What do you do to clean the run?

[williamsl77]

I was wondering what sort of maintenance people do for their runs... I'm doing deep litter method with the coop. A fair amount of shavings are ending up in the run and I've been throwing in leaves for the birds to poke around in. I raked it all up today, then I thought, well maybe if this composts, it would be a good thing for the birds. Anyway... I'm curious what if anything people do to keep the run clean. I have thrown a layer of DE down once (right after a week of antibiotics for coccidia). Wasn't sure if that was a useful thing or not...

All thoughts appreciated!

 

[Clay Mudd]

I pretty much let it compost. My coop and run are moveable, but I've left them in the same place for several months now. Now and then, I throw in a bag of fresh grass clipping or leaves, and occasionally stir in either a mixture of lime and DE or (less often) Sweet PDZ. The run is covered, and mostly stays dry. If we get a long rainy spell, I rake the wet stuff out and start over.

 

[fireguy56]

Hi, Personally I don't do anything in their run. Their run is sand over dirt, well drained and the chickens scratch around in it, dust bathe in a shallow hole they dug and thats about it. I have thrown a few leaves in there and come fall there will be alot of leaves falling from two oaks I built it under. Otherwise , that is it. I'm surely not going with a poop scooper and canvassing 580 sq. ft of run picking up chicken poop. Thats not even in my job description. Good luck.
Erik

 

[wyododge]

Quote:
Did you have an outbreak or were the antibiotics just a 'preventative'?

Actually either way, you don't want to compost that manure, or at least compost it separate. Most of those antibiotics are on the ground in their poo and will not go away for a while. If you depend on the poo for composting, it will slow it down a bit, so you may want to mix it with poo from before the treatment. The other problem with the antibiotics is it destroys everything in their gut, so they can be more susceptible for a while until their gut is 're-seeded'. It might be a real good idea to keep the run clean for a while, and put some ACV in their water. And I think DE is a real good idea. Besides fly control it is a very good mineral source for the birds. JMHO.

 

[Weiden Farm]

i don't do anything
It is mailnly a sand run and the poo seems to just disappear

 

[Ole rooster]

I clean mine everyday. I do not like the idea of the poop staying in the run in, under or mixed in anything whatsoever. My floor is dirt with some pine straw falling in it. I still rake up the pine straw and leave mine dirt. Of course my run door stays open most of the day so their time spent in the coop or run is either eating, drinking, or laying. Works great for me. Plus I really don't mind doing it. To me it's not a chore. I was the same way when I breed horses. I just keep things clean and picked up.

 

[aoxa]

I rake mine every night. I don't want to have any spoiling food.. Plus I often am sitting in the run with them on my lounge chair, so I don't want to be stepping all over chicken poop!

 

[williamsl77]

Quote:
Did you have an outbreak or were the antibiotics just a 'preventative'?

Actually either way, you don't want to compost that manure, or at least compost it separate. Most of those antibiotics are on the ground in their poo and will not go away for a while. If you depend on the poo for composting, it will slow it down a bit, so you may want to mix it with poo from before the treatment. The other problem with the antibiotics is it destroys everything in their gut, so they can be more susceptible for a while until their gut is 're-seeded'. It might be a real good idea to keep the run clean for a while, and put some ACV in their water. And I think DE is a real good idea. Besides fly control it is a very good mineral source for the birds. JMHO.

I had an outbreak. Lost 4 of 32 birds. They've been off of antibiotics now for about 3 weeks and everyone seems to be doing well. All are gaining weight and eating well except one who I think is just at the bottom of the totem pole. I've been putting ACV in their water daily and giving them yogurt every other day or so for help their guts recover.

I have two composts. One we are careful with and only put our food waste and enough brown matter to compost that. This is for garden use. The other we throw everything in (weeds and all) and is just to avoid putting that stuff in the garbage. So far shavings have been mostly going in the doesn't matter too much compost pile.

THanks for the insight! It's about to rain for 3 days straight here, so I will rake the wet stuff out daily.

 

[smokinjay]

We rake it stright to the compost thats about 20 foot away.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Quote:
Ours is movable too. When the ground starts getting barren we simply move it.