Cleaning the coop.

[jonezjollyfarm]

I'm curious to find out how frequently and to what extent you clean your coop?

Fall and spring I usually do the whole shabang... floors, walls, windows, roosting bars, ect. Then every month to month in a half I clean the floor litter and put down fresh (excluding cold winter months just keep adding hay). I used to be able to change the floor litter every 3 months or so but my flock is too big for that now. I also clean the poop deck off every other day and mop once a week.

I know the guy who I bought my coop from (a gigantic 7'x11' shed with built in boxes) did not believe in cleaning I spent a month cleaning it on his property then another month cleaning and painting it when we got it moved.

How do you clean and should I be cleaning more?

 

[RumneyRoost]

I just have a small flock (5).
With my background in horses I have a need to treat the coop like a stall. I dump the poop board every day, and pick the coop and run out every 2-3 days.
A few handfuls of new shavings and DE get added once a week or so.
Once a year I take everything out and do a deeper clean.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm curious to find out how frequently and to what extent you clean your coop?

Fall and spring I usually do the whole shabang... floors, walls, windows, roosting bars, ect. Then every month to month in a half I clean the floor litter and put down fresh (excluding cold winter months just keep adding hay). I used to be able to change the floor litter every 3 months or so but my flock is too big for that now. I also clean the poop deck off every other day and mop once a week.

I know the guy who I bought my coop from (a gigantic 7'x11' shed with built in boxes) did not believe in cleaning I spent a month cleaning it on his property then another month cleaning and painting it when we got it moved.

How do you clean and should I be cleaning more?

I’ve got 5 chicken coops and a coop for Muscoveys.
I clean, or at least try to, one every day. So on average, every six days.
Thats everything out of the coop, including nest egg boxes.
The coops get scraped and swept and then all the seams gone over with a blow torch in the chicken coops.
I love my blow torch.

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

I’ve got 5 chicken coops and a coop for Muscoveys.
I clean, or at least try to, one every day. So on average, every six days.
Thats everything out of the coop, including nest egg boxes.
The coops get scraped and swept and then all the seams gone over with a blow torch in the chicken coops.
I love my blow torch.

You use a blowtorch? Aren't you afraid you'll accidentally burn it down? I could never do that. Any time I do anything in there there's at least 1 or 2 birds in the chatting me up.

 

[Cryss]

I’ve got 5 chicken coops and a coop for Muscoveys.
I clean, or at least try to, one every day. So on average, every six days.
Thats everything out of the coop, including nest egg boxes.
The coops get scraped and swept and then all the seams gone over with a blow torch in the chicken coops.
I love my blowtorch.

BLOW TORCH???? Have I missed some sort of informative teachings here about using a blowtorch on my coop? Please! Enlighten me!

 

[Shadrach]

BLOW TORCH???? Have I missed some sort of informative teachings here about using a blowtorch on my coop? Please! Enlighten me!

I’m not sure what I can tell you.
Bee keepers have been using blow torches to clean beehives for a long time now.
Some of the advantages are you don’t need to buy chemicals to combat mites, or other pests.
The blowtorch kills mites instantly (400 degrees centigrade at the tip of the blue part of the flame)
and it kills the eggs too.
It’s very quick if you have the right sort of coop. Even if you have a large walk in style of coop a blow torch is useful for tackling the mites on perch ends and wood endgrain which is where they tend to live.
Blow torch cleaning is more suitable for some coops than others. If you have a quick look at the pictures in my coop page it may help you understand why I can do this.
I don’t use any cleaning chemicals and provided you don’t set the coop on fire the chickens can be back in straight away.
You do obviously need to be careful and practice before you attempt it in a coop. It’s easy enough once you get the hang of it. Sometimes the wood gets a little chared but this isn’t really a problem

 

[jonezjollyfarm]

Itd take me a month to run a blowtorch over my coop lol I use antibacterial dawn dish soap (apple blossom scent makes the coop smell so relaxing) or white vinegar. Then de on the floor and in the boxes.

 

[Shadrach]

Itd take me a month to run a blowtorch over my coop lol I use antibacterial dawn dish soap (apple blossom scent makes the coop smell so relaxing) or white vinegar. Then de on the floor and in the boxes.

yeah, coop type makes a difference.

 

[Cyprus]

I'm more of a "I'll do it when I get to it" kind of girl.
I don't really clean at any specific time, but if I had to choose I would say I clean out about every turn of the seasons. So, every quarter. In summer, I try to clean once a month but I definitely don't stick to that regimen very well.
When I do clean I take everything out, sweep the floor and spray dowm with a poultry house cleaner meant to kill off common pathogens such as AI, canine parvo, influenza.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I have two small coops. The 2 1/2 year old raised coop is 4'x 5' with a wood floor and no poop boards and currently houses 3 Golden Comets. Depending on weather, I clean weekly or two.
When I had 5 hens in there, I cleaned weekly. I use compressed straw in that coop.

My new raised coop is 3'9"x 6' with a wood floor and no poop boards and houses 7 Barred Rocks (9 weeks old). They've been in there 5 days. I have yet to clean, but intend to clean weekly. I am currently using pine shavings and straw in there.
Both coops have a 2 gallon galvanized fount inside sitting on a heated base that gets cleaned weekly, more often with the new girls.
Both coops have a 12/15# galvanized feeder that gets cleaned monthly or more often in damp or humid conditions. GC
ETA; I remove all straw or shavings and dump into a pile in the pen. I scatter Scratch Grains on top and the chickens scratch it down. I leave in pen and it breaks down into soil.