What do I do with all the chicken poo?

[jecombs]

I only have a couple of chickens (hoping to get more soon). What do you do with all the poo? I've got a compost pile, but how do I keep it from getting stinky? Add lime? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[ZaksGarden]

I use pine shavings in my coop and I would estimate 75% of all poop lands on the dropping boards under the roosts. In the run of my coop I use river sand, which I sift daily for about 5-10 minutes. I take that poop to my compost pile where I compost any kitchen scraps the chicken's don't get, grass clippings, leaves, shredded paper, dryer lint, chicken feathers, etc. I mix the compost pile once a month, and all of that chicken poop acts as an accelerator, or compost "heater" that gets and keeps your compost pile good and hot. It helps your pile turn into usable compost. Anyone who deals with smell in compost does not have a good balance of green-to-brown.

As far as odor in the coop / run there is VERY little, I do sprinkle DE in the run and coop area about once a week. I think sometimes people have unreasonable expectations for chickens. As any livestock, they are going to smell a little at times.




I have tried a lot of different things for sifting the sand, and this is by far the fastest, easiest, and most effective. It doesn't just get big pieces of poop, it gets almost all poop. I bought it as a restaurant supply store. (Oh the irony)

 

[blondiebee181]

That is an awesome idea, and a great design! Wow, wish we had thought of that, you should market it! Does it still work in sub-freezing temps just as well?

Well I know Boise gets pretty cold in winter, but probably not like Maine! This is my first year of chickens so we shall see! But yeah, it works great! My uncle built me the coop, he's a contractor....I told him he could probably make some good extra money selling chicken houses!

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I throw mine in a pile with grass clipping and throw a tarp loosely over it. Unless the poop stands out directly exposed to the rain, you shouldn't have an issue with the smell.

 

[Back on the Farm]

In addition to the chicken poop and grass clippings add kitchen scraps (no meat or dairy) to your compost pile. I have two small containers on my kitchen counter - one for scraps/treats for the chickens and one for the compost pile. Don't forget to turn your pile from time to time as that helps with the break down/composting process and smell. If you smell it when you are in your house, you may want to move it downwind of your house.

I built a compost bin out of 5 free wooden pallets - one on the bottom & four sides. I then lined it with black landscaping cloth to keep the compost from coming out the sides. It gets air on all sides. I turn it a few times every few weeks. It smells a bit when it needs turning or after we get some rain. Anything that can be composted goes in the bin - both my rabbit hutch bedding and the chicken coop bedding - I use deep liter and it has worked out good.

 

[Rachy]

Mine free range in the garden, I 'vacuum' poop up with the mower What's on the path & patio gets washed away into the beds when I hose it down

 

[Poetical Peeps]

We have been using wood pellets (the kind used in some woodstoves) and they are awesome. They are very low dust, absorbent, and when they get moist they break down in a good soil consistency -- have had no problems whatsoever with odor. I stir things around once in a while if it gets cakey, but about once a year should be plenty for changing it.

 

[LakeBird]

I use deep litter and the poop doesn't give off a compost heat. It kind of dries up and settles to the bottom. Works so well and so little work...the only trouble I am always struggling with is when they are messy with the water and the shavings get wet = smelly and flies. Today the coop is getting a full clean out and I am going to paint the wallys and rearrange things so the water is in less of a traffic path. Enjoy your expanding flock. There is something about owning chickens that seems to destroy the ability to make mathematical calculations. We started with wanted 6 and somehow there got to be 17 out there

Glad to know I have good company. We only wanted 6 laying hens. We currently have 18!

 

[furbabymum]

See that barn WAY back there. That's where the chickens are. Awesomeness at being too far away to smell.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I decided to go with the sand approach in the coop. It has been working out great. I take about 3-5 min each day and sift out just the poo, so easy. I have been bagging and throwing out the poo. Can I put mostly straight poo(since no shavings) in a compost or is it too much with just being the poo?

I use sweet PDZ on the floor of my coop (the powder, not the granules). So, I have pretty much pure poop to dispose of every day after scraping. I tried using the compost bin approach, but since I don't collect grass clippings I couldn't keep up with the need for layers in the compost pile to prevent smells. I really tried, too, collecting weeds by hand and layering them in.

SOOOOO it ended up smelling terrible- just like a big pile of smelly poo!

I ended up switching to 2 approaches:

1. Kitchen waste unsuitable for chicken feed (banana peels etc.) goes to the compost bin which is OUTSIDE the chicken pens. I don't want them getting botulism from eating that nasty old food.

2. Chicken poo - I carry my shovel in one hand and the dustpan in the other every morning, dig a hole in the ground (the garden ground is very soft and this is almost effortless), and cover the waste. The girls race to get the worms I dig up (not a good thing as they carry internal parasites to chickens but you can't win them all, sigh).