# there has got to be an easier way to do this!!! goat poop!



## sixshooterfarm (Oct 18, 2007)

Ok, so I am trying "trying" to clean up everything.....but I cannot seem to get the goat poop!!! If I use a rake it just goes right through the rake lol, if I use a shovel I am picking up goat poop and a shovel full of dirt.. :veryangry: :veryangry: :veryangry: :veryangry: There has got to be an easier way to do this!!!! Can anyone help me?? What tricks do you guys do??


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Is this the barn floor or the yard? For both I use a garden hoe and a flat shovel...picks up easy AFTER I take the fork and pick up the soggy bedding. :greengrin:


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

since my kids are on dirt(clay too) i hose it and then rake because the clay sticks to the poo and its easy to clean


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I just leave it :shrug:


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

My dad put some wire mesh on one of those forks and it just sifts the sand/dirt through leaving the poop in the scoop lol.


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## PACE (Oct 8, 2007)

If it is on a dry, hard surface, sweep it


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

I use a push broom and dust pan on a handle on everything but deep grass- on that I use my battery powered wet dry vacuum.


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## RunAround (Feb 17, 2008)

If its in the stall it gets scooped out with the shavings and what not. If its outside I leave it and it breaks down or gets swept away by the rivers we get every time it rains. Oh and I rake outside every once and a while to get the loose hay. That gets some of the poo.


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## Cinder (Mar 3, 2008)

For my outside run I got a little rake called a "shrubbery rake" (it works great) at Walmart for under $4.00. I use a very large dog pooper scooper bucket thing (the side you scrape the dog poo into) or a shovel and just rake the poo into the dog scooper or shovel and then pour it into a 5 gln. bucket. I can then easily carry that to the compost pile.

Of course, I only have two little goats so there's not a ton of poo to start with. However, they do share run space with my chickens and this way I can also keep their poo cleaned up.


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## sixshooterfarm (Oct 18, 2007)

thanks guys, those are all ideas i should try!! most of the time i leave the poop alone, it just seems to disappear, i want to clean up the places where it seems to really accumilate and looks bad. like by the feeding areas and under the big oak tree where they hang out. It is so hot out here that they are not hanging out in there barn so that is just dirt floor right now. Also how do you guys control the flys? I have a million fly traps up but they dont seem to be attracting the flys, they are hanign out in the baby pen.... yuck. It is funny, i love my animals but i kinda have a phobia of flys, I think flies I think disease and their poop all over everything. So they are really bothering me, i cant wait for winter already just to wipe the little buggers out lol.


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

I hate bugs, wasps scare the :angel2: out of me and I hate horse flys, regular flys, spiders and centipedes. And other things too..... 

Good luck with cleaning! Actually we clean our barn twice a day - just sweep off the benches and the floors, clean out the hay feeders and such.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I use horse fly spray 

only on the legs and back end for the kids though


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## fcnubian (Oct 23, 2007)

Usually I just scoop the bedding out and the majority of the poop goes with it so there's not much left over. If its outside I just leave it.


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## trob1 (Oct 5, 2007)

I am a big time sweeper. I use a corn husk broom and a dust pan everyday in their loafing area.


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## cjpup (Dec 1, 2007)

We usually just leave the poo. Sometimes during the summer it will start to really really smell so we rake it and shovel it. But thats probably like once or twice a summer and thats it. I have found that regular cleaning of the barn is extremely necessary when your goats are kept in the barn only (like production stuff or whatever) but as long as they have a pasture and fresh air, cleaning the barn is really an occasional thing.

For the flies we us horse fly spray also.

CJ


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

Many year ago, after I told my sister about a 45 minute session where everyone in the horse barn went crazy swatting flies, she sent me a card that had a poem on it- I can't remember all of it but the lines I do remember are:

The thought of snow and ice I don't find pleasin',
except for the idea of a billion flies freezin'.


Have you tried fly preditors?


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## Suellen (Mar 9, 2008)

I usually find a teenager that wants money and pay them to do it. :greengrin: 
When I can't get someone else to do it I usually only clean the places that they like to go in the most. I use a hoe to pull the poop into a snowshovel and then dump it in the wheelbarrel to take to the compost. I have 4 adult Alpine crosses and 2 kids. Lots of poop. The part that gets me is the pee. I end up having to shovel those areas. If I let that go too long it soaks into the ground and is a real nasty job. If anyone has suggestions about the pee removal I would be interested.

_*Suellen*_


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

Suellen- you remove pee spots outside? How different we all are- I try to clear all the poop I can see but only remove the pee soaked straw daily inside. I can't even conceive of doing that outside.


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## Suellen (Mar 9, 2008)

I'm not crazy! :shocked: I only remove pee and poop from the goat stalls! I clean it every day. These goats each have their favorite spot to pee in. It doesn't take very many squats for it to soak the straw and into the dirt and then I have to shovel. I don't know how they do it but it seems like if I put more straw out they just pee more. :hair:

_*Suellen*_


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## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

And here I was scared to have anyone to the ranch over the holiday because the 12 goats had poo all over outside - LOL!

I rake the poo and straw up in the barn whenever it needs changing but they only sleep in there at night and then sun ALL day long. So rarely do they do anything in there! 

Outside though I was thinking and I think I only rake that up about once a month when it starts to show through the dirt. They don't get fed in the covered area unless it is raining outside. Otherwise we feed on the horse trough, under a tree, and then another pile of hay in another area on the grass (or what I wish was grass). Then the horse and colt come over to "clean up" the left overs on the ground!


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

Have you tried something like Dry Stall?- it absorbs pee and a very little will do a whole lot.
Since I have rubber mats in the shelters (could never flatter them by calling them a barn,) I need to remove the pee soaked straw each day. I just flip the straw over, take off the wet patches, then pile the drier stuff to the side to allow the mat to dry during the day. Then kick the straw back over the mat in the evening when I put the hay in the feeder. A pain in the rear but I'm too cheap to clean out the straw each day.


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## Cinder (Mar 3, 2008)

I have enjoyed hearing how everybody else does their clean up work. I thought I'd show a picture of the rake I was talking about ... it really works well for goat poo outside on the ground. It wouldn't work so well (I don't think) with straw. I do use it to clean out their dog house that is their shelter right now. It has wood shavings in it and this rake works well to pull them out also.


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