Cleaning used coop question

[JustRambling]

A friend of ours is planning to get rid of their chicken coop, and we are interested in it. They are very clean people, so it's not a big mess or anything. My question is, what would we need to do to clean the coop to keep our future chickens safe and healthy? Are there certain products or homemade "remedies" that we should use? We don't have chickens yet, but when we do, I want to make sure that they won't be exposed to anything that other chickens might have had. The whole biosecurity thing, I guess. Hope I'm making sense. LOL! Thanks for your help.

 

[Isaac 0]

If your not getting them for a few months,I would spray it down with bleach.

 

[SueT]

Here's another recent thread where this question was discussed:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/should-i-get-a-used-chicken-coop.1189707/#post-18798420

 

[JustRambling]

Here's another recent thread where this question was discussed:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/should-i-get-a-used-chicken-coop.1189707/#post-18798420

Thank you! I had seen that thread a while ago, but was having trouble finding it again!

If your not getting them for a few months,I would spray it down with bleach.

Thank you! Yes, it's going to be awhile before we get our chicks, and then it will be a bit before they go out to live in a coop, so we have plenty of time. Not sure when our friends are planning to get rid of the coop, but hubby will be talking to them this weekend to find out.

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

When we lost one of our chicks to questionable Marek's a few weeks ago I was in touch with a vet from Cornell Veterinary College and talked about disinfecting my coop. (She was listed as a good contact person in some literature I had gotten from my local cooperative extension.)
I asked about Virkon S (which had been suggested by someone I knew who has had chickens, ducks, etc) and she said that it's a very good product. It has a long list of pathogens that it is effective against (including Marek's, Coccidiosis,Bordatella---even Parvo) works quickly (needs only 5-10 minutes of contact time), and you can move the chickens back in after it dries. In lower concentration it can even be used in their drinking water so I am figuring that it is pretty safe stuff.
Since Marek's can last up to 65 weeks in the environment I wanted to do all I could to reduce any exposure that my remaining chicks might have.
I bought it on Amazon (it's cheaper elsewhere but I wanted faster delivery so I could get going on cleanup). It comes in powder form and tabs---I bought the tabs. Fifty in a bottle and each makes 16 oz of solution. I think I ended up using six or eight of the tabs---plenty left for any future issues. I think the bottle was about $27 but I have seen it for about $10 less on other sites.
I used a spray bottle and saturated all surfaces after scrubbing the surfaces with soap and water. The inside of my coop is painted so cleanup was relatively easy but Virkon S can be used on porous surfaces as well. I cleaned all my chicken stuff with it too---feeders, brooders, etc. Yeah, I am a nut, lol.
I am by no means an expert in chicken keeping---this is my first bunch of chicks so I may be overdoing it here but I am trying to do my best. Others here have far more experience with these things but I thought I would share.
Hope this helps.
Do you know what happened to the chickens that were in the coop before?

 

[Folly's place]

Some structures are cleanable, and some aren't. Mareks' disease is the worst problem to consider when reusing poultry 'stuff', because the virus lives a long time in the environment. Most other pathogens will die over time (some in weeks), so having everything unused for months is good. Equipment that can be scrubbed and then bleached will work well, but then the coop can be another story. Clean it out and spray bleach everywhere, and get it dried out. My coop is wood, old, with lots of nooks and crannies, and would not be cleanable. It won't hurt to find out about the former chickens; illnesses? Why gone? You hopefully have a great find, and chickens are fun! Mary

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

Some structures are cleanable, and some aren't. Mareks' disease is the worst problem to consider when reusing poultry 'stuff', because the virus lives a long time in the environment. Most other pathogens will die over time (some in weeks), so having everything unused for months is good. Equipment that can be scrubbed and then bleached will work well, but then the coop can be another story. Clean it out and spray bleach everywhere, and get it dried out. My coop is wood, old, with lots of nooks and crannies, and would not be cleanable. It won't hurt to find out about the former chickens; illnesses? Why gone? You hopefully have a great find, and chickens are fun! Mary

Unfortunately, bleach has no effect on Marek's.
Virkon S works on porous surfaces so perhaps it would work on an old wooden coop?
This page on BYC has great info about Marek's including tips on cleaning stuff that might be contaminated by Marek's:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/
I hope the OP has found a great coop and Mary is right, chickens are FUN!!

 

[Folly's place]

If I really saturated my original coop with any liquid, it might melt! Old wood with two layers of wood siding over it on the outside. Love it, but scrub it out? Never. Mary

 

[JustRambling]

When we lost one of our chicks to questionable Marek's a few weeks ago I was in touch with a vet from Cornell Veterinary College and talked about disinfecting my coop. (She was listed as a good contact person in some literature I had gotten from my local cooperative extension.)
I asked about Virkon S (which had been suggested by someone I knew who has had chickens, ducks, etc) and she said that it's a very good product. It has a long list of pathogens that it is effective against (including Marek's, Coccidiosis,Bordatella---even Parvo) works quickly (needs only 5-10 minutes of contact time), and you can move the chickens back in after it dries. In lower concentration it can even be used in their drinking water so I am figuring that it is pretty safe stuff.
Since Marek's can last up to 65 weeks in the environment I wanted to do all I could to reduce any exposure that my remaining chicks might have.
I bought it on Amazon (it's cheaper elsewhere but I wanted faster delivery so I could get going on cleanup). It comes in powder form and tabs---I bought the tabs. Fifty in a bottle and each makes 16 oz of solution. I think I ended up using six or eight of the tabs---plenty left for any future issues. I think the bottle was about $27 but I have seen it for about $10 less on other sites.
I used a spray bottle and saturated all surfaces after scrubbing the surfaces with soap and water. The inside of my coop is painted so cleanup was relatively easy but Virkon S can be used on porous surfaces as well. I cleaned all my chicken stuff with it too---feeders, brooders, etc. Yeah, I am a nut, lol.
I am by no means an expert in chicken keeping---this is my first bunch of chicks so I may be overdoing it here but I am trying to do my best. Others here have far more experience with these things but I thought I would share.
Hope this helps.
Do you know what happened to the chickens that were in the coop before?

Thank you Nancy for all the info! And sharing your experience. My friends have had their chickens for a long time, their yard is on the small side and they need more room in the yard due to expanding family etc. Their birds were not sick or anything. Just old. I still wanted to clean the coop anyway so my birds could start "fresh" with their own bacteria and stuff. LOL!

 

[JustRambling]

Some structures are cleanable, and some aren't. Mareks' disease is the worst problem to consider when reusing poultry 'stuff', because the virus lives a long time in the environment. Most other pathogens will die over time (some in weeks), so having everything unused for months is good. Equipment that can be scrubbed and then bleached will work well, but then the coop can be another story. Clean it out and spray bleach everywhere, and get it dried out. My coop is wood, old, with lots of nooks and crannies, and would not be cleanable. It won't hurt to find out about the former chickens; illnesses? Why gone? You hopefully have a great find, and chickens are fun! Mary

Thank you Mary! I just posted in another reply that the birds were not sick.