As all of you have probably noticed, now that we have hay at the bottom of the coop, we have a bit of a poop problem. I emailed Wynn for advice, and her opinion is that we have to have something down there -- in the winter for insulation and in other times of year for cushioning when the hens jump off their little poles. This wasn't such an issue when they were younger, but as they get bigger and older, they can develop leg and foot trouble if they are jumping on a hard surface. When we build the next coop, let's keep those poles pretty close to the surface.
With hay, we need to change it out at least once a week. This isn't great news for a number of reasons. The hay costs money. We're having trouble finding a place to compost it all. And if we do it just once a week, then just one person gets stuck with the task.
Wynn says we can consider other substances. She suggested sand or sawdust or rubber mats. Here is where our coop design is problematic. It is hard to scrape the poop off the surface of whatever is down on that floor because we have to bend over and reach in (another thing to keep in mind when designing the next coop -- those pull-out drawers that Peter mentioned seem pretty nice at this point).
Anyway, decisions must be made. If you have thoughts on this issue, please comment to this post. I'll email Sara and the other board members directly so that we can get moving on solving this problem.
Stay tuned.
Amy
Oops -- forgot to mention one thing. I asked Wynn about using newspaper at the bottom (I'm sure that if all of us saved all our newspapers, we'd have plenty -- and it does compost nicely), and she said it would only work if we could make it two inches thick at the bottom of the coop. I also think it would have to be changed more frequently.
ReplyDeleteTo make sure that one person doesn't get stuck cleaning it out each week, what if we clean it out either every 6 or 8 days? That way we can rotate who cleans it each week. On my cleaning weeks, I could bring the straw home to my backyard compost. But our's is also very small and can't take too much hay. Do other people have compost piles they could do this with?
ReplyDeleteAs the current Saturday person, I don't mind cleaning it out (frankly, it'll be easier to clean it all than to try to get at the poop in it), so once a week is fine with me if you can figure out what to do with the hay.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where the hay is coming from, but straw might be cheaper if it's available through our supplier.