Alright I am new to this and could really use the advice...

[omyoulin]

Hello all,
Well I have been a chicken owner now for 3 months and I could really use some help. First, How do you keep the chickens from pooping in their coop? Maybe we built it wrong or something. Second, How can you keep chickens clean? It seems that all of mines undersides are covered in dirt/poop. I wish there were a way to keep them clean. Third of all, how to I keep the flies away? they eat the grass under their tractor so fast and then they are just walking in poop and the flies come fast... Any thoughts? I would really appreciate any help you can give.

Thanks again!

 

[gamebirdsonly]

good luck with chickens not pooping in the coop their always pooping.

 

[HEChicken]

Chickens have no sphincter control so cannot be trained not to poop wherever they happen to be standing when the urge hits. So there will always be poop in the coop. One thing you can do to help to control it is to install a poop board or hammock under the roosts. The majority of the poop (at least at night) will fall onto the board or hammock and it will be easier to remove and clean that, than to have to scoop out the whole coop. If you do a search on the forum for "poop board" or "poop hammock" you should find lots of different ways that people have set these up and perhaps one of those ideas will work for you.

For the other questions....can you post a pic of your set up? How big is your coop? How big is the run? How many chickens do you have in this space? Some people use sand in the run as it is easier to sift the poop out of it - perhaps that would be an idea for you. Unfortunately flies are part and parcel of chicken keeping - they move too fast for the chickens to eat them (although if I swat one, they will be happy to eat it once it has been demobilized).