Run clean out?

[Kaesi2020]

Hi all, we have a roofed run attached to our coop. It is exposed to the elements on two sides (whole thing covered in hardware cloth) It has dirt ground and pine shavings which we have been adding to since April when we built it. We do not clean it out on a regular basis or anything, we just let the chickens turn the bedding over and from time to time we add more bedding. I'm wondering how often we should be completely cleaning the run out...once per year is what I have seen on some posts but I wanted to get some input based on our setup. It has never smelled before but just recently I noticed a slight ammonia smell, reminded me of the smell from a cat litter box almost. Does a full clean up mean completely emptying out all shavings till you are back down to the dirt floor and then refilling again over time? Thank you!!

 

[3KillerBs]

If you notice a smell and it doesn't clear up by adding another layer of bedding then it probably is indeed time to clean it out.

What I did with my in-town run in that situation was fork out as much of the dirty bedding as I could reasonably manage to get out then start over with fresh bedding. The dirty bedding was formed into a compost pile, watering in layers, and eventually ended up in my garden.

 

[Kaesi2020]

If you notice a smell and it doesn't clear up by adding another layer of bedding then it probably is indeed time to clean it out.

What I did with my in-town run in that situation was fork out as much of the dirty bedding as I could reasonably manage to get out then start over with fresh bedding. The dirty bedding was formed into a compost pile, watering in layers, and eventually ended up in my garden.

Excellent thanks so much. I'll add another layer and then decide if it's time for a reboot!

 

[MissMonty]

If you're noticing a pretty strong odor I'd clean it rather than just covering it up. The chickens will dig and move the bedding around so they'll just mix the new bedding in with the old and release the smell again. If its been since April its probably time to give it a good cleaning. I clean ours every 6 months or so. There are ways to make it last longer but for us this works

 

[David61]

Every 3 or 4 months for me. Just depends on how much rain and heat but never more than 4 months . I don't really get everything as such, just the bulk of it. I can look at it now and know when and don't wait for smell.
As a matter of fact, tomorrow is muck out day. I'll rake out most of it. level the floor, spray everything with 13.3 permethrin. Then dump the nest box bedding on the floor, spray and refill nest boxes. What leftover out of the TSC bail of pine flake from filling the nest boxes gets dumped on the floor with the other and raked out. It's worked well for me in my 6x14 coved run with 10 birds.

 

[aart]

Might depend on how big the run is and how many birds you have.
Might also depend on if you have drainage issues.
Pine shavings are not really hefty enough to break down poops.
I have never cleaned out my run in 7 years.

My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.

 

[Kaesi2020]

If you're noticing a pretty strong odor I'd clean it rather than just covering it up. The chickens will dig and move the bedding around so they'll just mix the new bedding in with the old and release the smell again. If its been since April its probably time to give it a good cleaning. I clean ours every 6 months or so. There are ways to make it last longer but for us this works

Thanks! What does you clean out process look like? Removing everything and starting new?

 

[Kaesi2020]

Might depend on how big the run is and how many birds you have.
Might also depend on if you have drainage issues.
Pine shavings are not really hefty enough to break down poops.
I have never cleaned out my run in 7 years.

My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.

Do you buy your wood chips or have them around? Those look a lot better for breaking down than the shavings we use. I like the shavings for the coop but not so much anymore for the run. The run is 17 feet long and 5 feet wide for 6 chickens. We have an extended run as well (not predator proof but we use it when we are outside or nearby) but we never put anything down there, it's just dirt. The regular run is a dirt ground floor with about 6inch to a foot deep of shavings, grass clippings, hay, etc. It's very bouncy when you walk in it too. I think if we clean it out we should switch to wood clippings.

 

[aart]

Do you buy your wood chips or have them around?

Never bought them.
A friend had huge piles dumped on his land and we moved some over here.
The pile I have now came from nearby village DPW's yardtrash yard.
I moved some then got them to move a couple big dump trucks full.
Both came from tree trimmers....and luckily I have lots of land to store them.

 

[redmike2018]

Every 3 or 4 months for me. Just depends on how much rain and heat but never more than 4 months . I don't really get everything as such, just the bulk of it. I can look at it now and know when and don't wait for smell.
As a matter of fact, tomorrow is muck out day. I'll rake out most of it. level the floor, spray everything with 13.3 permethrin. Then dump the nest box bedding on the floor, spray and refill nest boxes. What leftover out of the TSC bail of pine flake from filling the nest boxes gets dumped on the floor with the other and raked out. It's worked well for me in my 6x14 coved run with 10 birds.

David what is 13.3 Permethrin? New to chickens.