When Poop Doesn't Hit the Fan

People talk about what is going to happen when the poop hits the fan. What about when it hits the ground?  Now that we butchered 43 of our Cornish Cross birds and put them in the freezer, I was thinking about the differences between our egg layers and the meat birds.  The egg layers are pretty. The meat birds?  Not so much.  The laying hens follow you when it is feeding time and are somewhat polite and patient, but the meat birds clamor together like they are starving.  They eat food quickly, voraciously, even getting into the pvc gutter I use as a feed trough and then they sit and poop.  And then they sit in their poop. They are nasty animals.  This is why you must move the chicken tractors often.

As I was comparing the differences of the different breeds, something came to my attention: their poop!  If you've had your breakfast already and aren't afraid to discuss a smelly, unsightly topic, let's examine chicken poop.  I want to show you something odd that I noticed about the differences in chicken poop between breeds of birds.  Take a look at the photo below.

It looks like I spilled some of the 18% Protein Chick Grower that I feed the Cornish Cross meat birds - except it's not.  It is their poop.  Yes, the rain made it wet, but even on dry days, poop from the Cornish Cross meat birds looks like wet feed.  They eat SO MUCH and I know that Cornish Cross birds are extremely efficient in converting feed to meat, but that just looks like undigested feed to me. It looks like waste.  I don't like waste! And it's certainly not pretty (although it does make the grass grow green!)

Cornish Cross Chicken Poop

Then look at the chicken poop below.  This fine specimen came from one of our laying hens.  I didn't watch her make this 'deposit,' but it was either a Barred Rock, a Rhode Island Red, a Black Star, or an Aracauna.  Notice the difference.  You can actually see undigested feed in the poopy mess above, but not below.  The food has been fully digested and used by the hen.

See the 'white cap' on top?  Know what that is?  That is urate.  Chickens don't urinate like other animals do.  Their urinary waste is deposited in the poop in the digestive tract in the form of the white cap you see below - the urate.  I don't know, poop isn't pleasing to look at by any stretch of the imagination, but what you see below sure looks a lot better than the mess you see above.

Healthier looking poop from one of our laying hens

The huge amount of feed that a Cornish Cross eats, coupled with the fact that this animal doesn't forage very much or move around makes it critical that you push the chicken tractor each day, preferably a couple times a day, in order to get them on fresh grass and out of their poop.  The vast quantity of their poop can actually kill the grass.  It comes back, though, lush and green, like the grass growing over the septic tank that Erma Bombeck used to talk about.

On the other hand the laying hens roam freely over 3 acres, eating grass, bugs, worms, seeds, etc. all the while distributing their healthier looking poop all over the pasture.  They may not have the genetic make-up of the Cornish Cross, allowing them to quickly convert feed to meat, but they do what they do best - lay beautiful eggs.  The life of a Cornish Cross is over at 10 weeks.  In contrast, a good laying hen will continue to be productive laying eggs for our family for years!

Each chicken does what they do best.  I guess I'm partial to the more natural, beautiful laying hens.