Coop clean out

[aart]

Am I the only one who's chickens don't poop on the roosts lol

Depends on just what you mean.
They don't poop while on the roost sleeping?
They don't drop poops on the roost itself?

Mine don't poop on he roost itself while sleeping,
but when awake and hanging out on the roosts, they will poop on it.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Careful on using the chicken 'dirt' for your flower bed. That stuff will be very strong ad may burn your plants

Thats why I plan on emptying coop in fall, then use the compost in the spring....

 

[Our6chicks]

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!

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[3KillerBs]

Great information! Thank you!

You're welcome.

I'm both lazy and of the "chickens are livestock" mindset, so I don't try to maintain house clean in the chicken coop. Barn clean is good enough.

I don't poop scoop the cat litter box either. If I give the cats a nice, deep pan they bury the poop and it doesn't stink. If they can't bury the poop anymore then it's full of urine and would need changing even if I couldn't see visible poop.

If it looks dirty and I can smell it then it's time to clean it.

 

[3KillerBs]

Do you clean out your run completely? If so, how often? I add more material to our run but have yet to take everything out and “start over”.

My current pen is a temporary setup with a very low chicken per square foot density in it so I haven't really used litter in it, except to cover bare areas with pine straw/leaves raked from other areas of our yard. We're planning to put it back to lawn so I didn't put wood chips or anything that wouldn't degrade easily or be easily raked back up into it.

For my in-town setup, I forked it out when it got inconveniently deep or when odor issues couldn't be solved with another 3-4" of dry organic material. That was between 3-4 months in hot, wet weather and 6 months in cool, dry weather.

I'm anticipating using wood chips, pine straw, leaves, straw, etc. in the permanent run to create a "forest floor" style deep litter environment and to fork it out primarily when I want compost for my garden. If I get the setup and chicken density right it should never "need" cleaning, just the addition of more organic material as the composting happens.

 

[jreardon1918]

We have a 4x8 raised coop. We recently took out the poop boards in an effort to lower and move the roosts away from the roof and walls a bit. We did not get the poop boards reinstalled. So, we are trying adding shavings through the winter. So far no smell and the humidity is still not a problem. Currently conditions in the coop are 26F & 76% humidity. The town readings are 27F & 77% humidity at 8:40am. As long as this continues, There will be no large cleanout.

 

[aart]

Humidity was 60% earlier when I checked i dont know what it was outside.

Comparing both temps and humidity inside and outside the coop is a good way to assess adequate ventilation.