How Often Should I Clean Out my Coop?

[olympiangirl]

Oops, sorry! I thought you said you used construction-grade sand in your coop. My mistake.

 

[funny farmer]

I have shelf areas under my roosts. That way I can go out there with a scraper and scrape off the poop every other day and throw it in the compost pile. I have a dirt floo,r open concept coop. In the sheltered area where it stays dry, I use the deep litter method with straw. I toss the litter around with a pitch fork every few days and add more straw as needed. I replace that about every 6 months or so by tossing it into the garden or compost pile and start over with fresh clean straw. I clean my nest boxes out once a month and add new pine shavings. With all this combined, we end up with very little odor, and the girls stay clean and dry. I am a mom of 3 very young boys, and I don't have a lot of time to mess with this. This method seems to work for us.