poop in the grass

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Okay, so I have no problem with the manure in the chicken house, but what is the best way to dispose of manure that they deposit when they are ranging on the grass? Should I just dust it with stall dry and leave it, spray it down into the soil, leave it to dry and try to rake it up?

The problem is that is the only manure that is giving me a bit of a fly problem and given the fact that we are outlaws for the moment, I need to keep my neighbours from getting irritated.

Cheryl

 

[annek]

Don't know how heavy yours is. When mine is a problem I just turn on the sprinkler and it disappears pretty quick. If you don't want to water it in, stall dry will work and won't hurt your lawn.

 

[goldnchocolate]

My chickens walk around to the front of the house where the kids play so I pick up the poops before I send the kids out. I carry a 7 oz dixy cup and I have a baggie on my other hand. I just walk around, picking up the poops (same as I do for the dogs--only chicken poop is much smaller

) with the "baggie hand" and drop them in the cup. When the cup is full I dump it on my compost pile

. It only takes a few minutes, several times a day. My only other option would be to fence in the pasture so they can't get to the front but I like watching them scratch around under the trees.

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

I guess I should clarify what I mean by ranging. They are in a moveable run attached to their house and so they tend to stamp their poop into the grass whilst they are hunting and pecking.

I have been trying to rake up as much as I can and then I have been spreading stall dry to try and keep the flies at bay. I am just concerned about whether my grass will be okay like this, or should I try and spray the poop down. When it is dry, it is harder to spray down and the weather has been very hot and dry here these last weeks, so by the end of the day, the flattened poop is pretty dried up.

I would move them more often, but I can't move the rig by myself and there never seems to be a big strapping broken X chromosome around when I need one!

Cheryl

 

[CMV]

The biggest thing you need to worry about is leaving their tractor in one place too long. I got lazy 3 times over last year. I can tell you exactly how many times because I have 3 bare spots on my lawn where the lawn doesn't grow back. If you move their tractor about every 3-5 days then that's a good period of time. Rake up the poop. Sometimes I wet down the area to make sure I can lift as much of the embedded manure as possible. That's all I do unless it's really stinky. If it's stinky a little DE takes care of that. My lawn takes about 3-4 weeks to grow out each spot where the coop has been. I also move it in a grid pattern to get the most out of my available space. It's not hot or dry where I live, so you may have tend your yard more frequently. It's important to make sure you rake as much manure as possible off the ground. That's what burns your lawn and kills it.
Good luck.