tossing scratch feed on the ground.

[RonP]

Amasing...

Ask them how do you stop a chicken from pecking on the ground even when you haven't put food there.

 

[Chicken Judy]

I'm new at this and when I read the first post about cleaning up the run every day...I almost fainted! I have 8 RIR's. I clean the coop and poop boards every day but I don't clean out the run very often. Since August, I have cleaned it out twice with intentions of doing it again Saturday when the weather here in GA is a little warmer. Hope I'm doing this right. The girls are healthy and laying good.

 

[sirrobyn0]

I'm new at this and when I read the first post about cleaning up the run every day...I almost fainted! I have 8 RIR's. I clean the coop and poop boards every day but I don't clean out the run very often. Since August, I have cleaned it out twice with intentions of doing it again Saturday when the weather here in GA is a little warmer. Hope I'm doing this right. The girls are healthy and laying good.

I would give you this bit of advise. Obviously I don't know the number of chickens you have or the size of their run, which will make difference as to how often you need to clean it out. But, unless your coop is over crowded you shouldn't need to clean the poop out of their run very often if ever. If all you ever see are a few spots of poop in the run I would wouldn't worry about it. At least where I am at the rain pretty much takes care of my run. Under the roost I clean out about once every two or three weeks as needed, and I change the hay in their nests as needed about every two weeks. Mainly you don't want them constantly standing and pecking in their poo nor do you want it building up.

Keep in mind that unlike us humans, chickens like to eat bugs, worms and other stuff in the dirt, some of which is found in poo. Plus as mentioned it is thought that there is the probiotic sharing though the pecking of each others poo. Some poo, is normal, fine and in fact maybe good for the chickens. I'd just say that you don't want them standing around in pile of poo all the time. So clean up the areas where it builds up in over time and don't worry about the rest of it.