Coop cleaning

[terrilhb]

Hope this is the spot I am supposed to post this. New to it. Can anyone please tell me how often you are supposed to clean your chicken coops? I do mine weekly. I have read 1 or 2 times a year. I would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks

 

[valentinebaby]

I use the deep litter method (start with 6" of large wood flakes and add as needed to get up to 9" deep) and add DE to speed up the drying process. Stir it up (try to do it daily, but don't always have the time) and have ventilation in my roof. You can see my passive ventilation on my BYC page. Other BYC'ers change out the bedding about twice a year, but I probably do mine once a quarter - I use the old shavings throughout my yard as a mulch - works great and I just like the idea of changing the litter more often.

gail

 

[clairabean]

Mostly like Gail. About three times a year it gets the big clean. We do deep litter method with pine shavings.

 

[clairabean]

What is on the floor that needs to be cleaned once a week? How many chickens? What is the space?

 

[terrilhb]

I have 14. They poop everywhere. Their floor is dirt. They go on their nesting boxes. I am new to this so I am learning. Thank you all so much

 

[geeber]

Ditto. I tried using timothy hay in their run for them to roost & scratch around in. Let me tell you about the worst stench in the world when I went to clean that out!!

I thought I was going to lose my lunch.

We've switched to pine shavings. I'm smelling pine-ie roses now. Phew!

 

[Staceyfeindt]

I use straw. Have 9 chickens and really need to only clean poop under their roosts every other day. Add a bit of fresh straw each time. A bale of straw lasts me a month. Then I use the dirty straw for mulching around plants and in the garden when nothing is growing.
Thought of doing the deep litter method...but I don't want a nasty clean out, no matter how infequently it occurs.

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
You can say that again! My current coop (not for long, though!) is only 5x3 and I use the deep litter method. I just rake off the top inch every 2-3 days and fill it back up about every week.

 

[mulewagon]

You want to clean it out just before it gets nasty, which depends on your circumstances - does your floor get damp, do you have lots of airflow, would you rather rake it out weekly or shovel out vast quantities of litter twice a year? (From experience, I'll tell you, the floor has to stay dry to use deep litter!)

People also set up things like poop boards under the roosts, which they can scrape into a bucket. This cuts down on the floor cleaning.

 

[Tenneesse]

5 birds and I clean up daily when I gather the eggs. Only takes 5 minutes. It goes into the compost pile and ready for the garden in the spring. Too easy not to.