Coop Cleaning... How Often??

[Qi Chicken]

They may not like the eggs, they may not like the meat, but they probably wouldn't mind the money! Sell your extra eggs (sounds like you'll have plenty!) buy food for the chickens, anything left over get yourself something you want or do something nice for them with the egg money.

The best thing about my chickens, honestly, is my chickens. I love to watch them, feed them and see the crazy things they do. No failure there!!!!

My family isn't all that into the eggs either. My 4 year old won't eat eggs if he knows they are from our chickens, and I can't even imagine what would happen if we tried to feed him the actual chicken. The eggs actually at this point are kind of an inconvenience

, WAY too many for us to eat. We keep giving them away because they are still pretty small, but we are out of egg cartons so we have eggs everywhere. We only have 13 layers too.

Good luck and please please don't consider your family not wanting to eat the eggs and meat a failure. And roosters, you didn't make him a rooster! NOT your fault! (Next time order all pullets if you didn't this time!)

It IS weird, for someone not accustomed to it, to eat something they saw fall out of a pet's butt. I myself have never liked eggs and I prefer to use them in something. I still kind of have trouble with Large Marge's eggs. She lays a big light green one so you can't really not know you are using it.

Enjoy those chickens! Bring them treats!

 

[saym]

I am in northeastern Nevada, where it's hot and dry in the summer and cold and dry in the winter..The key word is dry. I researched on BYC before we decided on the floor of the coop and run. We do shavings in the hen house and sand in the coop and run. I have 10 chickens in a very small house (soon to be doubled in size) I cleaned the shavings out every week at first until the girls started looking at me like I was crazy (My Imagination???) Now I clean and change out the shavings every three weeks or so. The sand is wonderful for this climate as I only have to rake out if there's alot of poop..it's all dry and odorless. Now that winter is coming on I am hoping to keep the run and coop dry enough that this will continue to be as acceptable as it is now. If you're in a moister climate ( which is everywhere else but Death Valley and ?) This may not work quite as well..be happy..at least you can compost!

 

[Tala]

My coop has pine pellets that turn to sawdust over time (when they get wet) --- it dries out the overnight poop by the next day - especially when aided by the chickens scratching it up or me raking it around. I add a bag of pellets and rake it around on an "as needed" basis. That's it. When they free range they really only dirty the coop at night from the roosts which translates into less cleaning.

I have a pretty sensitive nose, and the only time they smell is when they are roosting and fresh poop bombs are being dropped, by morning the sawdust has done it's trick and the chickens have partially stirred the poop under = no smell!

 

[gallinamama]

Quote:
Thank you for the support.... I am not a total fan of plain eggs... I like to use them to make fresh pasta and baked goods... but it isn't because of where they are from... I just do not like eggs all the time... I will have them in a frittata..(italian omelet).. or overeasy when we have breakfast... I would rather have French toast!! yummmmmy...
I didn't even buy these chickens I have now.. they were all freebies... from my grandson's preshcool... yeah!!

I would like to get a few more... maybe 10 so I can start to give them to family... right now I am only getting 3-4 a day... takes me almost a week to get any to give a way... haha.

I do all the work for the chickens.. so I don't mind too much what they say.. it was just an emotional week for me last week... I'm over it now...

 

[debakadeb]

My coop has a dirt floor. I add pine shavings and dry leaves. I use to have a poop board under the roost but have discovered that the birds will scratch enough to compost if I remove the poop board. Every 2-3 months, I take the entire coop back down to natural dirt, add more shavings and leaves, and the chickens take care of the rest. The beds get changed much more frequently but still as an on-needed basis. I also like using the DE in the coop -- much nicer

 

[Judy]

Quote:
This is essentially my system, but I don't clean it this often. Pelletized lime is great to sprinkle around when the poop gets a little smelly, which is rare. I have a thick layer of pine shavings.

 

[NHchicks]

My farm store guy told me to give the coop a thorough cleaning once a year by bleaching it down to prevent a mite infestation. I haven't done that yet (into my 2nd year here) but every day I do clean out droppings. Granted, right now I have too many chickens for my coop (they free range all day, only sleep and lay eggs in the coop) so I need to keep it as clean for them as possible. But until that situation changes (soon), every morning when I open the coop I change the hay under the roosts (not set up to have poop boards yet) and replace it. That cleans out any smell for them so they can lay eggs in peace.

So that's my routine - a quick poop sweep every day, and (eventually) a bleach hose-down once a year.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Pelletized lime is great to sprinkle around when the poop gets a little smelly, which is rare.

I've seen that people use lime. Do the chickens peck at it? Mine peck at anything. I thought lime was harmful to animals, but I see that a number of people use it.​

 

[Judy]

Yay Chicks! :

Pelletized lime is great to sprinkle around when the poop gets a little smelly, which is rare.

I've seen that people use lime. Do the chickens peck at it? Mine peck at anything. I thought lime was harmful to animals, but I see that a number of people use it.​

I think all chickens peck at anything. Pelletized lime is tiny dark gray granules. You can't see them once you have scattered them on the pine shavings. It is just a little more expensive than ordinary white powdery stuff, but this is lime, we're not talking about a lot of money here. No dust. Easy to handle.

I think the chickens think I am dancing or something when I spread it. They don't peck it. I usually rake it in a little, because I am spreading it to control odor and dry the poop. I can't believe it is harming them.

I wouldn't spread the white stuff on thick somewhere and have them walk on it.​

 

[SC_Hugh]

My 3 hens spend every day out in their run except to come inside and lay their eggs. They are 18 months old and I have cleaned out their coop two times: first time in Dec 09 was premature timing, it was hardly dirty (young pullets), second time was also premature April 10, but I had the spring cleaning bug. Wood floor of my coop is painted and looks the same as it did before the chickens moved in.

My new plan will be coop cleaning once a year in the spring.

Nest boxes get emptied as needed (wood chips thrown into the coop and fresh chips added to nest boxes).