The Chicken Wrangler is going to get really real today. The topic is chicken poop. Chicken lover/owners already know this, but chicken lovers who do not yet have chickens may not.
Here's how I decided to write about this crappy subject. Cal and I were coming home Monday night from a Ministry Team Meeting at Church, when we sped up to get through a light and the car filled with that telltale smell. We looked at each other and said, "not me". Turns out it was the catalytic converter ( at least that is what Cal said). I said " that smell is familiar to me".... from the chickens.
In the morning when I go to let the little darlings out, Barbara will almost always have just pooped, and I mean pooped a tennis ball sized poop in the coop. Not only is it huge, but the smell drops you to you knees and makes your eyes burn and water. I mean you just have to jump back, as soon as you regain your feet that is. It is a much more pungent smell then the catalytic converter, more organic, but similar.
Next topic: Chickens poop a lot. And yes it is a good fertilizers IF you do not put it directly on your plants. It needs time in a compost pile or it could kills the plants, and let me tell ya the smell alone could do it.
Now chicken poop does not continue to smell like a sulphurous gas from the bowels of Hell. It mellows over time and dries out rapidly, so it is easy to dispose of and not stinky. Of course we only have two chickens. If you have a few dozen you have a different level of issue, but for just the two hens, it is no biggie.
What is a bigger issue is the uprooting of the lawn and plants. The girls are walking and scratching in the lawn and flower beds all day long as we let them roam free. They have decimated the part of the lawn right off the patio. Between that and the rains a few weeks ago, we have a mud patch. Going to re-seed that. Meanwhile the building of the chicken yard is almost complete. The girls may not like it, but there days of roaming free in the yard 10-12 hours per day are over. We will let them out for a few hours in the morning, maybe for a bit in the afternoon, but it's back in the chicken yard for them.
It's not like it's punishment cause their coop is in there, it is completely screened in, top included, and will have a tarp covering it as well. The ground is cement, but we will have a dust bath area for them, plus their scratch etc. and it is a 70 sq. foot area. I'll post a picture on my facebook page when we are done.
None of these issues stops me from having chickens. Just like you dog or cat, you love them, they love you and you have to deal with the poop, and damage that is possible. Fortunately the trade off is well worth it. Funny pets with benefits.
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