft coop floor periodically because I only have 5 hens. For larger coops it may not be ideal.

 

[Granny23]

So I’ve been good at cleaning it daily over the last couple of weeks, I’ve laid paver bricks every few feet so I can hope to collect poop and don’t need to bring a bunch of germs into the house. It’s been working well!

I live in a residential neighborhood. I have an enclosure like this attached to my original smaller coop. It has a dirt floor while I use sand in my small one. I only have 5 hens.

 

[gtaus]

My coop is 4ft × 8ft and fully enclosed. They sleep in it or walk through it to get to another part of my yard. Ive tried a few different things.
The dirt floor it was built on, fluffy small animal shavings, (we get the Santa Ana winds. OMG what a nightmare that was!) the mulchy wood stuff you put around your plants (I had some extra. NEVER again) and the sand. The only problem with the sand is a couple of my cats love it! Need I say more?
It is so easy on my feet. I don't wear shoes often. It easy to clean too. I actually have 6 50lb bags of play sand waiting to be dumped.

Do you live out in the desert? It seems that people that live in dry desert areas like sand for litter more than I do. Maybe I'd be more in favor of sand if I lived in a different location. But I tried sand and it was not so good for me. I've had much better success with converting the chicken run into a composting system.

Having said that, when I first got chickens, I had planned on using some of their litter for composting. I just ended up making a lot more chicken run compost than I had imagined. Which is good. I have doubled my garden size in the past 4 years.

 

[Chicken poppy]

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?

If its just dirt i usually cover it with dirt and the poop just helps grow some grass.

 

[Granny23]

Do you live out in the desert? It seems that people that live in dry desert areas like sand for litter more than I do. Maybe I'd be more in favor of sand if I lived in a different location. But I tried sand and it was not so good for me. I've had much better success with converting the chicken run into a composting system.

Having said that, when I first got chickens, I had planned on using some of their litter for composting. I just ended up making a lot more chicken run compost than I had imagined. Which is good. I have doubled my garden size in the past 4 years.

I live in San Bernardino County close to the Cajon Pass. It get toasty here but it really isnt desert. This is my 2nd time putting sand just in their roosting coop. After winter and any rain I may hate it.

 

[gtaus]

I live in San Bernardino County close to the Cajon Pass. It get toasty here but it really isnt desert. This is my 2nd time putting sand just in their roosting coop. After winter and any rain I may hate it.

I live on a lake and can get all the free sand I could use. When clean and dry, sand worked fine for me. But when it got poultry poo mixed in and then wet with rain, it smelled really bad. It was a lot of work for me. I don't like bad smells, so I was constantly cleaning and replacing the sand.

Organic deep litter as compost in the chicken run works better for me. I never have to clean it out, the chicken manure automagically disappears into the litter compost, and it make beautiful black gold compost for my gardens over a number of months.