How do you clean your coops?

lexapurple

In the Brooder
11 Years
Feb 8, 2008
46
1
32
I am interested in procedures step by step, how often and what tools and cleaners do you use? What supplies do I need to make cleaning the coop easier?

We are rebuilding the 10X10 shed into a coop. Right now my big girls live in the chain link kennel what we move around leaving the waste behind. My broilers live in the brooder and will move in chain link kennel when we are done with the main coop and big girls move out.
So far I only have to clean the brooder and scrape off some poo from the roosts in the kennel with dusting pan.
 
I use a pitchfork, a flat shovel, a plaster knife (for scraping the poop off the roosts), and a wheelbarrow. i take all the loose objects out, then start baling out the hay into the wheelbarrow.
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then i cart it out to the "Coop Compost" pile. it's really quite simple.
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in the winter it's really hard to clean it, so i clean once in the spring (the messiest time), once in the summer, and once in the fall just before winter. hope this helps!

PS- our coop is 8x8.
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I don't have a coop. We have an attached New England barn built on granite. The chickens have a 12'x14'"pit" pen, which I first laid down cardboard for warmth over the stone, and then filled with a thick layer of straw. They have a window, 10 nest boxes hung on the wall and the barn beams to roost in.(They have A roost to, but they like the beams!) I's all enclosed with chicken wire and has a full size screen door. So far it has stayed very clean, and I've only had to add more straw on top of the old. I think the straw will be easy to clean out and will go int the compost pile this Spring. The only problem is the barn has two stories and the chickens fly up to the beams and get out all the time. (We're going over the wall! lol!) I really don't mind though, I only have a few and they
don't leave allot of poop around. It is a barn after all! In the summer they range during the day go inside at night. I probably will go up higher with the wire this year, though.
 
I clean mine out once a month.
I get a bucket of hot water mixed with Simple Green,two kinds of scrub brushes & get busy,lol.It takes about three hours to do them all.If the ground is bad stinky,I'll mix some garden lime in the dirt.Everyday I pick up the poop off the floor & roosts.I use one of those small shrub rakes from Wally world to pick up the poop & an old flat shovel.
Every couple of months I clean out their nest boxes with a shop vac & replace the bedding.
 
I clean my coop twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the late summer. I use a pitch fork and shovel....scoop out all the shavings and take them down into the woods where we have a pile built up. And then rinse the whole coop out with the hose...and scrub perches and nest-boxes really well. Also the shavings you take out are great for the garden. We use them on our floor beds and have great results!
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I have a little four chicken coop, they roost on a plastic box with pine shavings under the box, once a week I remove the box and sweep the droppings and shavings into a container and off into the garden. so the coop is always clean, and does not smell.
the poop does not really cling to the box, so it needs to be hosed once a month.
box back in , bucket of pine shavings under and its done, total time about 10 minutes including walking around the garden for supplies.
this is a true backyard set up.

i just moved my run and such, it was a mess, I am moving the straw and shavings and will add topsoil, suspect it will all compost down.

the new run is one week old, the grass is getting messy, I threw some hay in and will throw shavings in. will move in about 3 weeks.
hope this helps.
 
We're using the Deep Litter Method in our coops so we'll only do a big cleaning once a year (spring or summer). I do a damp cloth dusting once a month. I clean the roosts weekly, more or less, it depends on the mess left behind.

Dawn
 
I have an 8x12 cement floor coop. I use straw for bedding. I only have 2 chickens right now, so I only clean every few months (a little more often right under the area of the roost that they use). I use a large flat shovel, a wheelbarrow, and a broom. On a nice hot day once a year I pressure wash the inside with plain water to clear out dust and cobwebs. I scrape the floor and roosts with a paint scraper at that time. I do this first thing in the morning and lock them out of the coop for the day to allow everything to dry.
 
I clean up the coop every other day or 3rd day, scraping the poop off of the roosts and shelves (scraper). And I pull out the bin under the roost. The poop falls through the wire mesh into a draw filled with corn pellets and I scoop out the poop, which I put in the compost pile (pooper scooper).

I use the deep litter method, so only have to turn over the shavings (rake) throughout the remainder of the coop. And I lay down straw around the pen and paths when it's muddy. Oh and I sprinkle DE around every so often.
That's it until a big cleanout come summertime when I shovel it all out and start again.
 

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