Coop maintenance for small shed

[henless]

Thank you! Your coop is beautiful!

Thanks! It's small, 6x8, but I really like it. It took some getting used to since I went from 3 10x10 coops down to this one.

 

[Chicken mob]

We just moved our 4 (19 week old) chickens to a small resin shed that we bought, their pre-fab wooden one just didn't seem big enough. The shed is a walk-in, 4x6 . How would you handle the clean-up/maintenance? In their old small coop, it was one of those with the slide out floors. I used to put a pee pad on the floor and cover with straw, then about every 2-3 days I would roll up the pee-pad and throw it away and start over. With this new shed being a walk in with much more floor space it seems a bit expensive and time intensive to cover the floor lay chips/straw on empty it out every few days. Would you treat it more like the the run? We have the coop attached to the run and with the run we do the "deep litter" method with hemp. We just periodically flip the hemp to cover the poop and sprinkle new hemp on top. Plan to do one a year deep clean of the run. The method seems a little stinky for an enclosed shed/coop though....any suggestions, recommendations? I'm thinking of doing a smaller version of the deep litter method in the shed/coop but how often would you fully clean out the hemp and put in new hemp? My goal is low maintenance but healthy for the girls.....

Try putting a tarp on the floor, then put down bedding.

 

[Rockergirl]

We added the poop boards that several of you recommended. Along with sand on the poop boards so that I could easily scoop up the poop every day! It works like a charm!!!!!! such an awesome idea. We did just get our first egg today (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

) but she laid it on the sand on top of the poop board instead of her nest box. I did have a fake egg in the box and looks like she ruffled around in there but apparently she didn't like it and moved over to the poop board. I'm surprised the shell didn't break but she had a nice hard shell, whew! Now we need to figure out a new setup for the nesting boxes this weekend. In the meantime, I added a little straw on one end of the poop board to give her some comfort.

Anyway - thanks everyone!

 

[aart]

I did have a fake egg in the box and looks like she ruffled around in there........Now we need to figure out a new setup for the nesting boxes this weekend. In the meantime, I added a little straw on one end of the poop board to give her some comfort.

Give her time before changing anything.

 

[FC16]

We just moved our 4 (19 week old) chickens to a small resin shed that we bought, their pre-fab wooden one just didn't seem big enough. The shed is a walk-in, 4x6 . How would you handle the clean-up/maintenance? In their old small coop, it was one of those with the slide out floors. I used to put a pee pad on the floor and cover with straw, then about every 2-3 days I would roll up the pee-pad and throw it away and start over. With this new shed being a walk in with much more floor space it seems a bit expensive and time intensive to cover the floor lay chips/straw on empty it out every few days. Would you treat it more like the the run? We have the coop attached to the run and with the run we do the "deep litter" method with hemp. We just periodically flip the hemp to cover the poop and sprinkle new hemp on top. Plan to do one a year deep clean of the run. The method seems a little stinky for an enclosed shed/coop though....any suggestions, recommendations? I'm thinking of doing a smaller version of the deep litter method in the shed/coop but how often would you fully clean out the hemp and put in new hemp? My goal is low maintenance but healthy for the girls.....

I also converted a 6 x 4 shed into a chicken coop, and I cannot recommend sand enough. I originally used straw which smelt and was a pain to clean. I then just removed it all and added around 5 bags of sharp sand onto the floor, and it so easy to clean up. You just get a cat litter scoop and it takes around 2-3 minutes each day to just bring a plastic bag in and scoop all the poop up. It looks nice too, and doesn’t smell at all. It’s cheap and You only have to replace the sand maybe once or twice a year as well.


Edit - after posting I’ve just seen that you did the poop board with sand good choice anyway glad it’s working for you

 

[Rockergirl]

Give her time before changing anything.

I also converted a 6 x 4 shed into a chicken coop, and I cannot recommend sand enough. I originally used straw which smelt and was a pain to clean. I then just removed it all and added around 5 bags of sharp sand onto the floor, and it so easy to clean up. You just get a cat litter scoop and it takes around 2-3 minutes each day to just bring a plastic bag in and scoop all the poop up. It looks nice too, and doesn’t smell at all. It’s cheap and You only have to replace the sand maybe once or twice a year as well.


Edit - after posting I’ve just seen that you did the poop board with sand good choice anyway glad it’s working for you

Thank you! The sand def makes the scooping so much easier!!!! Cute coop pics

 

[SituationalLefty]

Try this YouTube video by whitepepperfarms:

the guy who makes this has lots of great tips on chooks

 

[HerbalGypsy]

We just moved our 4 (19 week old) chickens to a small resin shed that we bought, their pre-fab wooden one just didn't seem big enough. The shed is a walk-in, 4x6 . How would you handle the clean-up/maintenance? In their old small coop, it was one of those with the slide out floors. I used to put a pee pad on the floor and cover with straw, then about every 2-3 days I would roll up the pee-pad and throw it away and start over. With this new shed being a walk in with much more floor space it seems a bit expensive and time intensive to cover the floor lay chips/straw on empty it out every few days. Would you treat it more like the the run? We have the coop attached to the run and with the run we do the "deep litter" method with hemp. We just periodically flip the hemp to cover the poop and sprinkle new hemp on top. Plan to do one a year deep clean of the run. The method seems a little stinky for an enclosed shed/coop though....any suggestions, recommendations? I'm thinking of doing a smaller version of the deep litter method in the shed/coop but how often would you fully clean out the hemp and put in new hemp? My goal is low maintenance but healthy for the girls.....

Im just wondering how your Keter Shed has help up over the Winter Months? I am looking at the Darwin Model that my local Menards has and was worried that the corrugated plastic walls would not be strong enough to hold up. And how easy was it to cut into to add a pop door and extra ventilation?