The most disgusting chicken I've ever raised

[chiques chicks]

I actually know someone that free ranges them. They feed very little. They grow slower, taste great and spread the mess around.

Yes a lot of people view their chickens purely as pottery's, but as you poke around you'll find people that aren't afraid to process, as well. I have a little of both.

 

[HollyFoss]

I was wonding this too! My coop is outside, and my birds have a good size run. But my oh my the poop and the smell! I was wondering if I should be putting shavings down and shoveling the coop regularly. (We harvest ours this weekend) we have another round of 30 moving out of the brooder in a few weeks, and I may try to change the coop a bit. Since its only up for the summer.

 

[MichaelZ13]

When I had a pen I ran them out in a fenced yard during the day and then cleaned their pen area every few days and put down fresh straw. So they had a clean area most of the time. It still stunk quite a bit but I got some great compost material - I don't think I had a garden as good as that year! But I now use pine shavings in my brooder as hay is supposed to be problematic. And when they were in the yard, the poo would wash away by the rain and decompose to some extent. So all you would have to do is cut a hole in your pen, hinge on a door with a lock of some sort, and put up some fence that could be as simple as a roll of welded wire with a few posts (if needed).

I use a chicken tractor now. If moved daily, they have a nice clean area all the time.

 

[ohiohomesteader]

I've got them in a 10x20x3'pen. Today i came up with an idea for next year. Use 10, 10' pieces of rebar (it's about $5) a piece. Use staples to hold them in place about a foot or so off the ground then underneath at an angle place large pieces of flashing to catch the poop. I'm undecided if i want to use a 5 gallon bucket to catch the poop after i spray the flashing with water or cut a hole in the flashing and add a pipe to take the water/poop away to a near by ditch on my property.i think this would be more economical than digging a hole the size of the pen about 8 inches deep and filling with gravel and spraying it with water as need be