Official BYC Poll: How Do You Get Rid of Dirty Coop Bedding?

[MrsEarthern]

I use a mix of straw, pine and cedar shreds inside the coop. Coop bedding gets scattered in one corner of the run to begin to break down with more exposure to light and moisture. Once the chickens have scratched it into oblivion and eaten all the greens in that area of the run I intend to rake it into a pile to compost under a screened frame which I will then plant some Thyme, Oregano, and greens into for them to munch on.
I just use straw in the attached floor run, considering the chickens scratch and turn it so often that it breaks down quickly, I just top it off and once it gets low. The ground can stay damp here 9 months of the year so I am hoping the deep litter will provide some insulation and heat this winter. Mid-Spring I will rake it out and use it to create a new garden bed and start fresh in the floor run.

 

[Stephine]

I don’t use shavings in the coop because they take too much of the nutrients out of the compost. I used to use coopklean (not sure about the spelling), which is chopped hay and sweet PDZ. Now I just use waste hay from our barn - we have plenty between the horse and the sheep.
I do deep bedding, clean out every 6-8 weeks maybe. I have poop boards and pick up any obvious big poops or clumps in the bedding daily when scraping the boards. Everything stays nice and dry. Hay composts very well and doesn’t harbor mites like straw.
Just changed my run from shavings to wood chips and am very happy. No mud at all now that the rains have started. I just kept a load of chips from tree work we had done on the property and it sat in a oile to age a bit since spring. Chickens had a blast picking through it for bugs…

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

My henhouse is elevated with a plywood floor. Hemp is the bedding and its small enough to sift the poop using a kitty litter scooper with a makeshift handle so it looks like a shovel. I have 5 hens in a 4x8, 32sq ft henhouse so it stays pretty clean. The poop i scoop daily goes into a bucket which I dispose of in the woods. The hemp is the original from May 2021! It still is dry, great material. In 2021 i had about 8 inches of hemp covering the henhouse floor. Now as of 11/2022, i have about 3inches left. I have considered putting many dried leaves for more volume, but that will make daily poop cleanup more difficult as the poop falls between the leaves and I may not see it and do not want an overwhelming amount of poop hidden in the henhouse. As for now, with original hemp from over a year ago, it still smells fresh in there! I grow lavender and mint and dry those out and sprinkle in there from time to time. A dry henhouse with ample ventilation is what I have and thats huge! I want NO moisture in there. In the summer I will mist the hemp with water just a little to bring the dust down if necessary. In my opinion, a chickens henhouse needs daily poop maintenance. It takes 3 minutes. Good luck!

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Compost it! It takes a while to break down, put that would be a lot of shavings in the garbage, we have three coops.

I'd LLOVE LOVE to have three coops right about now. Alas, one is having to do.

 

[Iluveggers]

So I scoop under the roost boards every morning, and dump that bucket into the run with the dried leaves. When I close up a raised bed or plant garlic bulbs, I scoop up a broke down pile from the run & throw it on top. So far there is no smell, it is breaking down quite nicely, and it gives the girls a nice pile to scratch through when added to the leaves. Fingers crossed I won’t have to empty the whole coop to clean it until the spring. I get about 95% of the poops when I do a 5 minute pickup each morning!

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

I have 6 Earth Machine composters, and 2 homemade composters. I clean the poop boards in the coop and the poop in the run every morning when I feed them and spend time with them. This goes into a small bucket with lid. I collect food scraps from a cafe, and food scraps plus fall leaves from a place that serves daily free lunches mon-fri. My neighbor gives me her grass clippings. I mulch the leaves and store them in big bags by thr composters The chicken poop, grass and leaves get layered with the food scraps, and feeds the garden and raised beds.

 

[Wifeduck]

There is a progression…
Nesting boxes>coop floor>Run>path through to the back of our property.

 

[RaesChicks]

I have a compost pile, have thrown it in the woods, spread it around trees if it wasn’t too soiled. I recently moved my garden beds and have been taking it out and over to the beds to make a layer on the bottom that will get covered with the composted bedding and then two feet of soil. After that… I’m not sure what I’ll do.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

After forking it out the window, barrow it around the property and spread in low spots. Seed and fertilizer all in one application!

 

[Love Donkeys]

Spread out in our hay fields along with the donkey manure.