Useful power tool for winter clean outs

[pennyJo1960]

I simply add wood ash not DE bugs do not like wood ash either

 

[gtaus]

I would just like to point out that Diatomaceous Earth will also kill the good bugs that you need for composting, so if your bedding is intended for your garden, you should probably not use DE.

Yes, I do intend to use my deep litter bedding as compost/mulch for the garden. Thank you for that head's up.

 

[equustears]

Still uncertain why you think a droppings board with some dry sand and PDZ wouldn't work with sifting the poop out once or twice a week. Seems like a lot less work to me, but in the end it may not be. FWIW, I don't use a droppings board, either, but my climate is totally different and my "floor" under the roost is not solid.
View attachment 1986198

 

[equustears]

I found a hanging drop cloth to work the best. I purchased a small blue tarp and some cup hooks from the dollar store. Attached tarp to the coop wall and then to front of the perch. It creates a pouch that captures the biggest % of poops . In winter the frozen poop doesn’t stick to tarp , pops right off if you crinkle tarp. Then rehang . Makes it easy to make compost as well . I also like it for summer as you can spray inside with Pam bakers spray or dust it with dme and the poops fail right out . Also cuts down on flys , they don’t seem to like the blue color of the inside tarp area.
My daughter enlarged my coop this summer and added poop boards but I’ll be going back to the catch tarps this spring . I throw dry Sawdust on the boards so the poop doesn’t stick but there’s always a spot that’s missed .

 

[gtaus]

I found a hanging drop cloth to work the best. I purchased a small blue tarp and some cup hooks from the dollar store. Attached tarp to the coop wall and then to front of the perch. It creates a pouch that captures the biggest % of poops . In winter the frozen poop doesn’t stick to tarp , pops right off if you crinkle tarp. Then rehang . Makes it easy to make compost as well . I also like it for summer as you can spray inside with Pam bakers spray or dust it with dme and the poops fail right out . Also cuts down on flys , they don’t seem to like the blue color of the inside tarp area.
My daughter enlarged my coop this summer and added poop boards but I’ll be going back to the catch tarps this spring . I throw dry Sawdust on the boards so the poop doesn’t stick but there’s always a spot that’s missed .

I like the idea of a catch tarp. I was thinking of using empty feed bags to catch the poo, and then just compost the bag and the poo together. Having said that, I thought the theory of using deep litter in the coop was to not have to use a poop board and not have to clean it out very often. Until I hit the winter deep freeze, that system was working great for me. Now, the poop is freezing and building up, but it does not smell. I still think the idea is to just throw fresh litter over the piled up frozen poo during the winter, and be prepared to clean it out this spring with the melt.

 

[pennyJo1960]

That is what I do I do little clean up I have a childs rake and snow shovel I scoop allot on top through it in my garbage can , a can I keep in the coop when I scrape tables into the shovel with a drywall spreader

 

[aart]

I found a hanging drop cloth to work the best. I purchased a small blue tarp and some cup hooks from the dollar store. Attached tarp to the coop wall and then to front of the perch. It creates a pouch that captures the biggest % of poops

Often called a poop 'hammock'.
Can work great in coop if you've got the room to maneuver it.
I use one for my slaughter staging setup.

 

[gtaus]

Personally, I am very much helped by best reviews, which told me a lot about useful tools. Recently, I really needed a good and high-quality chainsaw. I think that in such reviews you can very easily find exactly the tool that you need. I think it will help you a lot if you look at the options that are there, compare prices, quality, disadvantages and inconveniences. This is very convenient and interesting, so I chose a very high-quality chainsaw that was also suitable for a good price

Never heard of "best reviews." Is it a web site or something? Link available?

I personally have 6 different chainsaws that I have accumulated over the years just for work around the house. But I do have 3 acres and lots of trees. My best gas chain saw is a 16 inch Stihl chainsaw and that I use only when the other saws are not up to the task. I have recently decided to get away from using the gas chainsaws because they are such a pain to maintain and keep running if you don't use them regularly. I switched to getting Tru-Fuel in a can and that stuff works much better for the chainsaw. My problem with gas chainsaws is that I only used them maybe a few times per year and the carb would get fouled up from the gas sitting in the chainsaw and getting old. The Tru-Fuel in a can is very expensive, but it has additives in it to make it last longer and help your carb stay clean. So, it's worth it.

