How do you clean poop off ground?

[New2COchicks]

I hear chickens poop a lot. i Plan on keeping them in the part of the yard with pea pebbles and another part of the yard with dirt and grass. How do you clean the ground?

 

[black_cat]

i'm not an expert, but if you're not planning on laying down bedding, I bet you could just hose it down

 

[noregerts]

I hear chickens poop a lot. i Plan on keeping them in the part of the yard with pea pebbles and another part of the yard with dirt and grass. How do you clean the ground?

They poop constantly. Unless things get out of hand, I let Mother Nature clean with rain. Some people do rake up poop regularly though. I don’t know how you’d get it off pea gravel except with the hose.

 

[3KillerBs]

People who use sand in their runs scoop it like a catbox frequently but it reputedly gets smelly in wet climates.

I'm a fan of deep litter in the run, which is a form of cold composting where you use a mix of compost "browns" as bedding: wood chips, shavings, pine straw, straw, etc. and keep layering it on until it either becomes inconveniently deep (spilling out the run door, etc), or you need some compost for the garden.

Some people with large runs and well-established systems never clean out the run. I had to clean it out about twice a year -- or any time that I developed an odor problem that couldn't be fixed with another 4-6" layer of pine straw/shavings.

I have no experience with chickens and gravel, but I can only think that the poop would run down into the gravel when it rains and create an odor problem that can only be solved by taking the gravel back out with a bobcat.

 

[Painted Calls]

I do sort of a deep litter method. My run consists of deciduous leaf litter, old pine shavings from the coop, woodstove ash and dirt from the composted leaves.

I will pick out larger poops daily with a shovel, but the birds do a good job of turning everything over and the weather takes care of the rest.

This year I may need to rake more though as I plan on covering the entire run. We shall see.

 

[aart]

People who use sand in their runs scoop it like a catbox frequently but it reputedly gets smelly in wet climates.

I'm a fan of deep litter in the run, which is a form of cold composting where you use a mix of compost "browns" as bedding: wood chips, shavings, pine straw, straw, etc. and keep layering it on until it either becomes inconveniently deep (spilling out the run door, etc), or you need some compost for the garden.

Some people with large runs and well-established systems never clean out the run. I had to clean it out about twice a year -- or any time that I developed an odor problem that couldn't be fixed with another 4-6" layer of pine straw/shavings.

I have no experience with chickens and gravel, but I can only think that the poop would run down into the gravel when it rains and create an odor problem that can only be solved by taking the gravel back out with a bobcat.

Great synopsis!

 

[3KillerBs]

Great synopsis!

Thank you.

I only have a little experience with a few chickens, but since that system worked so well for me I'm glad to be able to share it -- after all, I owe it to the people here who passed their experience to me.

Compost for my garden is one of my reasons for keeping chickens so between that and the fact that I can clean at my convenience the deep litter/deep bedding system is perfect for me.

 

[rosemarythyme]

if you're not planning on laying down bedding, I bet you could just hose it down

Water + chicken poop generally = stinky mess. I know a few folks on here get away with using just dirt as run "litter" but in most environments it's best to have an actual litter system in place, and clean it in whatever way as appropriate to the litter system.