Coop clean out

[CluckerFamily]

I clean out my coop twice a year: spring and fall. Unless it gets smelly, than the plan is to clean it out an extra time.

 

[Our6chicks]

The biggest issue you will have, is if you have a period with a lot of rain, like we have in Florida here sometimes, we can go a week with really crappy rainy weather. In those times stuff can start to get moist and the coop can get a bit dank in there. As long as there is not any standing water you should be ok, but then it may be a bit more important to keep stuff cleaner. Id also venture to say on days like that, the birds may want to spend more time inside as well, meaning more poop IN the pen .vs. elsewhere.

You can always throw fresh hay / straw / shavings etc on top of the old stuff too if it's starting to get overly moist or worry some. While new over the top of old is NEVER a good alternative to cleaning if you truly have an issue, it can help temporarily until things dry out or you do get a chance to clean it properly if needed.

Another point of concern I'll say is, if you have a bird that is sick or got the squirts, you'll want to get that out of there, scoop that turd up and out instead of covering as that can get you into trouble fast if you let a sick birds droppings fester / mold up and possibly infect others.

Aaron

Good points! Thanks! I had one bird diagnosed with worms so I am deworming the whole flock and will be doing a complete clean out and scrub of the coop this week. My first girls (now 8 months old) never hung out in the coop. Only slept. Was so easy to keep clean. I added some more in October. The new ones love to go hang out in the coop. Grrrr. We live in GA but the coop stays dry even during rains. Picture of coop below. We have added more run space to this since the pic as well.

 

[RebeccaRN]

If it does not smell or get wet, once a week is a waste of time, in my opinion. Especially since you scoop poop every morning. I don't even do that!

I thought leaving the poop in to compost and create warmth in the winter was the point? I use hemp also and a hand rake to turn the bedding a couple times a week. If there is a lot of poop I scape off the whole top layer of bedding and put fresh on top, throwing the scraped off layer in the compost pile.

 

[RebeccaRN]

I thought leaving the poop in to compost and create warmth in the winter was the point? I use hemp also and a hand rake to turn the bedding a couple times a week. If there is a lot of poop I scape off the whole top layer of bedding and put fresh on top, throwing the scraped off layer in the compost pile.

During the summer I only put sand in the bottom of my coop and scoop poop pretty much every day

 

[Our6chicks]

I thought leaving the poop in to compost and create warmth in the winter was the point? I use hemp also and a hand rake to turn the bedding a couple times a week. If there is a lot of poop I scape off the whole top layer of bedding and put fresh on top, throwing the scraped off layer in the compost pile.

Yep. Good point!

 

[Our6chicks]

During the summer I only put sand in the bottom of my coop and scoop poop pretty much every day

I’ve heard a lot of good things about sand and some bad. My husband can’t stand sand and I know somehow it would wind up tracked into the house and I would hear about it. Lol. I’ll stick with hemp for now. Sand possibly in the future. Thanks so much.

 

[tripletfeb]

I thought leaving the poop in to compost and create warmth in the winter was the point? I use hemp also and a hand rake to turn the bedding a couple times a week. If there is a lot of poop I scape off the whole top layer of bedding and put fresh on top, throwing the scraped off layer in the compost pile.

That is the point. However, I saw that OP lives in Georgia. I can't imagine the winters there get cold enough to need the heat produced by all that. Up here in Ohio is a different story though!

 

[Our6chicks]

That is the point. However, I saw that OP lives in Georgia. I can't imagine the winters there get cold enough to need the heat produced by all that. Up here in Ohio is a different story though!

Correct. Here in GA, we rarely get down into 20’s and teens. I do kept a thicker layer in the winter though and turn it like deep litter. I just don’t do 12”. 4” maybe.

 

[RebeccaRN]

I’ve heard a lot of good things about sand and some bad. My husband can’t stand sand and I know somehow it would wind up tracked into the house and I would hear about it. Lol. I’ll stick with hemp for now. Sand possibly in the future. Thanks so much.

My coop is small and they have their own fenced in yard, I havnt had the problem of it getting anywhere but just outside the coop. Nobody goes out there but me and I've managed not to track any into my house so far. Thank God

 

[RebeccaRN]

Correct. Here in GA, we rarely get down into 20’s and teens. I do kept a thicker layer in the winter though and turn it like deep litter. I just don’t do 12”. 4” maybe.

I live in Oklahoma and its been in the 20s at night lately but I only have about 4-6" in mine also