Official BYC Poll: How Do You Get Rid of Dirty Coop Bedding?

I have 4 hens and a 12ft × 12ft run. The actual coop is 4ft × 2ft with a nesting box off one side. I just cleaned it out before reading this post. I just rake it out into the run, which also has pine shavings in it. I do this because the area my chicken run and coop is in has turned into a low spot so when it rains it almost floods there. It never did that before I put the chicken run there but now it does. Another chicken keeper in the area suggested I get pine shavings to help absorb some of the moisture and the chicken poop....I also put grass clippings, veggies, and fruit in there for the chickens....the hens also scatter their dust bath dirt all over the run also....then the chickens scratch through it all, all day which in turn makes their whole run kind of a compost pile. I have only used 3 or 4 bags of pine shavings or flakes in 18 months. Because they spend most of their time in the run and not the coop, I have very little to clean out of the coop, so normally just scoop the poop out into the run and only clean the shavings out every 6 months or so. For now this works for me.......and there doesn't seem to be a any deep build up of matter so far, maybe 3 inches across the whole run floor......later on I may need a better solution until then I will keep doing what I am doing.

I scatter it in the run after spring clean to help keep down any mud, then move it to the compost when the weather dries up, then to the garden in late fall.

BYC Project Manager said:

It is essential to keep your chicken coop clean if you raise chickens. This includes changing the bedding (regardless of the method you use).

This week, we want to find out: How Do You Get Rid of Dirty Coop Bedding?

Place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other".

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Further Reading:

• Coop Health: Designing and Maintaining a Healthy Coop
• Using Sand In Your Chicken Coop
• Deep Litter Method - The Easiest Way To Deal With Chicken Litter

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!

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It's hard to see the steam but I added a wheelbarrow of pine shavings and chicken coop poop to my leaves from last fall and it got the pile cooking good. It's 80° out and my pile is steaming when I flip it. By spring I will have a pile of nice black gold.

featherhead007 said:

I compact it, load it up in my rocket ship, and blast it off into space!

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To be the most environmentally sound, you should aim the rockets towards the sun. Hydrogen fusion can handle a little toxic waste...