What to do with chicken poop?

[Scotty from BI]

I have a run that is enclosed that is about 60 feet long and about 8 feet wide. I have 8 large breed 2 year old chickens which doesn't seem like that many but they poop like there is 20 in there. I have been going around every day a couple of times a day with a dog poop scoop and picking up the chicken poops and recycling them in a city compost.

The dirt in the run is part sand and part mulch, and the run is covered for a large portion of it which is dry all year round about a third of the run is uncovered and exposed to the rain. My question is this; Can I use a shovel or pitch fork to turn the poops into the dirt to actually make it part of the dirt or should I just keep removing it and give the chickens a clean run? I throw dried bugs in the dirt most days along with chopped greens which the chickens pick out of the dirt. The dirt is otherwise devoid of any bugs because I clean it so often except for some flying gnats that the chickens just ignore. If I turn the poops into the soil, would desirable bugs like worms and Beatles suddenly appear or would I have even more of the flying gnats that seem to accumulate on the exposed poop that is there now? Neither the chickens or me like those gnats and flys.

 

[Grits&Eggs]

The chickens should turn the poo easily into the floor of the run, if not you can rake it in. I do use a pitch fork in the compost pile when I add the coop poo. But leaving it will def encourage bugs and that is good.

 

[Grits&Eggs]

and, unfortunately flies are a given. I bought a reusable fly trap and fill it with dog poo (seems to attract them better than chicken poo) and water and hang it up every year. Once the poo heats up, in a couple days the flys will be stuck and gone from your world (don't hang it in the coop/run etc. - I put mine in a tree a couple feet away)

 

[Ribh]

Read up on the deep litter method. Gets the chickens to do the work of creating a wonderful compost pile. It will work in a run as well as a coop because that's how I deal with what my girls produce. I use cane much. Breaks down slowly but really well & I add leaf litter as it becomes available. The girls love turning it over!

 

[blackdog043]

Get some untreated/undyed wood chips and start deep litter. Add some yard waste, garden waste, pine needles, leaves. Make it 4 -6 inches deep to start and add more stuff as it breaks down. The chicken poop will disappear into the deep litter, break down and will not smell. The chickens will have something to scratch and dust bath in also.

Here's my run, after adding yard & garden waste.

 

[aart]

Main run is 8x50 with 18 to30+ birds(during chick season)and has semi-deep litter, never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO if you can get them.