coop maintenance--chickens are messy!

[Judy]

If you choose to use DE, please be careful as ti is highly irritting to resp. tracts, both human and chicken. Sweet PDZ is a good alternative, as are some other products such as Stall Dri, or even plain old pelletized agricultural lime, which works well on odor and drying out poop in small quantities.

 

[Foghornnmsprisy]

Im new to chickens too. The best book I found for all questions and answers is Storyes guide to chicken raising. Give you're chick with the broken beak a deep enough waterer so that its bottom beak doesn't hit the bottom. I'm fixing to give my house Roo his first night out in his new coup on Monday. So I understand how much of a mess they make. Using hanging feeders keeps the bugs and dirt and poop out. Hang them at about chicken back height. Birds love to fling food. Put sand under the feeders or make a platform made with a wooden frame and hardware cloth on top. Put the feeders on top so that the feed and water spill thru the screen so the chickens can't get to the mess. A kitty litter scoop works good with sand or pine shavings. Under the roosts you can use the wooden box screens to keep the chickens out of the mess and reduce "poopy feet". Of course this is just my book smarts and lots of forum reading. Have a super feathery day!