How do I deal with mold in the hen house?

[Granolamom]

We have never before had a problem with this, but we've had a very wet and humid 2 weeks here in GA, and the end result is mold all over the inside walls of my 4X6 hen house.
My 9 chickens only sleep in it at night, and free-range all day long. I do not have electricity at the coop, but can run an extension cord down there, if need be.
My first idea is a water/bleach solution to spray the walls with. Would that be safe, if I do it in the morning after they leave, and air it out all day? I also thought about rubbing DE all over the walls. Would that dry out and kill the mold?

 

[ShaggysGirl]

I would do the bleach & Water solution . Rinse well with clean water after and air dry the coop.

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, pick a dry day and bleach the coop first thing in the morning (clean well first, including dusting) and then run a fan, unless it is massively underventilated or you let the bleach/water soak in way too much it will be habitable again by nightfall

It would be worth creating some new ventilation openings however, as having mold get started suggests insufficient air mvmt (even if it was only in this latest humid spell).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Granolamom]

Quote:
I really don't think it's a ventilation problem (the coop is 4X8 feet, plywood, with a corrugated roof, and ventilation openings all the way around the underside of the roof. Plus, since it sits inside a large, secure run, we leave the door open during the summer months, to prevent it from getting too hot in there. We've never had mold in 1.5 years, but it has been exeptionally muggy and wet in the past weeks, and the run has not dried out completely since the end of August. What bugs me its that I JUST cleaned it out completely, 2 weeks ago (crawled in there, vaccuumed the whole thing with a shopvac, scrubbed walls, floor, roost, windows and roof with soapy water).
I cleaned it with a solution of Peppermint Soap and hot water, that also had some tea tree oil added to it. It's supposed to do the opposite, but I wonder if it is the reason the mold appeared, 2 weeks later.

 

[wombat]

Is the inside wood painted? That can help cutting down how much moisture the wood absorbs.

I'll echo the advice of others ... use bleach to clean this up, and since you're adding moisture by washing, pick a day or time of day with a breeze if you can.

If the problem keeps coming back, paint the inside if you have not done so.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Ah hah. I agree with you, it seems quite possible that too much of the water soaked into the surfaces and ended up *causing* the mold.

More ventilation will still cure it. What you describe is by no means a lot of ventilation for a coop in a hot humid region. Go get yer Sawzall or other weapon of choice and hack a hole in one side (you can save the cut-out part to make a flap to close it up during cooler times of the year) and that should improve things considerably.

And/or, what about waiting til it is good n dry, and then re-priming and re-painting it. That should help both with the mold and with any moisture-soaking-into-wood problem.

Good luck, have fun (er, well, I'm not sure it's possible to have fun with mold) (but one *can* have fun with power saws LOL),

Pat

 

[Brindlebtch]

Do you think puffing around DE would help dry things out?

 

[Uppity Peon]

Alcohol is effective in killing mold spores. (No, don't add vodka to the waterer!) Put a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle and wash the walls down.

Make sure you don't have a leaky roof allowing water inside. Keep it as dry in there as you can.

 

[cmom]

I would use a bleach and water solution and I use a sprayer and spray it all around the coop, rince and then let it dry out. I also put a fan in the coop to help dry it out.

 

[grandmaof5]

Am I right in thinking it is small in there? (thought you had said you crawled in?); if so, please be super careful with bleach, and wear a mask if you have one.