[QUOTE=HorseKrazy;7395633]
I live in the Sierra foothills. We do get snow, but it warms up quickly and I have never heard of poop freezing to the ground! I know plenty of people keep horses in seriously cold parts of the country, but didn’t realize how prolific the frozen poo problem was![/QUOTE]
Imagine cleaning a badly iced-up freezer without defrosting it. That might be the closest experience for a warm weather person.
This is what I have used but I have these sort of things in my shop;
http://www.homedepot.com/s/chisel?NCNI-5
And this one has a hand and wrist protector to save someone from breaking either due to a “miss hit” to satisfy the safety monitors. A couple of whacks with a decent size hammer or mini mall pops the poop loose.
Not as much fun as some of the other suggestions.
So? What worked?
I have a horse confined to a very small medical paddock (the length of two box-stalls) and I have to be SUPER vigilant about his droppings - it’s been so cold here that he gets frost on his butt as soon as he passes poop 
If I don’t keep an eye on his paddock his manure freezes and literally looks like shards sticking straight up from the earth. He is barefoot and I can’t imagine that is comfortable to step over.
What works best for me is flipping the pitchfork over and bludgeoning the base of the poop pile (AKA where the center of weight would be touching the ground) with the end/rounded edge of the wooden handle until it gets loose. It never fails, but takes some work.
[QUOTE=gumtree;7396013]
This is what I have used but I have these sort of things in my shop;
http://www.homedepot.com/s/chisel?NCNI-5
And this one has a hand and wrist protector to save someone from breaking either due to a “miss hit” to satisfy the safety monitors. A couple of whacks with a decent size hammer or mini mall pops the poop loose.
Not as much fun as some of the other suggestions.[/QUOTE]
This visual cracks me up! Sitting cross legged in the aisle chiseling away at poo, someone walks in and asks ‘WTH’… ''Oh you know just picking up the manure"
I’ve always had good luck with a shovel or heavy duty fork… Saturday I was admiring the frozen poop balls while I was picking the sacrifice paddock, and I’m in Alabama. We never have weather this cold, the pool had ice an inch thick on it.
I find it hard to believe that someone living somewhere that poo can freeze that solidly to the ground, would not own/have access to an ice chopper and a small sledge hammer and enough experience to put 2+2 together and come up with poo removal.
Put the edge of the chopper at the edge of the pile, as horizontal to the ground as possible, and hit the handle of it as hard as possible with the sledge. Repeat until it has been completely loosened.
thanks guys!
i love all the suggestions. You know what? First off, I should duct tape a bucket over the poop, which would hopefully stop me from tripping on it, when I’m pre-occupied with chores.
Yes, its a cement floor. Its “epoxied” (or “polymerized”).
Gonna try the pickaxe…
Just wear a hat w/ a brim or put up your hood and keep your mouth closed.
From experience…
(why I prefer the pry up rather than the hammer/chipper down method)…
[QUOTE=gumtree;7396003]
Can’t speak for the rest of the commentators but I was having a little fun with this thread. Considering it has been read over 1,300 times since posting it’s a interesting distraction for others also.
But as funny as the title is any of us in cold climates know what a PIA a frozen pile that becomes “glued” more like epoxied to the pavement as Hilary put it. And she would know being from NH.
I would like to think most people would know using an Oxy-Acetylene cutting welding/cutting torch would be like killing a fly with a sledge hammer. I would also like to believe that the vast majority of people could deal with this without burning the barn down and or need to have the fire department on call just in case.
But then I am a believer in Darwinism if it does happen. Let the lord sort it out as they say.[/QUOTE]
A little welder’s torch is not a Hollywood style blow torch and certainly beats spending an hour with water in bags in freezing temps. At least you have a little by-product of warmth but I guess you can do that with a bunch of whacks with a pick ax, hopefully without holes in the cement as an after effect.
[QUOTE=sascha;7397366]
I find it hard to believe that someone living somewhere that poo can freeze that solidly to the ground, would not own/have access to an ice chopper and a small sledge hammer and enough experience to put 2+2 together and come up with poo removal.
Put the edge of the chopper at the edge of the pile, as horizontal to the ground as possible, and hit the handle of it as hard as possible with the sledge. Repeat until it has been completely loosened.[/QUOTE]
I would guess that even if a person had those items and the ability to use them in the way you describe they still might not do that because they do not want to risk ruining their aisle floor.
