Cleaning cecal poop

[Gitg]

Hi!
I'm new, and this is my first post. We got two girls (a silkie and a pekin) about 6 weeks ago and then about 4 weeks later we got two more pekins chickens are addictive!

The two new girls have foul smelling cecal poop and havetaken to pooping on the ramp during the night. I'm ok cleaning off the regular stuff but that cecal poop is sticky!! How do people clean it?

 

[piminuse]

I've found that dish scrubbers are pretty great at scraping off gunk from roost bars, ramps, patio furniture--you name it. The extended reach, cheap cost and ability to easily disinfect are all pluses for me. I buy 'em in bulk from IKEA, but they're easy to find at any grocery/home goods store. This is what I'm talking about:

 

[rosemarythyme]

How is the coop laid out that they're pooping on a ramp? Ideally everything directly under a roost + "splash zone" should be bedding.

 

[aart]

I just throw some shavings on it and 'scrub' it with my scraper hoe.
IF it's somewhere that needs to be 'cleaned'.

Yep, cecals are stinky, slimy, sticky.

 

[LoveCochins]

I cover it with PDZ, let it set a minute and scrape it off with my putty knife. It comes right off and I drop it into my poop bucket. If it needs cleaning I wipe it with a damp rag, but it usually doesn't need to be cleaned.

 

[Gitg]

I've found that dish scrubbers are pretty great at scraping off gunk from roost bars, ramps, patio furniture--you name it. The extended reach, cheap cost and ability to easily disinfect are all pluses for me. I buy 'em in bulk from IKEA, but they're easy to find at any grocery/home goods store. This is what I'm talking about:
View attachment 2305029

Thanks- I'll get so me dedicated scrubbers!

 

[Gitg]

How is the coop laid out that they're pooping on a ramp? Ideally everything directly under a roost + "splash zone" should be bedding.

The ramp goes up into a sheltered section - its just the coop that came with the first two chooks but the new girls sleep on it :/

 

[rosemarythyme]

The ramp goes up into a sheltered section - its just the coop that came with the first two chooks but the new girls sleep on it :/

I know it's not the question you were asking about but might want to see about what you can do to get them to sleep inside, for safety at night.

 

[centrarchid]

I am going approach this very differently as have done actual research involving cecal poop. Chickens in my studies do not produce cecal poop while sleeping normally. They will produce the cecal poop at night when light levels above natural (you can see colors). Otherwise the produce only the regular turds. Therefore, they should not be depositing cecal poop on ramp unless roosting there. Upon coming off roost the chickens drift away from roost and produce their first big cecal poop of day. If confines to tight, then the ramp may be where they do it.

You can impact the regular turds by manipulating the diet. The regular turds produced by birds on typical commercially available diet formulations are on the nasty end of spectrum.

 

[Chicalina]

I am going approach this very differently as have done actual research involving cecal poop. Chickens in my studies do not produce cecal poop while sleeping normally. They will produce the cecal poop at night when light levels above natural (you can see colors). Otherwise the produce only the regular turds. Therefore, they should not be depositing cecal poop on ramp unless roosting there. Upon coming off roost the chickens drift away from roost and produce their first big cecal poop of day. If confines to tight, then the ramp may be where they do it.

You can impact the regular turds by manipulating the diet. The regular turds produced by birds on typical commercially available diet formulations are on the nasty end of spectrum.

I am really interested in your theory, it sounds fascinating but I couldn't quite understand what you were trying to explain. Can you elaborate a bit?