Coop care

Pellants

In the Brooder
Jul 16, 2016
19
2
14
My question. Inside my coop I get a dirt, straw, pine shaving and poop build up in certain areas like under my roosting bar and around the feeders and water. Does this have to be removed. I ask because it looks like hard packed dirt. But I know it's the mixed build up.
 
I clean up mine every week, or when it gets stinky, just in those built up areas. I put it in a compost pile.
 
If you plan on having visitors and healthy flock free from respiratory disease, then YES you need to keep the coop clean. A poop tray can help a lot.
 
My question. Inside my coop I get a dirt, straw, pine shaving and poop build up in certain areas like under my roosting bar and around the feeders and water. Does this have to be removed. I ask because it looks like hard packed dirt. But I know it's the mixed build up.

There is such a thing as composting deep litter that you might want to explore. I haven't cleaned out a coop in 4 yrs other than to take out some completely composted material and place it on the gardens. I just keep adding to it so I can produce more, but never, ever clean it out....cleaning it would render it useless to me, nor would my coop environment be as healthy for the chickens.

0.jpg
 
Yes I clean out the chicken house every day and put new pine shavings in, and I also clean the poo out in the coop.
 
There is such a thing as composting deep litter that you might want to explore. I haven't cleaned out a coop in 4 yrs other than to take out some completely composted material and place it on the gardens. I just keep adding to it so I can produce more, but never, ever clean it out....cleaning it would render it useless to me, nor would my coop environment be as healthy for the chickens.

0.jpg
There's the video...good healthy litter.
smile.png


Pellant, stir the litter up. Break up those caked up spots and scatter out. Throw a small amount of treat (scratch, etc.) out on the litter and let the chickens scratch up the litter for you. Add some fresh wood chips, leaves, etc., all along. What are the dimensions of your coop (not run) and how many chickens does it house?

Best wishes,
Ed
 
We have 8 little ladies, and are using the Summer Hawk Ranch Victoria coop X-Large. Plus attached a 8 foot long 3 foot wide run that they always have acces to I that run I have a 2nd floor on one end and a 6 foot roosting bar running the length. When we are home they get to roam our entire fenced in backyard and get put away in the evenings.

Inside the coop we have 2 roosting bars that 6 girls like to sleep on one and 2 on the other. They keep pretty close to the same layout all the time.

We read on the display it can hold up to 12 hens.
 
  • Assembled Exterior: 91.3 in. L x 39.9 in. W x 49 in. H (Pen Interior: 20.3 sq. ft. / Coop Interior: 6.74 sq. ft. / Nest Box Interior: 3.06 sq. ft.) are the dimensions I found when I googled that name. These pre assembled coops are darling, but vastly over estimate the size of a flock that will fit in them. If you include the nesting area, you have slightly less than 10 square feet. Three full size birds would be best. No where near 8. If you have bantam birds, you could go a couple more, maybe 5.

They also say if you free range, then you can have more. But depending on where you live and your winter, regardless of the space available to free range, due to the long, long periods of darkness, they can spend close to 14-16 hours in the coop. This will be a very crowded coop, for long periods of time and will produce ugly chicken behaviors. You cannot wish chickens nice, they need to have space.

If your coop is bigger than this, that will help, but go and measure the coop. Not sure if your chicks are still not quite full size, because this set up would work well for 8 chicks, The problem is they do not stay chicks for long, and as they grow, they take up more and more space and the coop stays the same size.

Mrs K
 
A new coop is in the nearish future, we are about to purchase a new home with a few acres and will be upgrading at that time. But thanks for the info.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom