[neenyneen]

i just got 3 chooks on Friday  ! first i had the coop on a flagged area, easy toclean etc, then felt sorry for the poor little chooks feet, so moved it onto the grass, what the best way to clean the poo off the grass?   

[bantam novice]

Hello neenyneen,
I tend to find that there is not much grass left unless you move coop and fence/run regularly.   They like digging and scratching 
Some people here seem to use bark outside which they can rake over and top up regularly.
There have been some threads about what to use on the floor of runs and coops.  If you use the search box in the top right-hand corner and type in something like flooring for runs or a specific flooring like wood chips, hemcore, aubiose or bark you should be able to access the information

[orchardlady]

During this lovely dry weather you can move the coop and run and then use a powerful hose to wash the poo in. Of course this rout is not ideal during the cold winter months and as suggested search for posts about flooring.

Orchardlady.

[neenyneen]

Hello neenyneen,
I tend to find that there is not much grass left unless you move coop and fence/run regularly.   They like digging and scratching 
Some people here seem to use bark outside which they can rake over and top up regularly.
There have been some threads about what to use on the floor of runs and coops.  If you use the search box in the top right-hand corner and type in something like flooring for runs or a specific flooring like wood chips, hemcore, aubiose or bark you should be able to access the information

Thanks for the advice, will think about bark for the flooring 

[neenyneen]

During this lovely dry weather you can move the coop and run and then use a powerful hose to wash the poo in. Of course this rout is not ideal during the cold winter months and as suggested search for posts about flooring.

Orchardlady.

i did this with the hose tonight after my ladies went to bed, we are moving the coop and run up the garden this weekend, we'll see how we get on like this and think about bark or woodchip for the winter months. Thanks for the advice! 

[Jacinta]

Hello, I'm new too.  I've just been to B&Q and got 2 x 100l bags of hard wood chips for £5.40 each.  They're great and i read that wood chips are much better than bark as they don't go mouldy, which is bad for chickens.  It can just be raked through with Salostan F and topped up now and again, keeps it free of nasties and smells better too. 

[lou-b-lou]

I'm new as well!  Have had Bluebell and Mabel now for two weeks.  They are gorgeous but I can't get over the amount of poo that comes out of just two birds !!  I have an old gardening trowel that I use to pick up the poo from the grass - just pop out once a day and scoop up as much as i can find then stick it in the compost bin. 

[Jane-M]

Fraid my girls have no grass during the spring/summer as they are confined to their run 
they have a soil/mud scratching area and the space outside their house is deep 20mm river gravel, this is hosed and raked every couple of weeks. The scratching area is dug out and disinfected each autumn.

NOvember to March they have the run of the garden and the poop just seems to disappear in the rain.

[Lindeggs]

I'm new as well!  Have had Bluebell and Mabel now for two weeks.  They are gorgeous but I can't get over the amount of poo that comes out of just two birds !!  I have an old gardening trowel that I use to pick up the poo from the grass - just pop out once a day and scoop up as much as i can find then stick it in the compost bin. 

This has been a revelation to me, too!  So much poo for such little animals! 

[coco]

can also vouch for the amount of poop made by hens 

I also have three ladies, they free range round the lawn on the back yard .. they've not destroyed the lawn, it must be just big enough to cope with them, and they seem happy picking away at the grass and digging in the stones.

I have a stiff hand brush and a dustpan ... I whip round the grass with that every couple of days and as long as its dry the poop just sweeps up and I chuck it in the bin 

xx