Hi, Shannon. the reason you get conflicting suggestions is that there is no one way that we all do things. We are all over the board on how we do things. Some people clean daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, twice a year, every year, or every few years, if at all. There are different levels of cleaning. We all have different conditions, number of chickens, different facilities, and so many other different things. You'll probably notice that on almost any topic. That makes it harder on you because you need to figure out if the method a person is talking about even applies to you.
In my opinion someone should be shoveling out a coop as seldom as reasonable. Why would you need to shovel out a coop? To me, what makes that necessary is that the coop stinks or you are getting your shoes dirty when you walk in there. Or the hens are tracking poop into the nests. Different people have a different idea of what "clean" is. A wet smelly coop is unhealthy and can make a mess. I generally let my nose tell me how I'm doing.
If the poop and the bedding are wet it is going to stink and it will make a mess. If you can keep it dry enough it will not stink and it will not be unhealthy. So what makes it wet? Rain or snow can come into the coop. The roof might leak. You might get condensation in there. Your waterer may spill or leak. Try to eliminate those. But a big problem is that the poop builds up too much. If the poop gets thick it will stay wet and stink. They poop all the time, day and night. During the day they are walking around so it gets spread out. At night on the roosts they are not moving so the poop can build up.
Under the roosts can be a problem area. That's why you see a lot of people talk about a droppings board. A droppings board is something under the roosts to catch the poop so it is easy to remove. That might be a hammock, a tray filled with sand, PDZ, or some type of bedding, or just a flat sheet of plywood they can scrape off. I use the top of my built-in brooder. In the area where the brooder doesn't cover I use a couple of bins on the floor.
I scrape my droppings board at different intervals. How big your coop is and how many chickens you have factor into it. So does the weather. When I have a lot of chickens in here and the weather is humid I might clean this once a week. When I have just a handful of chickens and the weather is pretty arid I might be able to go 6 weeks between scrapings. My nose tells me if I waited too long. Over the years I've kind of figured it out so it doesn't start to stink. My droppings boards lets me get the majority of the poop out of the coop. During the day they are outside so they are not pooping in the coop.
My 8' x 12' coop is on the ground. I use wood shavings as bedding and it stays very dry. It is so dry that it does not stink or get messy. With the droppings board the poop load is low. I occasionally add more wood shavings but I go between 3 or 4 years before I shovel out the bedding. That's not because I have to but because I want that stuff on the garden. So in the fall I till that stuff in the garden and by spring it's ready to plant. The pure poop that comes off the droppings board goes into my compost pile.
Many people with a big walk-in coop may only clean it out once or twice a year. People with those small elevated coops tend to clean them out a lot more often, they may not even have room for a droppings board. A lot of us have different ideas of what "clean" means. I don't worry about some dried poop as long as it is dry. Dry poop will not stink and doesn't support microbes that can harm you or the chickens. Wet poop can be a serious problem. Letting it build up too much is a problem, but different people might define "too much" differently. We all have to find our own way.
In my opinion someone should be shoveling out a coop as seldom as reasonable. Why would you need to shovel out a coop? To me, what makes that necessary is that the coop stinks or you are getting your shoes dirty when you walk in there. Or the hens are tracking poop into the nests. Different people have a different idea of what "clean" is. A wet smelly coop is unhealthy and can make a mess. I generally let my nose tell me how I'm doing.
If the poop and the bedding are wet it is going to stink and it will make a mess. If you can keep it dry enough it will not stink and it will not be unhealthy. So what makes it wet? Rain or snow can come into the coop. The roof might leak. You might get condensation in there. Your waterer may spill or leak. Try to eliminate those. But a big problem is that the poop builds up too much. If the poop gets thick it will stay wet and stink. They poop all the time, day and night. During the day they are walking around so it gets spread out. At night on the roosts they are not moving so the poop can build up.
Under the roosts can be a problem area. That's why you see a lot of people talk about a droppings board. A droppings board is something under the roosts to catch the poop so it is easy to remove. That might be a hammock, a tray filled with sand, PDZ, or some type of bedding, or just a flat sheet of plywood they can scrape off. I use the top of my built-in brooder. In the area where the brooder doesn't cover I use a couple of bins on the floor.
I scrape my droppings board at different intervals. How big your coop is and how many chickens you have factor into it. So does the weather. When I have a lot of chickens in here and the weather is humid I might clean this once a week. When I have just a handful of chickens and the weather is pretty arid I might be able to go 6 weeks between scrapings. My nose tells me if I waited too long. Over the years I've kind of figured it out so it doesn't start to stink. My droppings boards lets me get the majority of the poop out of the coop. During the day they are outside so they are not pooping in the coop.
My 8' x 12' coop is on the ground. I use wood shavings as bedding and it stays very dry. It is so dry that it does not stink or get messy. With the droppings board the poop load is low. I occasionally add more wood shavings but I go between 3 or 4 years before I shovel out the bedding. That's not because I have to but because I want that stuff on the garden. So in the fall I till that stuff in the garden and by spring it's ready to plant. The pure poop that comes off the droppings board goes into my compost pile.
Many people with a big walk-in coop may only clean it out once or twice a year. People with those small elevated coops tend to clean them out a lot more often, they may not even have room for a droppings board. A lot of us have different ideas of what "clean" means. I don't worry about some dried poop as long as it is dry. Dry poop will not stink and doesn't support microbes that can harm you or the chickens. Wet poop can be a serious problem. Letting it build up too much is a problem, but different people might define "too much" differently. We all have to find our own way.
