Cleaning a used coop

[Erinnlyn]

Personally I wouldn't disinfect unless there was a good reason to. These are chickens, not newborn babies, lol.
A good pressure wash and an air dry should be sufficient in most cases, considering it hasn't had chickens in it in so long.

Thank you!!

 

[3KillerBs]

Wow, I didn't know it was that bad!

I don't know about Odoban, but Febreeze can make me seriously ill.

 

[Mary Poopins Love]

Now you wonder what harmful chemicals are going into your body. *shudder*

 

[Ridgerunner]

After 10 years there should be nothing in the coop that would hurt your chickens. That part would not bother me in the least. Personally I do not paint the inside of my coop, I just don't consider it necessary. But the most important part of a paint job is the preparation. Don't bother painting if you don't do a good job preparing it. That would be a waste.

After 10 years you will need to clean it to get rid of spider webs, dust, and such. A pressure washer is probably a good option but don't get the pressure so high you damage the building. That can happen.

I don't see a need to sterilize it but I don't see any harm in doing that either. When I sterilize things I generally use a weak bleach solution, let it set long enough to work, then rinse it off with water. Then let it ventilate if needed. Let it air dry. I don't know enough about other chemicals you can use to sterilize but I'd think with a little time they'd be safe.

Whenever I read a question like this I think back years ago to another thread. Someone was reusing a coop like you and found a group of small yellow eggs. Those were obviously not mite or lice eggs, nothing that would harm the chickens. The forum of course exploded with Clean! Clean! Clean! Kill! Kill! Kill!. I agreed that the coop needed to be cleaned but was also sad, thinking about how much fun the chickens would have had chasing down and eating whatever hatched from those eggs.

 

[Erinnlyn]

I may try a weak bleach solution if my lungs can stand it, lol. If not, maybe vinegar. Possibly if it has a big enough door(s)...sunlight! UV rays kill a lot. Mainly I'm thinking about how racoons and opossums like to use abandoned structures for their toilet! lol I know opossums can carry protozoa that can infect horses (which I have had to deal with) and I can't remember to do all the research to see what microbes come from where and infect what, lol. So I will just clean.
Oh on the yellow eggs...who knows what they were (could have been ant eggs or something), but I know bot flies lay yellow eggs all over my horses' legs and those things can get inside lots of different animals and grow into larvae. They are large and grosss LOL Thanks so much for your detailed reply!!

 

[Mary Poopins Love]

@Erinnlyn You have horses? Cool!

 

[Erinnlyn]

@Erinnlyn You have horses? Cool!

@Chicken Mamma01 Yep, sure do

 

[Mary Poopins Love]

Sorry, that's a bit obvious. Any suggestions for summer sores?

 

[Erinnlyn]

@Chicken Mamma01 I've never dealt with it, but I believe treatment for summer sores inlcludes steroids, antibacterials, and deworming.
Here's a link I found on an equine veterinarian website.
https://aaep.org/horsehealth/summer-sores
Best of luck! They are so good at having problems or hurting themselves.

 

[Mary Poopins Love]

Thanks! No kidding