What do I do with all the chicken poo?

[J-Sanders]

Once a year!!!! Whats your secret pray tell? Deep litter bedding you say. I use layered straw and change it about every 3 weeks. The coop smell and odor almost dictates when it is time to change it. I have 23 birds At 4 months old. Lots of poo! I'm all ears!

There are excellent threads on DLM coop management. But the jist is to use at least 4 to 6 inches of hay chopped or straw (hay works better as it is more absorbent). When the poop gets pasty on top then you stir and flip the bedding and add a layer as it packs down. If it gets too glazed then you can skim off the top layer and add a layer back. You can also add DE to the floor and intermittently along with hydrated lime (any kind will work). Make sure you mix in the lime as it may cause mild irritation to young chickens feet.

As the litter bed gets thicker you may have clearance issues and need to skim off a few inches. Some DLM folks have as much as 8 to 10 inches on a regular basis. The ammonia problem comes from a lack of ventilation. Remember, drafts bad below or at head height on the roost. Ventilation is a must and I suspect that the folks having smell issues are actually ventilation issues. OPEN up that coop to exchange the air all the time. Chickens can keep themselves warm as long as their feet and combs don't get frostbite or dampness (seen as condensation in the coop or the litter bed). With the DLM, you get a benefit of added insulation in the best spot for chickens.

Bed, poop, stir, add, skim. It is that easy.

 

[thejohnsie]

I use the deep litter method also. I have a poop board under my roosts which I have Sweet PDZ in. Every day or two or three I go out and sift the poop off of the poop board with a kitty litter scoop and compost. There is hardly any poop anywhere else in the coop because it is all on the poop board however to be honest my hens free range all day. There is no smell or flies in the coop. I use an old rubbermaid trash can with holes drilled in it for compost. I put the poop and shavings, grass clippings, food waste etc in there and mix it every couple of days with no smell.

 

[TallChickMagnet]

It took me a few months but I've finally gotten the right cleaning routine that works for me. Once a month I rake out my pen and add everything to the compost pile, and dust the ground with a good amount of DE. Once a week I pick you the scraps from the treats that I give them, watermellon rinds, corn cobs, etc. I also put grass clipping in there for them to play in once a week or so, it matters how often the grass gets mowed. When it is really hot I hose down a corner of the pen really good, but keep at least 75% of it dry. My compost never smells, I think that it is the DE and grass combo working together by drying out everything and masking the smell. I have very happy chickens!!!

 

[weluvchickens]

ok deep litter folks, where do you purchase your DE and in what quantities? It seems online costs a fortune to ship the 50 pound bag, but my local farm stores don't sell it in anything larger than a 5 pound carton. I live near Kansas City, MO. I have really been frustrated on trying to locate something reasonable before I need my coop (my chicks are coming next week).

 

[Baymule]

I clean my coop about once a year. It is a dirt floor, the girls really enjoy the dirt. They can really DIG! I get sawdust from a friend that uses his tablesaw a LOT. In the winter or when it gets rainy, I put 1/2 trash bag of sawdust in the coop. When it gets all turned in the dirt or gets smelly, I just add more sawdust. Right now I have grass clippings on the coop floor. I dug down over a foot and shoveled out the finest compost this spring. It was black and crumbly, and you should see my tomatoes!

It may be important to note that after digging it out, (it smelled rotten) gnats were attracted to the moist stinky coop bottom. I mixed lime in the dirt and sprayed the girls with vanilla to keep the gnats off them. Fortunately the gnats didn't last long.

 

[Gifa]

ok deep litter folks, where do you purchase your DE and in what quantities? It seems online costs a fortune to ship the 50 pound bag, but my local farm stores don't sell it in anything larger than a 5 pound carton. I live near Kansas City, MO. I have really been frustrated on trying to locate something reasonable before I need my coop (my chicks are coming next week).

Greetin's Weluvchickens, I'm in South Kansas City. I get 40 pounds of Stall Dry at the Orscheln in Belton, MO... I believe there is an Orscheln in Independence though.

It's 15 dollars or so (on sale yesterday for 12.99)... it's a mix of DE and Clay. Comes out like a fine granule kitty litter. I like to mix it with hardwood fuel pellets (4.50 a bag-tax free).

