Any advice please on caring for hens in winter when working full time?

[bald Rooster]

I am new to chickens, this is my first year. I have learned so much from this forum.
I have 6 hens,1 roo and 24 11 week olds. I have a large 210 square foot walk in coop with roost over head,They have a large cover'd run 20x50 I open them up to when I leave for work.
I do all the feeding and watering every night. (I have enough feeders and waterers to go 3 days)
Elevating the feeders and waters about 4 inches seems to keep most of the trash out of them.
I converted a heat light into a reg light and hung it from ceiling in coop,Since Its only on for a couple minutes while I clean, the chickens don't fly down.
The entire floor is covered with old rubber matts from horse stalls.(I know that cheap vinyl linoleum works great.)
I do not use any beding,a very light dusting of sand or straw makes poop scrape up easy.but not necessary.
All I do in the morning is scrape all the poop from the night before,open door to run.
It takes me less then 5 minutes.
I never hose down coop, but I do clean all feeders and waters as needed and I bleach my waters once a week. This is a simple process I dump and clean them, then I take spray bottle with very mild bleach and water mixture and spray them. I wait a couple minutes,rinse and fill.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m confident I’m one of the more extreme members of this forum when it comes to cleaning. If I have a lot of chickens in the coop and the weather is wet, I might scrape my droppings board once a week. If I have a few chickens and its pretty dry I go more than a month between scrapings. That pure poop goes in my compost.

I don’t use the deep litter method. For that to work you need to keep your coop floor a bit damp so the microbes can do their thing and compost the poop and bedding. I just keep mine dry and every three of four years dump that stuff on my garden. Nor because I need to clean the coop but because I want that stuff on my garden. It’s been three years so I’ll do that later this month after we have that deep freeze that knocks out my Brussels sprouts and cabbage.

We are all unique and have different standards, sett-ups, and goals. We have to find a level in about everything we are comfortable with. I don’t mind it being a little dirty, I think it helps strengthen their immune systems. My key to when I need to scrape the droppings board is smell. If it starts to smell I waited too long.

I agree that the chicken density has a lot to do with how often you need to clean. Other things do too. You just have to find your level.

 

[PaulaMc]

Thanks for that. I know I will keep learning everyday.

They are a joy and very happy that Jackie and Nancy have laid again and stopped being broody.

 

[PaulaMc]

Hi all

Thought I would put up some pictures of my set up so you can see what I am talking about. Al the girls live in the new blue coop. The brown one at the back is the first one I bought which I now use if I need to segregate any hens. The two bamboo covered runs I created from old garden tables, tarpaulin and of course bamboo. I had most of the fencing redone-6ft and a stable gate fixed. I also have a rabbit run that I use as a broody pen.






It's not as big as some of the fantastic ones I 've seen on this site- but planning to enlarge when I win the lottery ha ha.

I have put plant protecting membrane under cardboard and then cover the coop in tarpaulin for the winter. When we get rain free days I take this off - air it and open the top of the coop to allow fresh air in.

What do you think?

 

[PaulaMc]

I am new to chickens, this is my first year. I have learned so much from this forum.
I have 6 hens,1 roo and 24 11 week olds. I have a large 210 square foot walk in coop with roost over head,They have a large cover'd run 20x50 I open them up to when I leave for work.
I do all the feeding and watering every night. (I have enough feeders and waterers to go 3 days)
Elevating the feeders and waters about 4 inches seems to keep most of the trash out of them.
I converted a heat light into a reg light and hung it from ceiling in coop,Since Its only on for a couple minutes while I clean, the chickens don't fly down.
The entire floor is covered with old rubber matts from horse stalls.(I know that cheap vinyl linoleum works great.)
I do not use any beding,a very light dusting of sand or straw makes poop scrape up easy.but not necessary.
All I do in the morning is scrape all the poop from the night before,open door to run.
It takes me less then 5 minutes.
I never hose down coop, but I do clean all feeders and waters as needed and I bleach my waters once a week. This is a simple process I dump and clean them, then I take spray bottle with very mild bleach and water mixture and spray them. I wait a couple minutes,rinse and fill.

I absolutely love this

 

[EggSighted4Life]

@PaulaMc It doesn't have to be beautiful, just functional.

Looks like you are making the best out of living in the city!

My chickens like hanging out under and on top of the garden tables as well.

 

[PaulaMc]

@PaulaMc It doesn't have to be beautiful, just functional.

