Cleaning out Coop

[Tootie123]

How often should I clean out my chicken coop?
I will have 10 chickens once I introduce my new chicks
into the flock. I have been literally cleaning the coop at least
once a month, taking out all the debris and pine shavings,
sprinkling everything with dust to keep the mites off of chickens
then putting new pine shavings back in on the floor and in the
laying boxes.

Is this sufficient or am I cleaning it out too much? I notice it
beings to smell rather bad, guess that is why I keep changing
everything out.

 

[Mrs. K]

I think smell is a good indicator. But one of my mistakes when I first started and it smelled was spilled feed spoiling.

I went to an elevated feed bowl with a rim ( an old hub cap on cement bricks) and found that I had been wasting a lot of feed, and that feed was spoiling and stinking.

A lot depends on, the size of your coop/run, big ones do not have to be cleaned as often, small ones more often, the weather, dry weather not so often.

Many on here do a deep litter method with a great deal of success.

MrsK

 

[mickey328]

Ours gets cleaned about once a month...and that's mostly because it just has too much poo in it, not because there's much odor. We use Sweet PDZ and it's amazing how it'll keep the smell down! Our coop is elevated and has a trapdoor ramp so we can't do deep litter (everything falls out the door if it's more than about 4 inches). If we could, I'm sure it could easily go several months without being completely replaced...just stirring the poo under and adding more litter.

 

[AlicesSilkies]

I put rubber latex gloves on every morning and pick out the big indivdual poo bits...i know it sounds weird...but i love my girls or chickdren as i call them, lol!
Then every 2 weeks i put new bedding in for them.

Hoped that helped a little, lol

 

[1muttsfan]

I use the deep litter method, and clean mine out twice a year - no problems with smell if done correctly.

 

[Jakenhoss]

I Clean my 3 coops out every week. My coops range from a 2X2X2 - 3X3X4 to a 6X4X4. I tried just adding more straw to the dirty after removing the visible poo, and the chickens seem to like to get inside no matter what, probably to pass the time of day, and they stir everything up. I clean their pen twice daily and the coop every week. maybe I do it too much but I want them to be in an environment that is a little clean. Oh yea, I change their water daily sometimes 2-3 times a day. The 17 chickens live in a 25X 55 pen.

 

[Tootie123]

Okay....that is helpful. Thought I might be changing it out too often
but seems everyone that has responded does about the same.
The new coop they will all move into is about 6 feet by 12 feet
so quite a large area....won't probably make the pine shavings
as deep as the small pen that they are in now. They seem
happier when the coop has been cleaned out and new shavings
put in. Got to keep "the girls happy." Thanks for your thoughts.
Think my girls are sort of high maintenance, ha, ha.....like me.

 

[Tootie123]

I know how you feel about your hens....mine are friends of mine so do
the best I can for them. Want to make sure they are treated right.
Thanks for you thoughts.

 

[donrae]

I use deep liter and thing I last stripped it in August 2011. I last added 2 big bales of shavings this spring. No odor, I can actually kneel down and reach some eggs that get laid in a hard to reach area and just brush my jeans off. I scatter a little food on it once every few weeks or so to encourage them to turn it up some.