Who cleans out feathers from their coop and/or run?

[Back2Roots]

On a chicken keeping blog I follow, someone recently posted that we should clean out feathers from the coop because they don't absorb moisture and it may encourage feather picking during the winter months when hens may get bored.
I do scoop out poop under the roost regularly, but is it really necessary to remove every last feather that makes an appearance in the coop? I can understand if there are a lot of them laying about when the hens molt, but for the odd one here and there, does it really matter if they are just left until bedding cleanup? I do a pretty decent cleanup of bedding quite regularly anyway.

 

[bobbi-j]

I just toss in more straw, and clean out once a year in the spring.

 

[aart]

On a chicken keeping blog I follow, someone recently posted that we should clean out feathers from the coop because they don't absorb moisture and it may encourage feather picking during the winter months when hens may get bored.........

Just because someone posted it, doesn't make it true.
You need more than just a grain of salt when you read on the net, you need a whole shaker of salt (and I'm not talking tequila lol!)

I scoop the feathers off the roosts boards with the poops, but don't bother with any that are anywhere else.....like everywhere right about now!
The day after I did the total fall change out of coop shavings, a couple started molting.
I do think they eat some of them, but don't think that leads to feather picking....just like eating accidentally broken eggs(opportunistic) doesn't lead to egg eating(deliberate).

 

[donrae]

I just always figured they break down into the deep liter and add more material

I'm a woman, but seem to have missed that cleaning gene......and the shoe gene.......but I've got a colorful egg basket and healthy birds

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Did they mean just in the coop or everywhere? I can't imagine what it would be about having feathers on the floor or ground would cause feather picking. Feather picking is usually from a need for protein and boredom from being too closely confined. What about feathers on the ground and floor affects that?

Also, they don't absorb moisture but they don't add moisture so that's a net neutral.

If one has 100 chickens, removing feathers would be a full time job.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is it really necessary? I don't do it. I image if you poll the members of this forum you would be hard pressed to find half a dozen that do. I don't consider it necessary or even useful.

 

[senorita05]

I do. Not because my chickens molt a lot, but because whenever I clean their coop, I just like doing a proper job of it. So when I am cleaning it, all the feathers get cleaned up too.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Well, when I clean the coop, everything comes out including vacuuming the cobwebs and washing dust from the walls. But, between cleanings, about every 3 or 4 months, the feathers stay there till the next cleanout.

 

[Back2Roots]

Quote:
That’s what I was wondering too. I think the blogger was referring to the coop in particular, not necessarily the run, but I haven’t noticed my chickens showing any interest at all in feathers on the ground, or on each other, for that matter. However, this is my first year with chickens and we haven’t gone through a winter together yet. ;-) They do get plenty of protein in their diet and at the moment have a lot of space in a large run, plus regular evening outings into the yard. I only have 8 chickens - 2 older hens, two pullets that just started laying and the rest are juveniles – and I only pick up feathers in the coop when I clean out poop from under the roosts every day or two. Even then, they can sometimes be quite elusive when it comes to picking them out, so I’ll admit it’s often not a very thorough job because I don’t have the patience to chase them all over.
Quote:
Same here. Unless I'm missing something, like they harbor all kinds of nasty germs or cause respiratory problems for the chickens. None of mine are doing a serious molt though, so it's not like there's a sea of feathers lying about. I would probably be more diligent with clean up if that were the case.
Quote:
I guess it depends on the kind of bedding that you use too. I have been using pine shavings and found that it was easier to turn them under than it was to sift them out without wasting a lot of bedding. I just switched to flax bedding after doing the big fall cleanout this weekend, and so far am loving it – so much easier to sift out the poop without throwing out a lot of good bedding with it.
Quote:
Me too, for the big spring and fall cleanout. In between times I do daily/bi-daily under-the-roost poop removal and weekly I skim off the top layer of soiled bedding and replenish with fresh. If feathers come up with the skim, great, otherwise they stay.

 

[yellowchicks]

Hmm....I just cleaned out the feathers from the run yesterday after 3 months. I was just being compulsive with cleaning and allergic to fine feathers. I used a piece of hardware cloth to cover a rake as a sieve, it was only good for removing some larger chunks. You can probably use a leaf blower set on the low setting and blow the feathers to one corner for removal. In the coop, the bedding is clean out every week anyway. There was really no concern with feather picking, just feather flying.