Looks like you are making the best out of living in the city!

My chickens like hanging out under and on top of the garden tables as well.

Thanks so much.

Mine do too - especially Talula who didn't have any wing feathers when I rescued her as an ex batt. She loves flapping about on the coops and fences etc.

Looks prettier in summer when not as much tarpaulin and my garden has plants and grass ha ha.

 

[bald Rooster]

I don't understand why anyone with a small coop and under say 50 chickens would not clean the coop floor daily.
When its fresh it scrapes up so easy. and a clean coop doesn't smell near as bad.
It only takes about 3 minutes of my day to clean floor in my coop. and I have 31 chickens right now.
I do realize a lot of you have a designated roosting area with some kind of poop catcher.
To me this also seems like a waste of space and a unnecessary clean up detail.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I don't understand why anyone with a small coop and under say 50 chickens would not clean the coop floor daily.
When its fresh it scrapes up so easy. and a clean coop doesn't smell near as bad.
It only takes about 3 minutes of my day to clean floor in my coop. and I have 31 chickens right now.
I do realize a lot of you have a designated roosting area with some kind of poop catcher.
To me this also seems like a waste of space and a unnecessary clean up detail.

Quite the opposite... Takes up no space but leaves my coop floor clean for hanging out and nobody gets pooped on when underneath.

Also when the poo is wet, it just smears for me. Better to let it dry out a touch and then it comes up easily.

All I can say is that what works for one may not work for another.

When I had only 3 chickens and a smaller coop I put off cleaning inside the coop as long as I could, But I lived in the desert and everything dried fast. They spent zero time in their coop except sleeping. It seemed like such a terrible task. Truth is my set up wasn't right like it it is now.

Also how someone manages their time and all the other things in their head may not be the same. For example... my husband doesn't understand why I don't iron all his work clothes at the same time instead of getting up early every morning to do one outfit. It simple, doing one outfit takes 5 minutes verses an hour. My brain can do 5 minutes of ironing, no big deal. But all at once, I hate it! So it's just part of my routine and how I function best.

I guess it's the opposite for coop cleaning. Trying to chase one little poo here or one little poo there wastes my time. If I wait a couple days, I can grab a rake and shovel and be done in probably 10 minutes. It's an ongoing learning and adjusting process that sometimes changes from season to season. And I don't always wanna scoop poop and go wash my hand before I can do anything else.

I do agree though that dried chicken poop is like cement. So the ones that are stuck on my ramp get scraped with the shovel. But if I do it wet, it's still there waiting for one of my feather footed girls to come make pretty boots out of it. At least that's my current observation... will adjust as needed.

But living in the PNW and having birds that often hang out inside on rainy days, I will NEVER give up my droppings boards!

And the great thing about BYC is we all get to share what works or doesn't for us and hopefully learn from each other.

And then you've got folks like the OP who literally don't have a speck of daylight when they aren't at work.... She goes way above and beyond. But maybe it's from fear mongers telling her if you don't clean everyday they're gonna die and be sick... It's nice to have it clean, and everyday would be great, but there's gonna be poop somewhere all the time.

If you can smell ammonia, you've waited to long. Other than that whatever works best for you is awesome!

And I just feel blessed, not special... but never in 5 years have I lost a chicken to natural causes. I know it's just a matter of time before that does happen. But it won't be because I don't clean my coop everyday.

Guess I just had a lot to say, don't mean to keep going on and on like I have something to prove or a bone to pick, because I don't.

I would like to know your 3 minute method for that many chickens. Please describe your set up and weather conditions as well. Thank you

 

[bald Rooster]

If you look up on this thread a picture of my coop is there, Its just a converted horse stall in my horse barn.
I live in central fl. I don't have to worry to much about cold weather.
As far as my chickens being over head. It doesn't matter much because after being on roost for 11 hours there all pooped out!

Before I enter coop in the dark I open large rolling trash can lid and turn on light.
You can't see it from the picture but there is a safe zone at the door

I step in with a long handled flat shovel and turn it over and scrap all the poop into a pile next to the wall. It fills shovel two heaping scoops, I try to get it all but if I miss a little I leave it.
Lately I been scraping poop in the afternoon also but just out of my way because I don't want to step in it.
It really only takes me about three minutes with my shovel and trash can set up ,to clean 90% of the poop out every day.
Since I spend a fair amount of time in my barn daily with all my critters and grand children A stinky coop is out of the question .