Marianne, Buttercup pullet.

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You want to know the scoop on poop, eh?

If you're going to have chickens, you're going to have chicken, ahem...stuff...too. It's true with any pet, and it's something we must face.

The average full-grown chicken will produce about a handful of the soon-to-be compost each day, and you should rein in your attitude about it- the stuff is golden! The trick is to build your coop to have roosts above your nest boxes, so that the roof of the boxes is a wide counter-top below the perches. Set up in this way, the 'deposits' go in one spot all night. Clever owners will have a shallow lip around the edge and fill the surface with sand to make clean-up much like a cat box, or will scatter a small amount of hay on the top and sweep it into a dust pan often. The nuggets are then put into a composter so that the finest compost will soon be available for your garden.

So: is it stinky?? Sometimes. If fed a poultry feed made from animal protein (read "the worst of pork processing castoffs") the waste will smell worse. Way worse. If fed a grain, bug and greens diet, it's generally a lot like other bird poop; it can vary, based on the omnivore diet of the chicken. If you free-range throughout your yard, the distribution through your yard will limit the amount you have to deal with in the coop, but it is noticeable depending on how many are in your flock and the size of your yard- and you might not want to have it all over. Often good motivation to own a chicken tractor.

Many owners choose to have their flock remain in a pen or run for part of the day, and then allow free ranging for the remainder. This also helps to preserve your grass, as a large number of birds can damage a lawn. My flock trimmed our yard to a perfect manicure all summer, so we didn't have to mow at all.

Ultimately, there is some maintenance necessary, but most coops only need to have the litter or hay cleaned out 4 or 5 times a year, assuming they have poop boards under the roosts that are cleaned daily to weekly. Composted chicken manure becomes the most valued of all garden fertilizers, so keep it in mind when wistfully dreaming of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. Chicken poop is a product that will be beneficial for the yard, in the end.