Coop Maintenance

[Butterfly65]

Hi. I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct area so please forgive me. I am new to chickens. Never had them before in my life lol.
This person that I reside with "supposedly" knows all about chickens.
They are laying 1 egg per day and we have 8 chickens. The coop only has 3 nests, but they seem fine. What baffles me is that he never changes their bedding? He also just takes the garden hose and sprays all their poop to the ground. Never disinfecting anything in the coop.
I have seen ants marching in there and residing under the bedding.
Is it normal to not change their bedding? I would think that after laying so many eggs that their bedding should be kept FRESH and clean and fluffed lol
I bought a huge bag of bedding, but it has been sitting untouched in the shed for almost 2 months.
He seems to get annoyed at everything I ask. I am a logical type person and obviously he is not since he takes everything I say as a personal attack.
I just would like to know from you chicken pro's if I am too much of a clean freak and worrier of disease?

Thanks in advance!!
We are in the Florida Panhandle just south of the Georgia state line

 

[Molpet]

you could have 8 nests and they will use one or two. They figure if one goes broody their eggs will get hatched too.... nest boxes should have clean bedding.. they rarely need to be changed because hens should just use them to lay
deep litter is one way to do coop or run bedding (what I do) . I change it one a year in the spring for the garden. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/70/deep-litter-method
another link on deep litter https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/643302/results-from-first-year-with-deep-litter-method

 

[Butterfly65]

Thank You !!!

 

[ejcrist]

Hi. I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct area so please forgive me. I am new to chickens. Never had them before in my life lol.
This person that I reside with "supposedly" knows all about chickens.
They are laying 1 egg per day and we have 8 chickens. The coop only has 3 nests, but they seem fine. What baffles me is that he never changes their bedding? He also just takes the garden hose and sprays all their poop to the ground. Never disinfecting anything in the coop.
I have seen ants marching in there and residing under the bedding.
Is it normal to not change their bedding? I would think that after laying so many eggs that their bedding should be kept FRESH and clean and fluffed lol
I bought a huge bag of bedding, but it has been sitting untouched in the shed for almost 2 months.
He seems to get annoyed at everything I ask. I am a logical type person and obviously he is not since he takes everything I say as a personal attack.
I just would like to know from you chicken pro's if I am too much of a clean freak and worrier of disease?

Thanks in advance!!
We are in the Florida Panhandle just south of the Georgia state line

I change all the bedding in my coops no later than every month. Of course it depends on the size of the coop and number of birds but mine starts to get dirtier than I prefer after about a month. I change everything out, even the nest boxes, and dust/wipe everything down with soap and water. This is all just me though and I've seen people cleaning more and less than I do. I'm guessing as long as there's no trouble with parasites and the like you're doing it about as often as need be. I've seen some coops though that looked and stayed a mess and were very unsanitary even for poultry.

 

[Butterfly65]

Thanks for the information. I am the type of person that likes animal areas to be somewhat clean. I am guessing that animals in the wild do not usually defecate where they sleep.
It's humans that lock them up in cages and that's what they have to resort to.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Does it stink? If not its working....


Gary from Idyllwild Ca here

 

[rosemarythyme]

You'll see a wide disparity between what different chicken keepers do because different climates, materials, space availability, etc, differ so much from flock to flock.

I clean out the bedding in my coop every 2-3 weeks. I don't wipe anything down but I also don't have a pest issue that would necessitate that. I check my chickens regularly for lice and mites and so far they're all good. My run currently has natural leaf litter and so that doesn't get cleaned out, rather, when it breaks down in spring I'll shovel it out and use it in my garden bed.

As long as your roommate's chickens are relatively clean and healthy I wouldn't panic too much. However if the chicken area (or the chickens themselves) are smelly or soiled then that could be an issue. The ants might be a sign of a problem, especially if it's a large number if them. Would your roommate object if you wanted to clean out the area for him? Maybe he doesn't have time or doesn't see it as an issue, but if it bothers you (i.e. it smells) I would hope he'd be ok with you helping out with that.

 

[aart]

Hi. I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct area so please forgive me. I am new to chickens. Never had them before in my life lol.
This person that I reside with "supposedly" knows all about chickens.
They are laying 1 egg per day and we have 8 chickens. The coop only has 3 nests, but they seem fine. What baffles me is that he never changes their bedding? He also just takes the garden hose and sprays all their poop to the ground. Never disinfecting anything in the coop.
I have seen ants marching in there and residing under the bedding.
Is it normal to not change their bedding? I would think that after laying so many eggs that their bedding should be kept FRESH and clean and fluffed lol
I bought a huge bag of bedding, but it has been sitting untouched in the shed for almost 2 months.
He seems to get annoyed at everything I ask. I am a logical type person and obviously he is not since he takes everything I say as a personal attack.
I just would like to know from you chicken pro's if I am too much of a clean freak and worrier of disease?

Thanks in advance!!
We are in the Florida Panhandle just south of the Georgia state line

New 'room mate'? haha!

'Disinfecting' is not realistic.....hosing down poops is not a good idea either, best to keep coop dry.

Knowing your location and seeing your coop would help get you better answers/solutions.