All my other chainsaws are cordless chainsaws in the Ryobi line. I have an old 10 inch 18v Ryobi (blue) chainsaw which I never really liked and never used much. Then I bought the Ryobi 40 volt 14 inch chainsaw, which is very nice. So, I also bought the Ryobi 18v 12 inch chainsaw which I probably use more than anything around the house. I also have a Ryobi 8 inch pruning saw on the extended pole for cutting branches up in the tree. That I usually only use a few times per year, but it's better than having to get up on a ladder for that small stuff.

I suppose there are better cordless chainsaws than the ones offered by Ryobi, but I already have all the Ryobi batteries and that is the major cost of these cordless systems. For convenience, it's so much easier for me to slap in a battery and go out and cut up a fallen branch and be done with the job. No more fighting with the gas chainsaw trying to get it started, especially if it has been maybe a year since last use.

All my chainsaws are made for the home user and none are really good for serious felling trees. But you have to match your chainsaw with your expected needs and I guess I have that covered pretty well.

Just a quick story, my neighbor had a tree fall down from a windstorm. The tree was laying across the driveway blocking traffic. So I grabbed my Ryobi 18v12 inch and Ryobi 40v 14 inch chainsaws and went down to help him. He was not too impressed with my "small" chainsaws but was polite about it. Anyway, he had a larger gas chainsaw that he said he was going to take out but he would appreciate any help on cleaning up the fallen tree. So I started cutting off all the branches and chopping them up into smaller pieces while he was trying to find gas for his chainsaw, then some oil, then trying to get the thing started (it had not been used since the previous year).

By the time he finally got his chainsaw started and running, maybe 30 minutes later, I had already cut off all the limbs and cleared the driveway for him. All that was left was the major trunk at the base and for that, you needed a bigger gas chainsaw. Point is, most of the stuff I deal with around the house is branches falling down and not a whole tree. The battery chainsaws get the job done quicker than it usually takes to get my gas chainsaw up and running.

 

[gtaus]

I like the idea of a catch tarp. I was thinking of using empty feed bags to catch the poo, and then just compost the bag and the poo together. Having said that, I thought the theory of using deep litter in the coop was to not have to use a poop board and not have to clean it out very often. Until I hit the winter deep freeze, that system was working great for me. Now, the poop is freezing and building up, but it does not smell. I still think the idea is to just throw fresh litter over the piled up frozen poo during the winter, and be prepared to clean it out this spring with the melt.

At the risk of quoting myself from 2 years ago, I would like to update my thoughts on this subject. I never went with a catch tarp or poop board under the roosts. Where I live in northern Minnesota, we have maybe 4-6 months of deep freeze and the poo underneath the roosts freezes as hard as concrete. I just let it fall down on top of the deep bedding and there it accumulates over the winter months. Every once in awhile I will throw down some fresh wood chips or leaves on the poo to cover it up. But, being frozen, it never smells anyway.

For where I live, I would not recommend a catch tarp or poop board. Personally, I don't know of anyone around here who uses either of those options. We all just try to make it through the winter and then have a big spring cleanout after the thaw. The deep bedding really absorbs most of the poo most of the year, and in the springtime, I found I could break up the poo and mix it into the bedding until it was time to clean out the coop. I never had any offensive smell with that method.

I need to add that my coop is almost 2X the recommended size of 4 square feet per bird because my chickens spend most of the winter in the coop and don't bother to go outside. So, coop size matters in keeping the coop clean and keeping the chickens from fighting with one another.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I’m deep littering in my biggest coop (20’ x 8’) and I’m impressed by how little extra shavings I’ve had to add. I’ll probably throw down another bag or two in the next week or so, but since the initial 2 inches put down at the end of November, I think I’ve only thrown two bales of shavings in there.

We get plenty cold here, but not Northern MN cold by any measure. I find a few handfuls of whole corn tossed below the roosts is a small price to pay for “stirring duty”.

I used some biochar in my small coop this fall and found it great for odor reduction. I plan to make a lot more this spring for use in coop, compost, and garden.