Coop Cleaning Help

[007Sean]

Howdy, and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!

Thanks for joining our community!

 

[Debbie292d]

I'll just add something not mentioned yet, is what we've used successfully for eight years, horse bedding pellets, just for consideration.

We use them in the coop and brooders. The coop, we clean out in the spring and don't do anything throughout the year. The chickens keep them scratched around enough, but if they didn't, a metal rake could be used just to move them around every month or so if needed. We do not wet them, just put down 2-3" good for a year.

For the brooders, we put down about the same, but those I use a stick to stir every couple of days as they can't scratch well enough yet. The splashing drops from nipple bottles cause the pellets below to turn to sawdust so I watch for that and remove/replace it. I've seen them take dustbaths in it, which doesn't hurt I suppose, but I just don't like it so I try to keep that clean and dry.

Zero odors, and keep the coop/brooders dry.

It's just a thought for an almost maintenance-free idea.

 

[Cullmah]

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.

View attachment 4002934
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.
View attachment 4002935
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.
View attachment 4002932
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.

That is a great set up!!

 

[BoundlessLove]

Welcome to BYC!