Hello from northern Minnesota where we have had almost an entire week with daytime temps above freezing! It is still dropping down to the low 20F's at night, but the daytime temps are now reaching the mid 40F's. It's a bit early for the "big" spring cleaning where I will be emptying the deep litter out of the coop, but I got ambitious today and knocked down the frozen poo iceberg under the chicken roost in the coop. I was expecting a terrible smell from a winter's worth of piled up chicken poo, but to my surprise, there was not much smell at all. I had planned on maybe shoveling out the poo into a big muck bucket, but when I started breaking up the pile it went down into the wood chip deep litter very nicely. So I decided just to mix everything into the wood chips and then I threw a fresh bag of leaves into the coop on top of the bedding. I will probably throw on another muck bucket full of fresh wood chips into the coop in the next week or so, and let the chickens work that in.
The "big" spring cleaning will have to wait until the snow banks are melted and I can get out some yard equipment to move the old deep litter. At present, I plan on taking the old coop deep litter bedding and dumping it into the chicken run for in situ composting. But the ground is still frozen solid and I cannot get my chicken gate door open all the way. Next year I plan on having an access door that is maybe 12 inches off the ground. That would work better for where I live.
Anyway, another shout out for using my little Ryobi 18v cultivator for breaking up the poo pile and mixing everything into the wood chip deep litter. It really is a back saver for me. I don't think Ryobi makes that cultivator anymore, but I'll attach a picture of it because I know that same type of cultivator is still sold by other brands. My wife uses the cultivator more than me. She uses it a lot in her flower gardens. It's smaller than our garden tillers and much easier for her to handle.
Well, Minnesota is now in a stay at home initial 2 week period due to the Coronavirus situation. Unfortunately, it's still not spring here and there is very little work I can get done in my yard until the snow is gone. I have been watching some more YouTube videos and have a few projects planned for later in the spring, but mostly everything is on hold until the snow is melted and things dry up. I can't say I'm looking forward to the "big" spring clean up, but at least it's something that feels somewhat normal in these abnormal times.
The "big" spring cleaning will have to wait until the snow banks are melted and I can get out some yard equipment to move the old deep litter. At present, I plan on taking the old coop deep litter bedding and dumping it into the chicken run for in situ composting. But the ground is still frozen solid and I cannot get my chicken gate door open all the way. Next year I plan on having an access door that is maybe 12 inches off the ground. That would work better for where I live.
Anyway, another shout out for using my little Ryobi 18v cultivator for breaking up the poo pile and mixing everything into the wood chip deep litter. It really is a back saver for me. I don't think Ryobi makes that cultivator anymore, but I'll attach a picture of it because I know that same type of cultivator is still sold by other brands. My wife uses the cultivator more than me. She uses it a lot in her flower gardens. It's smaller than our garden tillers and much easier for her to handle.
Well, Minnesota is now in a stay at home initial 2 week period due to the Coronavirus situation. Unfortunately, it's still not spring here and there is very little work I can get done in my yard until the snow is gone. I have been watching some more YouTube videos and have a few projects planned for later in the spring, but mostly everything is on hold until the snow is melted and things dry up. I can't say I'm looking forward to the "big" spring clean up, but at least it's something that feels somewhat normal in these abnormal times.
Last edited:
