Run Question

[C. Conner]

I cleaned my chicken run and then added sand. I use a metal kitty litter scoop to clean the poop several times a day. Hardly any smell from my 19 hens! I use pine shavings in my coop and shavings and hay in the nest boxes. I also have poop platforms under the roost that I clean every morning. Only takes about 30 minutes in the morning to clean and feed. I take all the poop to my compost pile.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

I cleaned my chicken run and then added sand. I use a metal kitty litter scoop to clean the poop several times a day. Hardly any smell from my 19 hens! I use pine shavings in my coop and shavings and hay in the nest boxes. I also have poop platforms under the roost that I clean every morning. Only takes about 30 minutes in the morning to clean and feed. I take all the poop to my compost pile.

very nice!!!

 

[Susan Dye]

Beautiful set up you have there! Lucky girls!
I'm a low-tech kinda guy, and my laziness is reflected in my chicken run. I have a 16' x 20' foot open yard for the birds. There is a 3' x 6' "loafing shed" in one corner to give them shade in the summer and shelter from sudden thunderstorms the rest of the year. The yard is dirt...period. I throw them scratch every morning, and what weeds/garden scraps that are seasonably available. I also give them kitchen scraps, collected in the "chicken bucket" on by the kitchen sink.
They happily scratch, root and cultivate that plot of dirt to their heart's content, rejoicing at whatever insects or worms get in the way.
Yeah, it's a chicken yard, complete with poop, holes they've dug and scraps (weed stalks) they have declined. Every 18 to 24 months I roll the rototiller into their yard and turn it over properly. I may skim some of the beautiful topsoil off for a flower bed, or planting box. Then I turn them back out into the yard and there is mad scramble for any creepy-crawlies I may have unearthed. Their favorite holiday!
So my advice to any folks stressing over a well manicured chicken run is: don't use any litter and just let 'em be chickens.

That sounds a lot like my set up. I have a mostly closed in area in one corner of their yard that used to "hide" the leaves and grass clippings, now those get dumped in their yard. Put some clear panelling on top and took the gated door off. I call it their "club house" cause it always looks like they are running in there to hold private meetings. They do most of their dust bathing in there. Hmmm, maybe I should rename it their "bath house". I keep food and water in there and when there is snow on the ground, I shovel a path from their run to the club house so they don't have to stay cooped up in their small run. It's their go to place in bad weather.
Will have to try tilling up part of their yard. I hadn't thought of doing that. It certainly wouldn't hurt since there isn't a blade of grass or anything else growing there. And what fun it would be to watch them!

 

[Rick&Chris]

I cleaned my chicken run and then added sand. I use a metal kitty litter scoop to clean the poop several times a day. Hardly any smell from my 19 hens! I use pine shavings in my coop and shavings and hay in the nest boxes. I also have poop platforms under the roost that I clean every morning. Only takes about 30 minutes in the morning to clean and feed. I take all the poop to my compost pile.

Love it! Looks like a beach house!

 

[Aunt Angus]

Honestly, I like the way my run/coop smell. Weird, right? Smells like a forest because of the leaves and wood chips and whatnot. I only have 4 pulleys and a week old chick in there, which helps a lot. And they spend much of the day roaming my yard. Not a lot of poop in there, to speak of.

I know most ppl who deep litter don't stir it and let their chickens do the work, but I like to take it over every couple of weeks. It doesn't really need it, but it gives me an excuse to spend time out there. I do, however, scoop the poop board every day so I can have fertilizer.

I don't clean my run. I just add to it and stir it up. I just cleaned out my coop today for the first time in about a year. It never smelled badly. Always like a forest. I only cleaned it because of the dust and cobwebs that accumulated.

I love deep litter. It's soooooo low maintenance!

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I cleaned my chicken run and then added sand. I use a metal kitty litter scoop to clean the poop several times a day. Hardly any smell from my 19 hens! I use pine shavings in my coop and shavings and hay in the nest boxes. I also have poop platforms under the roost that I clean every morning. Only takes about 30 minutes in the morning to clean and feed. I take all the poop to my compost pile.

Wow, that looks great!

 

[jeepgrrl]

View attachment 1749135 View attachment 1749136 View attachment 1749137 I put wood chips in my covered run ... has been working well, but I really can't clean the poop from it. Should I just rake to turn it over (as I've been doing), add more, or add a different material on top like pine shavings, or take it out and put in sand?

Gosh, these girls are a LOT of work, LOL!

Personally, I like sand in the run (not the white sandbox play sand, but all-purpose sand). It dries out quickly when it rains, it doesn't blow around everywhere and get tracked out of the run like pine shavings do, and it doesn't smell. I just keep adding more sand to the run when it looks like it needs it. And its easy to clean, just make a giant scoop out of a pitchfork with 1/4" hardware cloth wrapped around the forked end, literally takes less than 30 seconds to scoop out the run. I use pine shavings in the coop and its a lot of work to replace it every spring.

 

[green_thumb]

Personally, I like sand in the run (not the white sandbox play sand, but all-purpose sand). It dries out quickly when it rains, it doesn't blow around everywhere and get tracked out of the run like pine shavings do, and it doesn't smell. I just keep adding more sand to the run when it looks like it needs it. And its easy to clean, just make a giant scoop out of a pitchfork with 1/4" hardware cloth wrapped around the forked end, literally takes less than 30 seconds to scoop out the run. I use pine shavings in the coop and its a lot of work to replace it every spring.

Hmmm...I keep reading conflicting things about deep litter vs sand in our climate, @jeepgrrl. At first I was sold on sand until I read some threads about it stinking to high heaven after heavy rains (which Ohio seems to be having more and more frequently...) so then I thought I should do deep litter. But you say sand works for you, is your run covered? I was thinking of covering the whole run but then @aart mentioned it helping with breaking things down...my only concern would be the snow in winter. So many decisions !

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hmmm...I keep reading conflicting things about deep litter vs sand in our climate

It's because every set up is different, everyone's methods of managing waste is different, and everything from microclimates to soil to ground slopes can vary even if you're only a few houses away from someone else who uses one litter system or another.

For example I have a lot of ground water, high enough that I've never watered my lawn and it stays green even through full summer sun - which also means that if I were to use sand, it would not truly dry out for most of the year, and that would become a stinky mess pretty fast. But less than 1/2 mile away everyone has to water their lawn, so even though they're so close by, their ground conditions are already very different.

 

[aart]

It's because every set up is different, everyone's methods of managing waste is different, and everything from microclimates to soil to ground slopes can vary even if you're only a few houses away from someone else who uses one litter system or another.

Ditto Dat^^^
Size of run and number of birds can make a huge difference too.
No way would I sift poops out of sand from ~20 birds in my 500sqft of run space.