how aften do you clean your coop

[LizzyJo]

I have been cleaning every two weeks, but I can smell the girls when I go out into the back yard, so I am going to start cleaning once a week inside and out. I was trying to save on the litter expense, but I think I'd rather have better smelling girls. Since the chickens and I are trying to fly under the radar (we're not legal here), I don't want any complaints from neighbors.

I package up the old litter (in old feed bags or old water conditioner salt bags, or old pellet stove pellet bags) and put it in the garbage for pick-up.

 

[wundernurse]

OK I must be a real head case cause I clean out my "coop" every morning. I only have 5 pullets but I clean out their roost area every am- dust brush sweep out last night's poopy shavings, spray bleach solution on vinyl flooring then towel it clean and ready for the next night. I also pick out pieces of poop off the run floor with a pooper scooper a couple times a day. Anything that gets poop on it (a roosting bar, ramp from the roost to the run, hay in the nest box) gets cleaned as soon as I see it. I end up throwing my poop shavings in a commercial garbage bag and take it to the trash once a week--haven't figured out the composting yet. I my defense ,I live in a city and have a small yard where my kids play near the coop, so having any unpleasant odors and poop-seeking flies is not going to work for me. Yes, I run a tight ship and that is how I like it.

 

[LizzyJo]

wundernurse, you're my kind of lady. Can you come to my house and clean for my girls? How are you with horse poop? I really need help there!

PS I don't think you are a head case, I think you are conscientious. You are probably really a nurse, too. My mother-in-law was a nurse and she had an extreme effect on my husband, Clean Gene. That's what the kids (his step-children) started calling him when we got married.

 

[Bring]

For the deep layer thing, what do you use for the layers? Wood pellets or??? Where can you buy???

 

[mgard99]

I only have six hens and am using the deep litter method in my coop. I just clean under their roost every morning, kind of like scooping out a cat litter box, which only takes a few minutes. In the run I use finely ground leaf litter a few inches deep and they pretty much cover their droppings with all their scratching. I usually add more leaf mulch once a week. It's like a chicken compost pile in the run with hardly any smell at all. They do most of the work outside.

 

[cafarmgirl]

I have 7 hens and a roo. I rake under the roost every morning and do a complete rake out once a week then dust with DE and put down fresh shavings and sweep cobwebs. It all just goes in the big dumpster my husband keeps here for shop.

 

[Equus5O]

I have a flock of 8. Every few days, I'll pick the poop out from under the roosts with a mini manure fork. It goes into a bucket, and into the composter. It's not that much, really. About once a week, I'll pick it out, toss around the shavings and sprinkle with Stall Dry. I've added fresh shavings twice since I got the chickens in May. The run gets raked out and sprinkled with Stall Dry once a week.

 

[rebbetzin]

I have 4 chickens, a very small coop and run area. I clean the coop every morning. I put on rubber gloves, pick up the soiled straw under the roosts. I have a sand run, so I used a kitty litter scoop and pick up all the "poops" about twice a day.

I keep the straw about 4 to 6 inches deep at all times. The floor of the coop is a formica type laminate, and it stays clean and dry. I add new straw when it gets trampled into small pieces. I have only gone through one bale of straw in 10 months. About every 6 weeks to 2 months I add two to four 50lb bags of play sand to the run area.

I try to keep things super clean so there is no odor from the coop or run area. Since I have a residential lot and I don't want the neighbors to complain.

The soiled straw goes in the compost pile. I have two piles going at a time. One is "cooking" and the other is taking in all the new stuff. It takes about 4 to 6 months for the compost to breakdown enough to use in the garden. So far I have only had a small amount of compost to add to my garden. But, the little that was added made the plants very happy!!

To get the bugs out of the compost, I put the finished compost in a kiddie wading pool and let the chickens scratch and eat all the sowbugs, snails and grubs from the finished compost. Then I sift out any rocks and put it on the plants. The leaves turn a deep shade of green in a couple of days and the plants ook VERY happy!!

 

[babyspice35]

HUH... now that I'm reading all of these posts I think I should be cleaning more

I usually just hose the droppings from my chicken tractor into the grass,

But I haven't cleaned the run/pen yet. . . What do y'all do with your old straw?

 

[rebbetzin]

Quote:
It makes great compost for the garden. But don't add it to the plants when it is fresh. It really does "burn" them up if they get too much fresh poo.