Need info about chickens, poop and kids!

[KristaBeth]

We are picking up our 4 chicks tomorrow. We live in the suburbs and have a small (ish) fenced-in backyard, they will be allowed access to the yard once they are old enough. Will the chickens poop in the yard or do they mostly do it in the coop? We have 3 kids (7, 5, and 15 months) who will be sharing the yard with them. How do you prevent the kids from stepping in poop all the time? How do I keep things clean and relatively sanitary?

Thanks!

 

[mamato3]

The only way i know how to control there poo is lock them in there small pen for most of the day and let them out for like an hour or so a day to have some access to fresh grass and bugs now if your kids like my kids they will will go feed the chickens grass and bugs when there out playing my kids love to see them go after the bugs lol

 

[louloubean]

the only way to keep the poop out of the yard, is to keep the birds out of the yard.

there will be a larger visible pile under their roost, but otherwise, the silly birds just kind of walk around and poop wherever they want.

i have managed to "train" sort of, my birds to stay off our deck (otherwise my kids chase them!) but our birds have 5 acres to roam. the deck is kinda boring in comparison.

with only 4 birds, you could put them in an "ark" style coop and keep moving them around to fresh grass.

good luck!

 

[mrbstephens]

Well, my kids basically step in poop whenever there is poop to step in.

 

[elmo]

I use a kitty litter scoop and a gardening trowel to pick up any poop that I spot around the pathways in our yard. I'm not sure how much bigger the droppings of standard chickens are, but the droppings of our bantams are quite small ordinarily, although every once in a while they'll have a big one. It's not as bad as stepping in dog poop, that's for sure.

 

[cajun]

when i was kid [ man that was long ago] i was allways bare foot playing in pasture. ive probably had every kind of poop between my toes, from cow to chicken, never hurt me none but dont ask my wife. kids will know what to do if they step in it. might even make them alittle less sencetive to to other things in life.

 

[nataliewt]

We had six hens in our medium-ish backyard when we lived in town. We just used a dog pooper-scooper every other day or so. Just took a few minutes and wasn't a big deal at all. The best part our friends were so friendly and my son who was 2 at the time petted them all the time. Now we live on a farm and they have more space - and aren't looking for affection (AKA treats) from us as much.

Natalie

 

[huntsman]

Quote:
I'm with you on this, cajun...

 

[ozark hen]

chickens + yard= poop

chickens + coop= poop

add kids + chickens= poop

 

[bantiesrule]

Quote:
I'm with you on this, cajun...

Ahhhh!!!!! Those were the days!