What do I do with all the chicken poo?

[chickenlovex3]

we use our chicken poop as fertilizer for our lawn and garden. we do have to hose down our patio occasionally though

 

[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

 

[semillion2]

I place my Chicken poo in our bin compost with some of the kitchen scraps and it all goes back into the garden when tilled over. A win, win situation.

 

[nhammer]

When I clean out the hen house, I take the droppings and wood shavings and put them in the run. I will take about 1 lawn mower bag of green grass and put in with it and I let the girls scratch it and mix it all up. Then I clean the run out about once per year and put it in my compost bin. We're in Utah and its pretty dry here, I try to manually keep them moist to help them break down. Then in the garden they go.

 

[Whittni]

Take a green garbage (biodegradable) bag, if you don't have a compost pile, scoop the poop > close the bag > tie the bag > Place Bag of Poop near a place you'd like to have a garden or throw away or offer for free/sale on Craigslist.

 

[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!

 

[Heidi365]

Master Gardener here

If you have the proper proportions of brown to green waste, it shouldn't smell at all. Your compost pile should be layered w/dead leaves or other "brown" (not poop) in about a 6" layer, then the next layer would be green (lawn clippings, soft garden trimmings etc.) Savings from the coop are OK, but will take a long time to break down. Leaves are best. I also rake out my goat pen with a lovely mixture of goat "berries" and stomped, broken down hay. The goats eat all the good stuff, and the chickens help clean up any left over seeds so I rarely have anything sprouting from my compost pile.

Throw your chicken poop anywhere in there, but not on the very top. Water it well every few days if you're not getting rain.

I turn my piles completely every week or two and have usable compost in about 6 weeks. Your pile should smell like lovely, rich soil. If it's ammonia smelling, then you have too much green. If it's not feeling "hot" when you dig into the middle, then it's too brown.

 

[plvannest]

The deep bedding method is the ONLY way to go. Don't worry about any heat from the composting. And cleaning the coop is a breeze. No more scrubbing and scraping to get the poop off the floor. It all decomposes into lovely compost to put on the garden.

Plus! You only have to clean a couple of times a year. I usually clean once in the spring and once in the fall (to get ready for summer and winter). The only problem is that you'll feel a bit guilty since it's so easy

 

[EpicBlueAcres]

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?