Coop Cleaning Help

[Nomadicus]

Hello and Welcome to BYC. Glad to have you here with us in this fun and poultry loving community.

 

[Jener8or]

I really hope you can find a good helper! Your coop looks really nice!

Best wishes to you and your flock! Welcome to BackYard Chickens!

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Good luck finding someone to clean your coop for you.

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC. Good luck finding someone to clean!

 

[Burnt Brass Homestead]

Hi @Cullmah

I hope that you are able to find someone to help you clean the coop.

Welcome!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

I saw the 4H ideas above. I bet you'll find someone! Good luck!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

hi, welcome to BYC! Maybe a deep litter system would work for you and then you wouldn't have to clean it so often? @DobieLover who might be able to explain this?

 

[Cullmah]

hi, welcome to BYC! Maybe a deep litter system would work for you and then you wouldn't have to clean it so often? @DobieLover who might be able to explain this?

Hi- I’d be interested! I’ve read about it but want to make sure I do it correctly so I don’t harm them

 

[chrissynemetz]

Hi, and welcome to BYC! We're glad you joined us!

 

[DobieLover]

hi, welcome to BYC! Maybe a deep litter system would work for you and then you wouldn't have to clean it so often? @DobieLover who might be able to explain this?

I don't actually do deep litter. I use poop boards in a coop with a very large attached, predator proof run. That makes my chicken keeping chores extremely simple and easy with just one big clean out a year.

My daily chores include simply scooping the boards with a metal cat litter scoop and placing the overnight load into an old cat litter bucket.

The bucket gets dumped in a compost pile when full. I add a bit more litter to the boards weekly. I have used PDZ or Stall Dry (both in granular form) or coffee ground bedding when available for poop board litter. After scooping I redistribute the litter on the boards to keep it relatively uniform.
The annual cleaning takes about 4 hours total.
The reason I can get away with just an annual cleaning is because of the attached predator proof run.

When my birds come off the roost in the morning, they head straight out to the run to hang out so they aren't pooping in the coop waiting for me to let them out.
All I do to get ready for winter is to install the reinforced poly tarps on the run walls (seen in the above image) and dump another bag of large flake shavings into the coop in early November.