cleaning coop and run

[rooster1119]

how often should you clean out the run and the coop ??

 

[cphinney]

I clean mine once a week. Being I am in a populated area and the summer heat brings out the worst in a chicken coop. I take all the girls out and rake the coop out then spray down their roost areas with water and let it sit a few minutes. I purchased a nice long handle scrub brush and scrub all the areas with soapy water (I use dish soap) then rinse it out. I have also taken to spraying it down with fly spray (BTW I remove all the feeders and waters before starting to clean), I get the fly spray at Tractor supply and it is supposed to be safe around animals/chickens, you can even spray them direct if you need to. I would prefer no fly spray even safe spray but we had way to many flies and I figured it was a larger health risk (and just plain nasty) than a spray, I am careful with the spray though and hit the perimeter where the flies would lay eggs and the outside. I then let it all dry and put a layer of barn lime one the ground (BE SURE TO USE BARN LIME AND NOT GARDEN LIME-GARDEN LIME CAN HARM CHICKENS). I then replace nesting and throw a light layer of pine shavings over the ground. Our coop has gone from a nasty fly infested mess to pleasure to stand around since we started scrubbing, spraying, and using lime.

 

[rooster1119]

thank you

 

[MoonShadows]

That seems like an awful lot of work and probably really not needed as far as the chickens are concerned. I am using the deep litter method, so my next cleaning will be in October, or every 6 months - April and October. About once every two months, I take the little 2.5 gallon shop vac I bought at Lowes, with a fine dust filter bag attached, and vacuum all the surfaces just to get the fine "chicken dust" off, especially the window tracks, door track, etc. I also use a kitty litter scoop every other or third day to clean the poop out of the Sweet PDZ under the roosts. BTW, I don't think I have seen a fly in my coop yet this summer and there is almost no smell at all. Read some about the deep litter method, unless you want to be cleaning all the time..