Part 0800.0005

[marmite+toast]

Love my new girls who arrived yesterday, but I am worried about their run, it is already covered in poo and really quite smelly, I am supposed to leave the girls shut in the run for five days, but its going to inhabitable by then (have also told my neighbours there won't be any nasty niffs!) I plan to let the girls out into the garden once they are settled, but i'm now worried that it is going to be absolutely coated in poo (I have small children). Any ideas?

On a happy note, have already had two eggs!

[puffball]

Hey I got my new girls yesterday too!

 

I wouldn't worry about the poo too much - if worst comes to worst you may need to do a quick clean up of the garden after they have free-ranged!

 

As for the run maybe you could put a fresh coat of sawdust/woodbarks etc down and do your best to get some of the poo out without disturbing them? I don't know how easy that would be to do but I can't think of much else you can do - it is quite important for them to realise that they are safe in the coop

[dannablue]

Mine stay in their run whilst I am at work and I find the easiest thing for me was to poop scoop after they had gone to bed at night. I shut them in and do a quick scoop ready for the morning. That way it keeps it ticking over. Stalosan F is great for getting rid of the smell and I find using Bokashi Bran helps with keeping their poos smelling just that little bit better.

[JanTheDiver]

And make sure you add garlic granules to their food, it really helps keep the poo smell down.

 

Don't worry the chickens won't smell like walking Chicken Kiev's

[mammapajama]

We've had our eglu for a few weeks now. I too have 3 little ones, ages 3-7. We couldn't wait the 5 days to let our girls out of the run, so by day two we were letting them range for little bits at a time. This reduced the poop situation, which was on my mind as well, but more importantly it was so fun to start playing with them! Since then, we have dealt with poop in the following manner:

 

1) I realized pretty fast that due to the vegetarian diet, chicken poop is nowhere near as vile as, say, dog poop, which I treat as toxic. Chicken Poop in the shoes wipes out easily in the grass and breaks down quickly.

 

2) However...we now have a "no bare feet" policy...

 

3) I move (and hose out) the eglu to a different grassy spot every 3 days, before the accumulation becomes too much (again, they range most of the day now). Poop trays go into the compost but I just rake the grass to more evenly distribute the droppings. The grass seems to love it and there is positively NO poop smell in my yard.

[C&T]

Hemcore! (Or Auboise..)

 

Makes a great base for the run, it absorbs poo's in an amazing way! Then all you have to do is rake it over once a week or so, removing the "larger" pieces! Smell is also reduced - and as you can't see it, you don't worry nearly so much!!

 

Hemcore also has citronella in it - so come summer flies are not too much of an issue

 

Oh - and poo's will be a bit smellier the first few days - they are adjusting to their new life and it can affect their stomachs a little... But I can also recomend Garlic powder.

[Alis girls]

I have had trouble getting Hemcore - very hard to get hold of here. I have soem garden lime to rake in and where do I get Garlic granules from? please

[Loon]

'Scats' sell Hemcore and garlic granules/powder. I'm not sure if they have a shop near you or not but they sell other various bits and pieces for chickens, including feed, wormer and mite control etc.

 

I manage to get pretty much everything from there apart from Bokashi Bran. I can't seem to find that in a shop anywhere! It only seems to be available online and the P&P is always really expensive!

[C&T]

Or google horse suppliers.

 

Your address says London though, so if you are in the middle somwhere it might be more of a challenge....

 

Would it be wrong to borrow some horse bedding from Buckingham Palace???

[squidsin]

marmite+toast - you could always net off part of the garden and just let your chickens FR there so you have a poo-free place for the kids to play? My husband is making me a portable fence to do just that this weekend, out of wooden stakes and chicken wire. My bantams like to hang out on the patio, as close to the house and people in it as possible (they break in if you leave the door open, and if I go out to read in the sun, they perch all round me and go to sleep, which is very sweet). But they do poo all over the patio, which is a bit of a problem with my toddler son who crawls through it or tries to pick it up (EEEEK), hence the fence idea...

[Chicken Shirl]

'Scats' sell Hemcore and garlic granules/powder. I'm not sure if they have a shop near you or not but they sell other various bits and pieces for chickens, including feed, wormer and mite control etc.

 

I manage to get pretty much everything from there apart from Bokashi Bran. I can't seem to find that in a shop anywhere! It only seems to be available online and the P&P is always really expensive!

 

 

I use this company to buy Bokashi bran. They sell 25litre tubs that last a year if you compost your kitchen waste with it as well as feed it to your hens.

http://www.bubblehouseworms.com/

[Mooresey]

Should the poo be a blacky White colour? One of ours is doing a yellowish coloured one. Is that bad?

[sewitall]

It's affectionately known on this forum as a "curry poo". Apparently they do one every 10 poo's or so. They are the smelly ones.

[Mooresey]

"curry poo" that explains all

[Mollie333]

curry poo's are the worst .

[debsygooch]

Hello everyone!! I have had my girls since the end of April, yes the poop in the run is a bit of a pain, as are the dollops in the garden! I rake out the run on a daily basis - and pop the contents in the composter, and walk round the garden doing poop patrol - which consists of using a paint s"Ooops, word censored!"er to flick the poops into a flower pot to add to the compost heap! It really only takes a few minutes each day and is quite easy! The "curry" poops are the worst and do attract flies - so I just drop some soil on it (really to absord as much whiff as possible) and then s"Ooops, word censored!"e it into the pot along with everything else.

I have now started adding garlic powder to their food to see if this helps detract the flies (a trick they use at my stables) - so will be interested to see if this helps.

[poppers77]

Thanks for the advice re the Bran - just ordered some as it's my 40th birthday party soon & didn't think our guests would be as understnding of the 'curry poo' situation develping in this hot weather - now off to make a fly trap!!!