Cleaning my soon to be coop

[ddsdreams]

Hi looking for some advice. I'm planning my coop and am converting a shed to my new chicken coop. I cleaned out the shed and found lots of rat carcasses and d-con rat poison. I want to make sure my future chickens are not exposed to the rat droppings and rat poison so I'm looking for a way to clean out the shed. Can I use a power washer with bleach? It will aired out by the time I get my chicks. I just don't want to use anything that might be harmful to them.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC!

Not sure power washing and/or bleach will remove/neutralize the main danger, which is the poison.
Is the poison in chunks or boxes or ....?
Probably just removing the stuff will do the trick.

Using water, or almost any liquid, is not a good idea IMO, you want a chicken coop to be as dry as possible,
wetting the environment can spur the growth of all kinds of organisms that could be harmful.

Also know, you will need to guard against any rats returning from getting back into the coop.
What is the shed made of and what are your plans for preparing it for chickens?
Pics inside, outside, and around would help.

 

[ddsdreams]

There were some boxes and cabinets in the shed with rat droppings. I found d-con bait trays in there also. (All this from the previous owners). I plan on removing the top layer of dirt outside of shed placing hardware wire down (to prevent any critters from tunneling in) and dropping fresh dirt on top so chickens won't eat rat droppings that might have fallen on the ground. I'll seal any openings/holes and cover windows with hardware wire. Outside the coop for the run I plan on using (2) 10x10 dog kennels covering the entire run with hardware wire. Here are some pics of the shed, so far....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/i/7697030/after-tearing-down-the-rickety-lean-to/

 

[wamtazlady]

Just think of this in case your dog kennels are chain link. If you have any smaller predators in your area such as mink or weasel, they can easily slip through chain link. Also, raccoons have been known to reach through fences and pull out parts of birds.