As beautiful as our chickens are , arouse a mint is n’t a tidy hobby . When winter thawing , spring give away the soggy poop glob of many , many days gone by . Worse , they ’re everywhere . Tackle wintertime ’s manure buildup before too much un - composted chicken after part burns the sleeping lawn or makes your out-of-door blank stinky .
1. Rake It & Pick It Up
If conditions are n’t too damp , break up up as much chicken crap as you may from the thousand by raking it or nibble it up with gloved hands . Large , well - form manure is refreshing , and it ’s easier to pick up than manure that was immobilize under wakeless snow . Old manure that has dried is easy to scan by from the sens .
2. Dilute It
“ The solution to pollution is dilution , ” as they say . To preserve pasturage from manure that has progress up over the winter — manure that ’s too soggy to pick up — is to spray it with the hose to stretch the nitrogen in the manure and lave it away . Heavy springtime rains will dilute manure for you , but unaccented rain are n’t enough save the locoweed from buildup .
3. Scoop It & Scrape It
This last winter , before we went out of townspeople for the holidays , we go ourmobile cooponto our terrace correctly next to the house . The star sign allow for excess protection from the wind , and the concrete underneath added extra predator control while we were out . I added a tarp over the top to ward against any cold rain contract inside our aging A - flesh coop . The tarpaulin also protect part of the rill from excess wet , where I ’d added a small Basle of straw to the 4 - by-8 - infantry area . With late ardent , spring - like temperatures , the stubble in the runnel started to become smelly , so it was fourth dimension to dispatch it .
Any material used in the running game over the winter should be removed or interchange , whether your coop and run are mobile or stationary . Bedding materials , even dirty soil , seaport bacteria . lousy bedding can also be a safe haven for parasites introduced to the quite a little through the wintertime when they were n’t able todust - batheproperly . We act the coop , and I run down the light material . Then I scraped and shovel the material that was matt-up to the concrete , and I cart all of it to the compost bin .
4. Compost What You Can
Add all the chicken manure you could nibble up , scoop out up or rake up to your compost bin or stilt . High - nitrogen materials , like manure , are considered “ green , ” and they must be added to high - carbon “ brown ” materials ( like coop bedding , leaves and grass clippings ) to break down as efficiently as possible . If you ’re new to composting chicken manure , have a go at it that it takes up to six month to “ fudge ” light-green and chocolate-brown materials into rich compost . Compost it quicker by work the pile often and letting the flock do some of the mixing for you .
Be certain not to compost chicken manure that has had direct contact with other animal manure during your outpouring cleanup position . Dog and cat waste should never be compostedif the compost will be used on a garden that feeds masses . Pick up manure separately with different dick , and throw away wimp manure that has been contaminated .
Rachel Hurd Anger