I clean 2x per day, before work and after work, and this time of year I get so frustrated with the manure that is fused to the ground. I swear they use super glue out there. I just have to give up until spring on some piles. Even in their stalls, on mats it is a challenge.
I would probably pull out the traffic cones and put them over the offending piles and hope I noticed the cones prior to killing myself by tripping over them.
It’s a cement floor trub. Cement gets ice choppers taken to it all the time. Sometimes even vertically and although that’s maybe not highly recommended, it tends to survive just fine. Besides, it’s a barn floor for Pete’s sake, it’s not a work of art in mosaic tile. If worse comes to worst, it can be repaired. No biggy.
[QUOTE=sascha;7397532]
It’s a cement floor trub. Cement gets ice choppers taken to it all the time. Sometimes even vertically and although that’s maybe not highly recommended, it tends to survive just fine. Besides, it’s a barn floor for Pete’s sake, it’s not a work of art in mosaic tile. If worse comes to worst, it can be repaired. No biggy.[/QUOTE]
Technically it is concrete, cement is in concrete. Concrete chips very easily. Even more so when being whacked with heavy metal objects.
Having fought with many a frozen down manure pile I do sympathize with the OP.
SLEDGEHAMMER.
Where I live you can’t pour water on anything because then you have ice. I use a sledgehammer to clean up after my cow who lives on dirt and concrete. A couple of whacks to the offending pile ( not the floor) will dislodge the whole thing.
This thread makes me go “hmm???”. We have had negative temps and temps around zero for much of this month. I really hesitate to write this out because I dont need to be jinxing myself but, WHAAAA??? the holy heck are y’all doing? I have dirt floors and yeah, the manure freezes, but not to the floor!!! The pee never really freezes. Even letting it sit all day while they are turned out and I’m at work… This makes my whole desire to get mats a whole lot less, hmm now I need to think of something else to spend that money on… oh got it. That was easy :lol:
Swing away, Merrill! Swing away!
[QUOTE=sascha;7397532]
It’s a cement floor trub. Cement gets ice choppers taken to it all the time. Sometimes even vertically and although that’s maybe not highly recommended, it tends to survive just fine. Besides, it’s a barn floor for Pete’s sake, it’s not a work of art in mosaic tile. If worse comes to worst, it can be repaired. No biggy.[/QUOTE]
Did you notice OP said the floor was “epoxied” (or “polymerized”). Which means it has a pretty coating on it that she likely wants to keep looking nice. If you have a nice looking barn aisle why would you risk damaging it, even if it is just a barn? Why damage it and then have to spend money & time to repair it? If she chips the epoxy she would likely need to re-expoxy the whole aisle to make it look nice again.
Also if you hadn’t noticed most of the east coast is experiencing weather that is much colder than normal for longer stretches than normal so it is likely that OP does not get manure routinely stuck that hard to her aisle floor. If she did she wouldn’t need to ask on COTH how to deal with it. She would be an old pro, have the tools, past experience and be good to go.
Right now in my area manure could freeze to an aisle that hard. I own a sledgehammer but not an ice chopper. I haven’t needed an ice chopper for the last 10 years to get up manure. Other than a few weeks this year would likely not need one for another 5 or 10 years. So why exactly would you expect me to spend money to buy something for weather that is not the norm for my area? I would expect OP is in a similar situation.
Your tone in both your posts has come across as pretty condescending.
NONE of you folks own a simple chipping bar? I have three - no, FOUR of them in various configurations out in the shop - for DIGGING through hard ground, prying out rocks etc, putting in fence posts. Three of them have one end with a broad chisel shape - the largest at near 40 pounds is a serious weapon, and I can guarantee that if applied at an appropriate angle with a bit of impetus, it WILL move frozen manure. It will also scar the heck out of a concrete floor, however. THe hot water in trash bag sounds like a thought worth trying. It might take a few applications and some serious scraping away, but would eventually allow the offending pile to be whittled down to a less dangerous height.
We call them poopsicles here, BTW 
[QUOTE=SonnysMom;7399242]
Your tone in both your posts has come across as pretty condescending.[/QUOTE]
Yup, it was. Honestly, human safety and horse safety are lower on the list of priorities than keeping a floor (that gets shat on on the regular) pretty? That is beyond ridiculous. It’s absurd.
As far as not having tools - does no-one have any imagination any more? It’s not that hard to come up with some combination of household/barn tools that could shift a load of frozen poo.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
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