Coop cleaning

[aart]

I use a full bag of Equine Fresh every time I replace bedding, and then top it with 1/2 a bad of Medium pine shavings bc the poop attaches more easily to it than fine pine shavings. I clean every 3 months, and I have a vinyl floor, so I don't need to scrub. I will also use clean leftover bedding to scrub any poo on the lower walls or corners.
There was a poor design to the 5 nest boxes (coop made for 12 chickens), so that they scratch out the bedding. I cut up two small entry way mats (new) to fit, and the carpet is soft and seems to suit my hens. They are a tight fit and they don't shift, plus they can be washed and put back when necessary.
The Equine Fresh is made of extruded pine mush and REALLY keeps down odors, and we know that pine isn't toxic to birds.

Some claim it is......was long 'discussion' on that in a hemp bedding thread a week or so ago.

Anything else but sawdust on the pellets...wondering of maybe there's some zeolite(PDZ) in there too??

 

[ducks4you]

I do not use sawdust. I use Medium Pine Shavings, which are big pieces of pine "flakes" if you will, very little dust. I have kept chickens for 8 years and (not meaning to) keep hens as 3yo's, but my 7 3yo hens are laying 3-4 eggs daily and thriving.
I also keep horses. Pine is the only wood that you can safely use for them, too.
I have put down straw and hay for birds and I do not recommend them bc they retain odors and retain urine which is ALSO bad for chicken's lungs.
You can tell the quality of the pine shavings by the dust that kicks up when you apply them.
Honestly, it is the most affordable bedding, too. Straw is $6/bale and $3/bale when I pick up from my hay man, 1x a year. Again, it retains urine ammonia, which your birds will breathe in.
My hens spend the day outside of their coop in their run.
I imagine that this thread, like so many, is ripe for arguments.
Do as you wish.

 

[worms7]

How often would you clean out the
Shavings on top of linoleum/vynal
Cheers Phil

 

[Gray Farms]

I clean mine twice a year, late spring and late fall. Scoop, sweep, sanitize, and bed back with new pine shavings.

 

[aart]

I do not use sawdust. I use Medium Pine Shavings, which are big pieces of pine "flakes" if you will, very little dust. I have kept chickens for 8 years and (not meaning to) keep hens as 3yo's, but my 7 3yo hens are laying 3-4 eggs daily and thriving.
I also keep horses. Pine is the only wood that you can safely use for them, too.
I have put down straw and hay for birds and I do not recommend them bc they retain odors and retain urine which is ALSO bad for chicken's lungs.
You can tell the quality of the pine shavings by the dust that kicks up when you apply them.
Honestly, it is the most affordable bedding, too. Straw is $6/bale and $3/bale when I pick up from my hay man, 1x a year. Again, it retains urine ammonia, which your birds will breathe in.
My hens spend the day outside of their coop in their run.
I imagine that this thread, like so many, is ripe for arguments.
Do as you wish.

Isn't Equine Fresh basically sawdust compressed into pellets (maybe bigger than dust but not by much)?
That's what I was asking about.

 

[Ugadano]

I use deep litter method pine shavings, 5 inches or so deep, which settles some. And throwinf some feed across gets the girls to scratch around and keep it stirred up. I add fresh when needed, very little, and clean it all out once a year.

One year I cleaned it out too early, thought April in SW Okla would be ok, then we had one last cold snap shocker right down to 21 overnight low, and everyone's comb got frostbite! The temps prior over the winter had been down in the teens several days straight and nobody had any problem. Apparently the decomposing composting going on generated enough heat to keep the worst chill off! I learned to wait till late April or 1st of May. Then by next winter there's enough composting going to aid when it starts getting cold. This year I plan to put the manure/pine shavings mix on top of sheets of cardboard and let it sit a year, then add over top of my Back to Eden woodchips for heavy mulch no-till garden bed. I sure like the woodchips on our formerly muddy paths! Clarifying: wood chips are coarse larger chunks from tree trimmers and power companies used outside for mulch and other ground cover, while the pine shavings are thinner flakes of pine which I buy in compressed bales from feed stores and use for bedding and ultimately compost.

 

[Erin80]

First....what is PDZ and where can I get it?

Second...would anyone be able to post a picture of their roosts with poop boards so I can get a visual idea of what to do?
Thanks!! Total newbie here.

 

[Stephine]

They are all hens at 3 months old. We had two roosters but got rid of them.

My wife and I have agreed inchs the red sex links have
slowed down past their prime (2-3 years from my research) that we will give them to a good home and replace with buff and wydonetts.

Wyandottes are bossy, they might bully the orps - just a heads up for that combination.

 

[Stephine]

I am in Sonoma - so it's mostly dry here , though this winter has been wet, wet, wet!
I use Koop Clean in the coop, with droppings boards (just plain plywood). I clean the boards daily with a big tape scraper from the paint store and put them out on the compost pile. I check the bedding below for any big deposits from birds perching the wrong way around (yes, design flaw, but it's the best we could do under the circumstances) and scoop them in my bucket with the board droppings - I have gotten really good at flinging big globs of poo with the corner of the scraper

. If I leave the dropoings board longer, my chickens stomp around in it and soread it all out, so I'd rather just get it first thing in the morning when I fill their feeder and waterer.
Bedding gets cleaned out every six to eight weeks, when it looks like it's about half droppings - not because it is moist or smells, it is bone dry and not at all smelly, I just don't want it to be mostly dried poop. I always leave a little bit of old bedding when I put down the fresh.
We are coming up on a year with this coop and I have dusted and removed cob webs once (they were starting to block the ventilation a bit), and never scrubbed anything. Like a poster above, I can not see adding so much moisture being a good thing in a wood coop.
I might take out the roosts sometime in the summer when it is hot to scrub them down, but they are actually not bad, they also get a quick scrape every morning when I do the boards.
I don't use DE, my chickens have sulfur in their feed or their dustbath...

 

[Whittni]

First....what is PDZ and where can I get it?

Second...would anyone be able to post a picture of their roosts with poop boards so I can get a visual idea of what to do?
Thanks!! Total newbie here.

PDZ is the mineral Zeolite from volcanoes. More info: http://www.koopclean.com/home-4/

You can get it or the knock offs which are equally great a trade your local feed store if they carry horse stuff.