Cleaning out chicken pens for quail.

[Kwartel]

Is there anything that I can use to treat a chicken pen to prevent the spread of disease for quail? I think using bleach inside the coop would work, but it has an attached dirt run. Would spraying bleach and letting it dry work, or is there something else I could use to prepare it?

 

[JJMR794]

Bleach Is Probably Your Best Bet.... Easiest To Get Ahold Of And Most Cost Effective, And Its Pretty Much The Universal Disinfectant. I Just Dont Know How Well You Can Disinfect Earth?

 

[Denninmi]

Um, couple of ways you can kill off the nasties in the soil. Dump a LOT of bleach on there, saturate it pretty well. Bleach is cheap, so it shouldn't be too expensive unless it's a really big area. It breaks down into salt and water in the end, so after a few days it's gone. It will kill any earthworms in there, which won't be pretty, just to warn you.

Or, pour boiling water on it. Same thing, saturate it pretty well. You might need to set up something like a propane burner to heat big pots of water. Don't burn yourself if you do this.

One other option -- maybe remove and replace the soil with fresh.

 

[95yj]

Bleach, if you have a fruit tree sprayer put a high concentration of bleach and water in it and spray the crap out of the coop, (take all the shavings out first) then after spraying everything lock all the doors and windows, if your really paranoid tape all the cracks or use plastic, let the bleach sit for a few hours so the fumes can get into everything, the dirt run try shoveling the top 6 inches of dirt out and refilling it with other stuff from your yard, or lightly bleach it (probly a bad idea, terrible for the environment, but ounce it dries its completely harmless, so i have no idea) Just a word from the wise, be very careful around bleach, i'v been using it for years and it seems harmless but in high concentration it can be dangerous. I had to fumigate a coop a few weeks ago, my hands were in and out of the bleach H2o mix all day, a few days later I ended up with chemical burns all over my hands, i also got the mist around my eyes which screwed up my vision for a day or two and will probably cause problems down the road. While working in the coop i inhaled small amounts of the bleach, which was unavoidable while in the area, later that night I had random asthma attacks, serious ones, I'v always had sports and allergin induced asthma but not random attacks, i was just sitting on the couch watching tv and suddenly I couldn't breath, luckily they passed quickly. That night, or morning, I woke up at around 12 AM, could barely breath, chest hurt, stomach was cramped up so bad i had to crawl to the bathroom cause i thought i was gonna puke, the feeling passed. I'v been working around bleach and other fun chemicals literally since i was eight and i'v never worn any kind of protection, please learn from my stupidity, wear rubber gloves, goggles and a ventilator if you have them and take lots of breaks. Just a rant, when i get going i don't know where to stop... But yeah bleach is probly your best bet. Does anybody know how long a poultry disease can stay dormant and transmitable if it was just sitting out in the dirt?

 

[Kwartel]

Looks like bleach is probably my best bet. I'll definitely be careful using it and I'll probably wait until our daytime temps drop out of the triple digits first. Dust and heat and chemical stench is not the best combination. Most of our worms have either been turned into worm jerky from the heat or else are so far underground that I'm not sure the bleach would reach them anyway.

 

[Lesalynn]

I know that if you have a dog that gets parvo, the vet will tell you to spray the doghouse, ground, and surrounding area the dog was kept with a solution of bleach. They do stress, however, that lots of sunlight along with this treatment makes it work better. The combination of bleach/sun is supposed to kill off the virus......I would think could work in a coop, too......the only troublesome thing there is the sunlight factor, maybe??? Like the roosting area.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
ACTUALLY THATS KINDA COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE AS SUN AND HEAT DISASSOCIATE THE CHLORINE IN THE BLEACH. HIGH TEMPS CAUSE THE MOLECULES TO LET GO OF THE CHLORINE AND IT SIMPLY VAPORIZES AND DILUTES IN AMBIENT AIR. I WOULD THINK THAT WILL DECREASE CONTACT TIME AND SOULTION STRENGTH OR CONCENTRATION THEREBY MAKING IT LESS EFFECTIVE AS A DISINFECTANT? AT LEAST WAYS AS FAR AS SOIL GOES.... I KNOW THATS 1 OF THE MAIN REASONS IT MAKES A WONDERFUL TREATMENT FOR BROODERS, FEED DISHES, WATER FONTS, ETC.... IS BECAUSE ONCE AIR DRY THERE IS NO RESIDUE LEFT TO POTENTIALLY HARM THE BIRDS.

 

[DLS]

Bleach & bird POO made some BAD ,BAD,BAD fumes for me . I used it a few times but be very careful.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
EXCELLENT POINT DAN! BLEACH + AMMONIA= CHOLRAMINE GAS.... NASTY STUFF REALLY, SO DO KEEP THE AREA WELL VENTILATED.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
EXCELLENT POINT DAN! BLEACH + AMMONIA= CHOLRAMINE GAS.... NASTY STUFF REALLY, SO DO KEEP THE AREA WELL VENTILATED.

using these two ingredients mixed together is how quiet a number of groundhogs are done in each year REALLY nasty stuff please be careful !!!