[Lewjam]

Aye up
I read allot of people saying poo picking on a daily basis. I tend to clean out the chickens nesting area.every day to scoop out any nasties, do people do the same to the run or are they ok to.potter around in there own inventions?

[nic n dave]

hi

i pick mine up once a day and clean the lot out once a week, i do pick u[ poo in the run on a daily basis aswell, it takes minutes and i chuck it in my compost bin lol

[Lindeggs]

It depends on your local soil, weather conditions, size of run, number of hens, substrate material, proximity of neighbours...

My six pullets have a run approximately 36 square metres.  It's under a couple of large trees, soil is well drained, I use a lot of fallen leaves and dried grass to cover the ground and I never poo pick in the run.

In summer it did get a bit smelly and attracted flies (I'm on the other side of the world from you so we're in autumn now).  Since then I've refined my management system by adding a lot more dried high-carbon stuff on the floor of the run so I expect next summer it will be much better.  Also the beneficial micro-organisms in the soil will have had more chance to get established so they will be able to deal with the chicken poo much better as time goes on.

I have a philosophy of low-maintenance chicken keeping so this system works for me.  I'm also lucky to have plenty of space to conduct my experiments in!    

I suppose I'm using a version of the Deep Litter Method in my run, but as I haven't had my chickens for very long I can't comment on its long-term success.

[GrannieAnnie]

It also depends on how many chickens you've got Lindeggs!   

I don't poo pick the run, I just try to get Brian to rotavate it now and again!!!

[compostqueen]

I poo pick the run daily in hot weather to keep the flies down and also to ensure the hens don't have to peck about amongst their own droppings, which I'm sure can't be healthy for them    While it's been hot the poos dry out nicely making it an easy job. Similarly when it's really frosty they're easy to collect.  When it's raining it's more messy unfortunately       It's just another of those mindless tasks that have to be done but the compost bin definitely benefits

[Squiggly]

Ha ha its great how our compost bins benefit isn't it  Ive not had mine long term yet but as there are only 3 then it seemed silly to me not to poo pick daily as it takes hardly any time at all.

But I can understand when people have larger set ups then they sort out a different method