Coop cleaning

[Yard full o' rocks]

Any suggestions for cleaning the "poop from the coop"?? I have pine shavings in my coop and I feel like I need an oversized "kitty litter scoop" to clean it out without removing all of the shavings. Anybody have anything that works well? Thanks

 

[RHewitt]

Let one of your offspring help out.

They can learn that a little elbow grease gets the coop clean. My son shown here is to young to use a shovel but he tries hard. I remove everything about once a month a replace the shavings. Then my son and I spread the manure and shavings on our food plots and the hunting club or in our garden spot. Some peolpe will add shavings on top of the exisiting ones until it gets 8 to 12 inches deep . They call this the deep litter method. If gives the chickens a deep bed to scratch in. I see in your picture you have on Camo so I figured the food plot fertilizer idea might be something you would find useful.

 

[patandchickens]

Realistically you are unlikely to be able to remove individual poops. If you want to *try*, or want something to use on larger accumulated deposits, I'd suggest the stall forks made for cleaning horse stalls (Future Fork and all the clones, with close-set plastic tines).

Mostly though people either put in minimal litter and remove it all on a frequent basis (like once a week, or whatever works for you); or spot-clean and just keep adding a bit more litter, till the whole thing gets ucky enough that you shovel it all out and replace.

Everyone has their own style, though; there is SO not just one way to do it

A droppings board under the roost, with the poo scraped off it every morning and removed from the coop, will greatly reduce sanitation duties.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Jenski]

I keep a bucket with a large cat litter scoop and hand-whisk broom handy. I go in twice a day, morning and night, to check feed and water, throw some goodies, and police up the coop and run. It only takes a couple of minutes, but keeping things clean saves shavings, reduces flies, keeps coccidiosis problems low, eliminates the smell, keeps the girls' feet clean, and keeps me humble and out of trouble.

Actually, the bucket worked so well that now I keep two sets around for convenience.

Hope that helps! Good luck.

 

[gkeesling]

I put some cheap linoleum on my coop floor (8x10) and put pine shavings on top as the litter. About once a month, or every two months, I just push the shavings out the door on a tarp and haul it over to my compost pile. Between my cleanings I just add more pin shavings on the top as needed. I don't do the deep litter method a I clean it before it gets to deep, but I don't have any type of odor issue either.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I also put linoleum down before the shavings....so, I will try that. thanks!!

 

[augustmomx2]

Quote:
Wooo, I like that I idea about the bucket and your little "kit" you made to clean. I'm going to have to do that

 

[Leah-yes I know I'm crazy]

I have a medium size coop on dirt. A few days ago we jacked it up, wrapped a chain around it and moved it ten feet. Turned the tractor around and scraped the ground where it was. I don't know how you people with floors do it. lol. We build everything on skids now just for this reason. I really do rake it out every now and then but the best way I've found for serious cleaning is to move it every six months.

 

[misspoppins]

I have hay in my coop and I clean it out once every couple of weeks. It can get kinda messy in there though, especially on the run, so I'll usually just brush that off and throw more hay on until I really feel the need to change it.