What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Eggstatico]

We have 3 chickens in an Eglu classic and have sited then on some grass in the garden. We also have 21m of fencing and let them roam in there during the day. I would love to hear how others keep on top of all the chicken poop. We seem to have loads of it (!) and I have been raking it up on a daily basis but can't see this being sustainable in the long term. Does anyone put anything on the grass to make it easier to clean or have any suggestions on how I can keep on top of it all. Thanks

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum .

 

You'll find that most people who start out on grass soon move onto either a soil or patio/slabbed area. Chicken poo and grass just don't go together. They'll soon scratch up and eat all the grass in any case!

 

Do you have a flowerbed or a slabbed area you could give up to site your run? If you put it on soil you can use bedding such as Aubiose, Hemcore or Easibed (there are loads of types) on top of the the soil - the poo gets magically dried up by the bedding and is much more easily removed when it's stuck in a clump. You can use a powdered disinfectant periodically to keep on top of hygiene in the run and replace the bedding every few months or so.

 

The only thing you must do is cover your run with something like clear tarps or corrugated plastic - those types of bedding are really absorbent and will soon get into a soggy mush if the weather gets bad. If their freeranging area can be soil too it doesn't need the bedding (and you can use disinfectant there too).

Edited September 19, 2013 by Guest

[Eggstatico]

Thank you for your help. I am rapidly realising that chicken and grass don't work!