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

[Silexian]

In the fall I either add it to our big compost pile. Or I will cover an entire garden with it. Then till it under in the spring. I side dress our sweet corn with fresh manure during the growing season. Since it is a heavy nitrogen feeder. I add a layer of composted manure to all of our fruit trees, berries and flowerbeds. Before adding new mulch.

 

[achiekitty]

My small coop does not have a solid floor. It has a 1/2” hardware cloth floor about 3 inches off the roost. The whole coop is about 2 feet off the ground.The poop goes on the ground underneath.
Every few weeks I would scoop up the dried-up poop with the bedding and add to the compost bin.

Lately, the girls have been scratching a lot under the coop and mixing the poop with the bedding. Less work for me.

 

[featherhead007]

I compact it, load it up in my rocket ship, and blast it off into space!

 

[LikeTurkeys]

We use sand, so it isn't really compostable. But the stuff that comes from poop boards is.

Most of the litter that's raked goes out into a big pile in the back lot. We usually have either grow out birds or molters shedding a lot of feathers at any given point in time, so there are a lot in the pile (which take a long time to break down). There are a lot of feathers in the yard too which can get pretty annoying!

 

[gardenofeeding]

It is essential to keep your chicken coop clean if you raise chickens. This includes changing the bedding (regardless of the method you use).

This week, we want to find out: How Do You Get Rid of Dirty Coop Bedding?

Place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other".

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Further Reading:

• Coop Health: Designing and Maintaining a Healthy Coop
• Using Sand In Your Chicken Coop
• Deep Litter Method - The Easiest Way To Deal With Chicken Litter

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

I use a pitchfork to turn the soil. We have sand in our coops. But it still gets dirty. I turn all the soil, rake out any hard clumps, and rake it smooth. Then work in Diamataeceous Earth and lime.

 

[Quarterhorses1]

Spread it in the woods

 

[Weetamoo93]

I scatter it in the run for composting. The system is a work in progress, but I try to make my chickens do the composting work.

 

[micstrachan]

I scatter it (pine shavings) in the run and then several months later, spread it around the yard where it seems to need fertilizer and cushion. I also treat my birds to rice hulls in the run a couple times a year, so the litter out there is nice and loose. The last few months, when I do my weekly turd clean out in the coop, I’ve been tossing it right into the yard. I may go back to tossing it into the run for a while after I do a coop cleanout, which I’m doing this week (after my new shop vaccsrrives Wednesdsy.)

 

[EEforMe]

most goes in the compost but some ends up around the run and then we still add some directly into the garden.

 

[Gsdmom87]

I'm not suggesting this will happen to everyone who scrapes bedding into the run, but this is what happened where I now look after the chickens.
The holes you can see are rat runs. The paper and poop has formed layers, beneath which is all sorts of stuff. I'll be digging it out in the future.
The rat runs go right underneath the coop and exit at the back.
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I didn't know! Thanks for sharing.