Why didn't I think of this before I painted my run white!

I loved your reply! I feel better knowing I was not the only one with the dream of a white run (that didn't stay white very long). I agree that they are my dusty but very happy girls. And they bring me such joy. I'll just pretend I intended the white base to be the color of sand.

FlyWheel said:

Well. I've had experience with chickens before, so when I built my coop I made sure I painted all the horizontal surfaces with dark grey decking paint!

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Where were you when I needed you?

NCchickKJM said:

Flock Master...here is the link to the Coup Deville....mine looks practically the same.Well it did before the chickens moved in I am in NC and I am loving being a backyard chicken keeper. My six girls are so, so sweet and a joy to watch. I let them free range about an hour before dusk. We have hawks so they are in the run except for that hour when I stand out there with them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/lake-norman-coop-de-ville

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This is actually really, really beautiful. I totally sympathize with you for wanting to do something similar, even though it's true that chickens have their own pretty strong opinions about how things should be decorated....

Hi Ballerina Girl. My girls are good decorators for sure. My chicken run/coop was so beautiful for a few weeks...now like a people house it certainly looks "lived in". Regretfully I am strongly leaning towards painting the outside of baseboards a dark sand color. It is going to ruin my beautiful all white "house" but the sand also makes me fret. Drats!

Blooie said:

Oh, that is SO me!! The visions I had in my little pea brain. Painted the inside of my coop white. It was so bright and cheerful and I was going to have Coca Cola chickens. You know, I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony? Yeah, they didn't learn that song, and I don't have the lap chickens I thought I'd have. Then they moved into their flawless coop. You know, it's kinda like owning nice house and renting it out to teenagers as their first "adult experience." Sounds great, but reality is ugly. So is my white coop! I have yet to figure out how chickens can get chicken poop spattered on the wall above the window, which is above the roosts, which are above the nests, which are above the floor. <sigh>

But you know what? The chickens don't care. And after a few months I didn't care anymore either. They were healthy, they did chickeny things and now I have a lovely coop with a gray/brown interior. I just pretend I painted it that way.

I use deep litter, and that can get pretty dusty in the summer too. If you wait long enough, the whole coop will be the same color again.

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Well, gosh, Blooie, you ain't the only one.... Fortunately I got over my dreams of "pristine Martha Stewart looking charmer" when I had a flock of 15 Guineas who started roosting on my porch rail every night (refused to stay in their safe hooch) thus the porch was covered in poop every morning. I finally had to get rid of the guineas as they never got the message no matter what I tired to discourage them. But, on to chickens and other types of fowl (sometimes spelled foul, for good reason). I left the inside of my coops unpainted, and they seem to have stayed pretty clean. Only white thing is the roost bars because we recycled lumber that was already painted. Liberally coated with DE, they seem to stay mostly clean.
My SIL thought he would help out one day when he was home from work and bored (always a bad combo) so while I was cleaning out the barn he decided to clean out the chicken coop. Unfortunately he neglected to consult with me as to the proper disposal technique for the straw/poop combo on the floor, so he just shoved it out into the chicken yard. Never mind that we have a tractor w/front loader and a modest but healthy compost pile. He did spread it all out very neatly in their run, (looked like nice mulch) and that afternoon it started raining. A lot. For days. STINKING MESS. Nobody wanted to go in the yard, which was a soggy stew of straw, poop, mud, etc. I could not do anything to fix it until it quit raining (took a few weeks) and dried up enough to get the tractor in to scrape off the top 4 inches of goo and transport it to the compost pile where it promptly got buried so it stopped smelling like a malfunctioning sewage plant. Then we brought in fresh dirt and once again, our chicken yard smelled fresh and clean. First and last time I have ever had stinking chickens. Even when we had 85 chickens, I never had chicken stink. We use cut straw on the floors, about 4 inches deep, and clean it out about 3 times a year. 23 chickens which will be reduced to about 15 when we cull the roosters we don't want.

We (SIL and DH) are in the process of building a duck house (ducklings will be hatching in about 3 weeks) so I will send pics of that later on. Ducks can be stinky if their habitat is not well planned and maintained.

Sometimes being lazy/ too busy, and not getting around to doing that cute paint job, ain't so bad after all! Mary

Folly's place said:

Sometimes being lazy/ too busy, and not getting around to doing that cute paint job, ain't so bad after all! Mary

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Or, in the case of my DH, too cheap to buy more paint .

That's what the 'woops paint' shelves are for at the paint department! Mary

I was amazed by how chickens have the uncanny ability to get poop EVERYWHERE! After we finished our coop and I lovingly painted it dark blue with nice white windows and trim I debated on also painting the inside.... Boy am I glad that I procrastinated on that one. My dreams of a crisp white interior flew out the window when I found poop splattered on the windows 4-5 feet off the ground.