How do YOU deep clean your coop?

[FarmerGirl101]

Hello! I created this thread to see what you guys do to deep clean your coop in preparation for winter. I will start off.

I clean out the coop and vacuum it while taking out any excess poop. when done, I spray with a Permethrin 10 spray to disinfect. As I am done, I pack the nesting boxes full of bedding and fill the coop with extra shavings to keep them warm. That is all I do!

 

[woodmort]

I don't. Geeze you people create more work for yourselves! My coop gets cleared in the spring--everything shoveled out and composted, floor scraped clean, sweep the walls and ceiling for cobwebs and lay down new pine shavings to about 6". After that I renew the shavings as needed. Since the birds spend a lot of time outside from about April to November the coop doesn't get that much manure and they keep things pretty much stirred up. In the fall I Just lay down more shavings. The composting manure under the roosts gives off some heat over the winter and keeps the birds warm--you get it too clean and you lose this.

I'm of the opinion that you can get things too clean. If you keep some "dirt" around you also keep up the immune system of the birds. The only time you really need a thorough cleaning and disinfection would be if there were some disease or pest problem that needed curing. If you practice good bio-security you can lessen this from happening and save yourself some work.

BTW, that being said, back in the day I kept ducks in with the chickens I did have to clean a couple of times over the winter because the ducks not only spread water everyplace but create messy, wet poop. That's one reason I no longer keep ducks.

 

[aart]

I don't do much special cleaning for winter, except to bring out the shop vac to suck up excessive dust on HC ceiling before tossing cardboard baffles above roost area.
Already changed out the floor shavings back in July cause it needed it.
All other 'cleaning' is just as usual, already designed so as not to need to do anything 'big'.

I spray with a Permethrin 10 spray to disinfect.

Permethrin is not a disinfectant, it is an insecticide...not good to spray it willy-nilly when no poultry pests that need killing are present as it can create resistance and not work when you do need it.

 

[Chicken Heel]

I too am thankful for the posters that like me are "negligent" in their coop housekeeping. I will be cleaning out my Bantam hen coop this weekend after 1.5 years and that is only because I have noticed a whiff of ammonia when I open the coop door in the mornings this week. That is my normal cue for litter replacement as I usually just add straw as necessary.

 

[noregerts]

I don't. Geeze you people create more work for yourselves! My coop gets cleared in the spring--everything shoveled out and composted, floor scraped clean, sweep the walls and ceiling for cobwebs and lay down new pine shavings to about 6". After that I renew the shavings as needed. Since the birds spend a lot of time outside from about April to November the coop doesn't get that much manure and they keep things pretty much stirred up. In the fall I Just lay down more shavings. The composting manure under the roosts gives off some heat over the winter and keeps the birds warm--you get it too clean and you lose this.

I'm of the opinion that you can get things too clean. If you keep some "dirt" around you also keep up the immune system of the birds. The only time you really need a thorough cleaning and disinfection would be if there were some disease or pest problem that needed curing. If you practice good bio-security you can lessen this from happening and save yourself some work.

BTW, that being said, back in the day I kept ducks in with the chickens I did have to clean a couple of times over the winter because the ducks not only spread water everyplace but create messy, wet poop. That's one reason I no longer keep ducks.

I was glad to read this. I don’t do anything special to prepare for winter. All year I just clean the poop boards not often enough and knock down dust and cobwebs occasionally. The nest boxes and rest of the area gets scooped and shaving replaced as needed. None of my hens have filed a complaint thus far.

 

[woodmort]

I spend more time cleaning cat litter boxes than the coop and we have only 2 cats compared to 40+ chickens.

 

[Shezadandy]

I added FRP to every coop wall, so I scrub the walls top to bottom with some dish detergent, which cleans up really easily - nothing soaks into plywood as it's glued on. The little bit of water I use is then soaked up by my coop floor material, deep pine pellets over 3/4" horse stall mats that cover my plywood floor. Then I scoop out all the floor bedding and toss it into the run. Nest boxes have 1/4" rubber mat lining that I can take out and hose off, then replace with nest material back on top. Fresh pine pellet bedding lightly misted to help it break down into good dust bath material now that outdoors are mud … and that's it.

 

[Alaskan]

I just shovel everything out, scrape where needed. .

Usually this is also when the girls make it clear that they have lice... so I spray the coop in the morning so it airs out well. The girls get sprayed on the perches. I try to do it all a second time somewhere in that 7 to 14 days after the first. I use a spray with permethrin.

I like wood chips best... but right now I have hay... so I use that.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@woodmort and @noregerts: thank you. I was starting to feel ashamed and guilty!

We use shredded paper and a little pine shavings, both on the coop floor and in the nests. This is so absorbent I can stick my hand - my BARE hand - in the nests and rattle around to hunt for eggs that might have gotten buried, and not get poopy. And I wear gloves in the kitchen! The paper stays soft and fluffy, but we add some from time to time as it settles.

So the coop floor seldom needs cleaning. This material sucks moisture out of the chickens' droppings, which then drop to the floor as dry little pellets or even dust. About once a year we use a snow shovel to take it out to the garden where we till it into the soil, and put fresh paper and shavings in the hen house.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Like the other "lazy" people on the thread, I don't do anything different for pre-winter cleaning. I just shovel out old bedding material into the run, and add new bedding. Just got done cleaning out the coop last week in fact! My schedule thus far has been coop cleaning in October and April (I chose those months to work around cold weather) and that seems more than sufficient for me.