4 bags of wood pellets to 1 bag of Stall-Dry.

Zero smell in the coop, and I only scoop the big obvious poo's once a week or so, shuffle the rest into the mix. I am going to try wetting the pellets down a little and let them break down and dry into sawdust before mix it in with the stall-dri. My thinking is that if it is all fine particle, except for the poo, I should be able to sift it out with an improvised scoop... Like kitty litter. I'm also going to sew up a poop hammock to hang under the roost because now that they are roosting, I am seeing exactly where the majority of the poo lands.


As for what I do with my heaping dustpan's worth or poo (and wood pellets) every week, I throw it into one side of my 2 ton compost bin.



The compost bin sees all manner of kitchen scraps (sans meat), and in a wetter year, it might see a load of grass clippings or two and a load of leaves in the fall. Though, this year, we've only mowed twice... the last time being in early May.

I have 8 chickens, and I'm only putting chicken poo in my bin once every 5 days or so... But we run a lot of compostable kitchen scraps out to the bin every other day... sometimes every day...

My compost bin is well ventilated with hardware cloth on the sides and top, and removable planks on the front and it is in a full sun location. I have been watering my compost pile this year just to keep it actively composting, and it's scheduled for a good toss this weekend. I like to churn it once every 4-6 weeks or so depending on how much rain it gets. Once one side is full, I turn the whole pile into the other side to to get it good and aerated before letting it age leaving a little in the empty side to start the new pile with established/seasoned bacteria and whatnot. Then I work on filling the other side... By the time I have one side full, the other side is ready to throw in the garden or wherever I need it.




I actually mulched my garden this year with the one bag of pine shavings I used in my brooder box... Every time I cleaned, I spread it thinly over my garden... After 6 weeks I had a nice layer of pine shavings and broken down baby chicken poo around my 'matoes and peppers. I'll just till those shavings in in the fall and let them break down.

No smell.

 

[Southern Oregonihens]

We harvest our coop cleanings about once a month. We collect it in a hardware cloth cylinder that also receives our kitchen waste and other yard wastes. Come the fall, we rake the leaves and spread them in a layer over the raised beds. All the collected nitrogenous materials are added, and we give it all a good turn. Cover with plastic. If I get a nice day in the winter, I'll turn again. Uncover in the spring, turn on last time, and plant. It works for us out here, but might not in MO. Remember to balance your greens and browns, or your compost won't be all it could be.

 

[TallChickMagnet]

ok deep litter folks, where do you purchase your DE and in what quantities? It seems online costs a fortune to ship the 50 pound bag, but my local farm stores don't sell it in anything larger than a 5 pound carton. I live near Kansas City, MO. I have really been frustrated on trying to locate something reasonable before I need my coop (my chicks are coming next week).

I get mine at my local True Value Hardware.... Or a pool supply store, but make sure that it is 100% DE that it doesn't have added stuff in it...they call if food grade, but sometimes it is food grade but they don't mark it that way, so read... They sell 25, 50, and 100lbs bags... 50lbs cost me $14.99 at True Value....

 

[bruceha2000]

I get mine at my local True Value Hardware.... Or a pool supply store, but make sure that it is 100% DE that it doesn't have added stuff in it...they call if food grade, but sometimes it is food grade but they don't mark it that way, so read... They sell 25, 50, and 100lbs bags... 50lbs cost me $14.99 at True Value....

Really? On line the only thing they show is 1.5 pounds for $9. Described as an insect killer. Not sure I would trust that it is "food grade". I wouldn't trust the pool DE to be food grade either.

Now, mind you, I don't know what make Diatomaceous Earth "food grade" but I would presume whatever it is makes it more expensive and why would you spend extra on something you are throwing in a pool filter?

"The other, more common, type of diatomaceous earth is treated, chemicalized, or swimming pool filter DE. This type of DE is very dangerous and should not be ingested and should definitely not be inhaled. The particles in this variety of DE have been changed to a more glass-like structure so they can purify water better, but this treatment makes it dangerous and therefore could cause internal damage if ingested." http://www.squidoo.com/fossilflour

 

[bruceha2000]

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?

Do you get sand along with the chicken poo? I would be wary of putting too much sand in the compost simply because over time it will end up changing the composition of your soil.