Clean coops

[wegotchickens]

Wish we had enough rain! We're 12" under for the year.

I thought pine shavings were a bad thing? Or is that just for chicks? I thought the oils were unhealthy if the chickens ate the shavings?

 

[mommahento5]

I thought cedar shavings were the bad ones?

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've been using hay in the chicken yard for years. The ladies love eating it and also scratch through it for bugs and who knows what. My chickens also get lots of weeds and trimmings from the garden, which also turns into bedding. I rake it up into a pile when I feel like it (more fun than cleaning house!). The chickens love digging through the pile and play "Queen of the Hill".
We thoroughly clean the yard about twice a year. We have dry, hot summers, so everything dries out fast, including the droppings.
We clean the roosts, nest boxes and droppings boards with bleach about every other month to keep parasites at bay. I scrape the poop off daily.
I'm with the "rather be outside watching the chickens, than cleaning house" group. I like the idea of drawing the curtains when company comes....:

 

[Tinkerchick]

Well I think I'll stick with hay then. The Chicken's seem to love it. I heard the pine shavings wern't very good for chicks but I don't know for sure. I just used Shredded up newspaper for mine when they were chicks, but I had to clean out the box often.

 

[nightshade]

When the talk of getting chickens first came up I told my Dh that I in no way wanted them cause I could remember the chickens my one friend at school had. You could always no matter what time of year smell their chicken coop from in the drive way and long before you ever got near the coop. He informed me that chickens that are well taken care of are not like that. I remarked fine but you are cleaning up after them if they smell like that. Nearly 2 years later I am so glade we have chickens. Not only has it been great for our 4 year old son but they are so much fun. And I am the one that takes care of them including cleaning the hen house and pen not DH lol

We have roughly 25 chickens, a duck, a peacock (I just bought him at market last week I am soo excited) and our 2 goats sleep in the hen house. These all live in the big "egg run" my Dh calls it which we built strickly for our laying hens but now has a few fancy roos in it of mine also. lol

The number of chickens varies from week to week depending on which chicks hatched, who got mean. (which means a trip to market for them) Who we bought a market to keep away from the boucher guy, or because they just looked like they needed a good home.

Our "egg run" is made of two fenced in run sections and a large hen house. It's 1- 20x20x6 high run that is attached to a 20x45x4 high fenced in bank run so basicly they have bunches of space. I clean our 6ft high run and hen house every 3 months or so. And in the wet spring time if we get alot of rain I may do it every two week. This is were all the feeders and waters are as well as were they get all their treats like watermelons and such. Normaly it is just a good disinfection of the feeders, waters, duck pond and a putting down a layer of farm lime and cruched corncobs. I really don't like a smelly chicken area, If I can smell them then I clean the coop lol

Our chicken coop has a concrete floor so that makes cleaning up under the roosts super easy. I just toss down some cobs about 2 or 3 inches thick and clean it out once a week and up fresh down. If I get some one that had a cold or the duck desides to have a really messy week I can just hose the concrete off and put cobs down when it dries.

First thing in the spring I split the bank run up in sections and reseed it with regular old rye seed it seems to come up fast and thick and really works well. I also toss alot of leaves in the run when I have them to get rid of. The girls like to scrach in them and they compost them up really nice for me. Making any dirt I take out of the run when I clean it great for in my gardens.

Pretty much I found I would rather do it more often and make it a smaller chore then do it once a year and have a huge smelly mess.

 

[momoftwinsinwi]

Nightshade what are cobs???

 

[birdielynn]

I've gone to pine shavings in the coop and nest boxes. I clean the nest boxes often by just scooping up any poop and I replace/add to the shavings as needed. I found hay/straw really hard to shovel because it all stuck together. In Spring and Summer I clean the coop every 2-3 weeks. Since I started sprinkling DE on the floor and in the nest boxes I have had zero problems with flies. In the fall I stop cleaning and start layering so I have deep litter all winter. Spring clean out is a chore but it doesn't take too long with help. My double coop is about 8 x 10 on each side with a storage space in the middle. This works for me. You've just got to find what works for you. A removable board under the roosts really sounds like a good idea too and one that I can easily retrofit into the coop.

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
We're under extreme drought here in White Co. also.

Pine shavings are safe. It is cedar shavings that can cause problems because of the oils.

 

[speckledhen]

That is correct and it's the aromatic oils in cedar that cause respiratory problems in chicks. Decent pine shavings are probably best. Some are too fine and too much like sawdust so try to get a decent brand. I've tried using wheat straw and it just smells worse. Can't afford to buy actual hay to put in there, but I think shavings absorb moisture better.

 

[wren]

Quote:
I think nightshade is refering to corn cobs. They are dried and sometimes crumbled into 1/2 inch chunks.