Since there has been (literally) 2 rain periods (not even days, just a few minutes each time!) in the past 2 months, our meatie pen is rather, um, full of dried up flaking poo.
I've tried watering to help break up the poo. I've tried raking to gather the poo in a heap so I can scoop with our flat-nosed shovel. I've tried letting the flies 'help' break it up (sorry, never ever seen a creepie crawlie - they must be 'extra' chick feed) to no luck. Watering just causes the poo to act like a barrier - the water runs over it and never saturates it. Raking just causes the poo to break up into smaller and finer bits that are uncollectable. And while I see a fair amount of flies (thanks to our neighbor's horse manure heap), I've yet to see anything that looks like a maggot to be eating the yuck. I've even tried using our doggie poo-scooper thing, but the teeth are too far apart on that scoop.
How do you clean up the yard and help Mother Nature reclaim the area?
I'll need to divide my layer flock very very quickly. The rangers were supposed to be done by now (but are not yet) so that I could seperate our Black Java broody hens with chicks from the other Java hens and Java rooster into this adjacent run. Well, the rangers are still here (and likely will be until the 27th) but the chicks are here as well! 4 of 10 hatched yesterday (yeah!) and the remaining 6 are set to hatch on the 25th! So I've got the rooster and hens mostly in the yard and the broodies and chicks haven't made it out of the coop (Mom hasn't brought them out yet). I'm keeping fingers crossed that all will be well - but need the ranger space cleared in case it's not. Or at least a clean-enough corner to put a mini-coop and a temporary fence to seperate the two groups. Have the mini-coop at the ready, but the ground certainly isn't - not for brand new babies.
So how do you clean up after 25 meaties have completely covered the space with poo? The grass is greener and taller than anywhere else in the yard - but if you move it around a bit, the dirt has a fine layer of poo on top of it. Ewww.....
A picture to help, this is where the tractor sat for a week too long (didn't make that mistake twice!):
I've tried watering to help break up the poo. I've tried raking to gather the poo in a heap so I can scoop with our flat-nosed shovel. I've tried letting the flies 'help' break it up (sorry, never ever seen a creepie crawlie - they must be 'extra' chick feed) to no luck. Watering just causes the poo to act like a barrier - the water runs over it and never saturates it. Raking just causes the poo to break up into smaller and finer bits that are uncollectable. And while I see a fair amount of flies (thanks to our neighbor's horse manure heap), I've yet to see anything that looks like a maggot to be eating the yuck. I've even tried using our doggie poo-scooper thing, but the teeth are too far apart on that scoop.
How do you clean up the yard and help Mother Nature reclaim the area?
I'll need to divide my layer flock very very quickly. The rangers were supposed to be done by now (but are not yet) so that I could seperate our Black Java broody hens with chicks from the other Java hens and Java rooster into this adjacent run. Well, the rangers are still here (and likely will be until the 27th) but the chicks are here as well! 4 of 10 hatched yesterday (yeah!) and the remaining 6 are set to hatch on the 25th! So I've got the rooster and hens mostly in the yard and the broodies and chicks haven't made it out of the coop (Mom hasn't brought them out yet). I'm keeping fingers crossed that all will be well - but need the ranger space cleared in case it's not. Or at least a clean-enough corner to put a mini-coop and a temporary fence to seperate the two groups. Have the mini-coop at the ready, but the ground certainly isn't - not for brand new babies.
So how do you clean up after 25 meaties have completely covered the space with poo? The grass is greener and taller than anywhere else in the yard - but if you move it around a bit, the dirt has a fine layer of poo on top of it. Ewww.....
A picture to help, this is where the tractor sat for a week too long (didn't make that mistake twice!):
