pooper scooper needed

[frog522]

My run has all-purpose sand in it. The grains range anywhere from fine to very coarse (mostly medium). I've encountered a problem where my old cat scooper can't pick up small dried poop pieces (pieces because chickens step on it every so often and mashing and breaking it up) and and just falls through the holes. I haven't bought the reptile sand/bark scoopers because the netting is too fine and it would trap alot of sand in addition to the poop which isn't acceptable either.

The reason why I am trying to find a fix to this issue is because I believe if this keeps happening, there will be accumulation of these missed poop pieces over time, and the sand in the run will have alot of tiny poop pieces.

Does anyone have anything between a reptile sand scooper and a cat scooper in terms of being in terms of being able to filter sand? Or if anyone has a link to a cat scooper that has somewhat fine filtering slits that would work too.

What a pleasant topic, huh?

 

[Moabite]

I believe this is a good thing. Once a year scoop out all the old sand into the compost pile or garden and replace it with fresh sand.

For weekly cleanings, I built a frame from 2x4's that fits on top of my wheel barrow with 1/8 inch hardware cloth stretched across the bottom. I rake the run into a big pile and then shovel it onto and through the screen. What doesn't go through, goes into the compost pile, what does go through, gets dumped back into the run.

After while, like once a year or so, the sand has become pretty organic. This organic sand is fertilizer for lawns, gardens, potted plants and what-have-you.

 

[patandchickens]

Do you have some scraps of hardwarecloth and suchlike (even things like plastic strawberry boxes from the grocery store, mesh onion bags, etc) so that you could just EXPERIMENT with different materials and hole sizes til you find what works best in your particular situation? Then you could easily make a scooper out of that material. Ta da, a scooper customized to your particular chickens' poo

(e.t.a. - but you are not going to get it all, no matter what. A lot of it will tend to magically disappear and/or compost in place, not necessarily in a bad way. If, as a lot of time passes, you find the sand filling up with very tiny particles of composted (or uncomposted) chicken poo, to a degree that is objectionable, as the previous poster says it will make MARVELLOUS garden soil amendment (age it a little first). But most people who use sand do not report having that happen, so, just wait and see)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Imp]

I didn't like the way cat pooper scoopers were made so cheaply that they broke easily. So I went to the feed store. Bought a feed scoop for $2.99. Used an electric drill and a 1/4 inch drill bit and drilled a bunch of holes in the scoop. Sturdy and quick. It also fits into a coffee can for storage.

Imp

 

[kcfuerst]

I also have sans in my run. When I clean it, I spread a generous layer of DE and oyster shell lime over the top and let the girls mix it up. When it comes time to clean, I use my handy dandy chicken sifter which leaves the sand on the ground and the poop get poured into a 5 gallon bucket and hauled to the compost. My run is only 8'x40' so not so large that this job is cumbersome. I have 11 hens.

Easy to make out of 1/2" welded wire and a couple small stakes. Shovel the poo on top, rock it back and forth, and pour poo into bucket. It's THAT easy.