Cleaning the run

[Romoshka]

There seems to be plenty of discussion about house cleaning but I see nothing about run maintenance. Im interested in hearing how folks maintain the runs. I have 2 6X10 houses with 175sq ft runs. One gets so soggy after a rain that I put a roof over the run. That helps but not enough. Im considering digging it out, back filling with gravel over perforated drain pipe and topping with sand. On a dirt run poo collects and im curious how folks deal with this.

 

[cackleberrycam]

It move my coop annually to a new location in my yard and let the dropping from the previous location fertilize the ground there.
I have heard that putting sand on the floor of the run is a good idea- Like you where just thinking of doing!

 

[Romoshka]

Moving the house/would be nice but not an option for me as my houses are mini-pole barns with telephone poles in the corners buried 3 feet

 

[cackleberrycam]

Then I would clean it out every three months- That is what I do with my coop.

 

[jetdog]

I have sand and clean it every Saturday probably not needed but the wife says I'm more anal than most when it comes to cleaning, I sift out the poop with a cat litter scoop and then use a rake to uncover any poop that got scratched in.

 

[Romoshka]

Cackleberry - how do you clean it out? Their poo mixes with the soil and forms a concrete like surface which turns to smelly soup when it rains? Then returns to concrete in a day or two when it dries.

 

[cackleberrycam]

Like I said: "I move my run annually to a new location in my yard and let the dropping from the previous location fertilize the ground there." If I did keep it in one location then I would consider doing what jetdog says he does.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I dig off that 2 inches of hard pack poop every spring. It's only been in this location three years and will need sand to refill this spring when I do it. What I dig up I mix into my compost that is going to go into the garden each spring. I'll add 4 inches of sand this year as I'm building a large sand box for the kids so will have a good size load dumped to use for both. Hopefully with the sand it wont turn to hard pan and can sift it before winter and not have the smelly spring run next year.