Cleaning my Coop [???]

[tinychicky]

you can lay down sand, shavings, straw or hay. the bare ground in the outside run isn't all bad either-great for dust baths! the inside however should have some kind of bedding or you will risk bumble foot (an infection in the pad of the foot of poultry caused by stappholcaucus aureus in the manure which penetrates the foot through cuts in the skin) when your birds jump off the roost onto the wire floor.

 

[dee88]

I got some DE from a local organic nursery.

 

[HudsonValleyGirl]

Personally I think you need a better coop. Those little A frame coops are nice, but they are not practical. I would put your chickens in some sort of big rubbermaid container, take out all the bedding and hose down your coop, air dry it for an hour or two and then replace with some bedding.

 

[franklinchickens]

Our coop sits on top of our run - the run underneath has a part that is pine shavings and a part that is dirt -we add DE to that. My concern is that the coop you have doesn't look entirely predator proof with the type of chicken wire you have - just my thoughts from the research we did. We ended up using hardware cloth on our coop and our run but the coop itself is framed using 2 x 4's & plywood and siding with ventilation. It's about 4 x 4. We have feral cats and foxes in our neighborhood so we're worried about them getting in.
But the bottom of our coop (a framed box) is vinyl flooring. Super easy to clean. Each morning the chickens go down the ladder to the run (and we let them free range in the backyard during most of the day). Then I scrape the poop off with a dustpan and wipe up whatever is left with a damp rag. Once a week, I sanitize it with a mild bleach solution. We got the piece of flooring off of freecycle, glued it down, then secured it with trim pieces on the edges.
We get our DE at a local feed store (we live in a part of the country that has a lot of rural areas). Food grade DE - one bag goes a long way - we paid $10 for our last bag and we've only used about 1/5 of it in over a month.
Here's the inside of our coop:

We're new at this too but I'm glad we did the vinyl on it - they only go in the coop at night so I clean it in the morning.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Looks like the coop is relatively small. I agree with the caller who said to simply move it. Although if you wish, you can move it elsewhere, clean up the coop and ground, then move it back in place if that is your preference. The flat side of a rake should work at scraping out the mess. I roughly alternate adding sand, shavings and rice hull beding to my coop floors. The mix works for me, and I occasionally add DE or sevin or permethrin dust into the bedding.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

I agree with others to just move it to fresh grass every couple of days. Your birds will be much happier and healthier for it.

Also, I would put up hardware cloth instead of that chicken wire. Go read the Preditor and Pest section and you will see that chicken wire keeps the chickens in but nothing out. You have been extremely lucky preditors haven't YET discovered chicken dinner at your place.

 

[flgardengirl]

Black and Decker has this skinny metal rake with an extension handle. I found one for 5 dollars at a dollar general store. They are good for getting into tight places. You can also use a hoe which also works good to scrape stuff off perches etc.