How have you cured mold?

[WoodlandWoman]

That is such a cute coop! I'm sorry you're having problems. I think making a sturdy screen door out of hardware cloth would work, especially as a temporary measure and for summer use.

If it was my coop, I'd add a big vent on the back wall, at the top, also. That way you'd have cross ventilation, as well as more ventilation. If you did that, I'd think about lowering the roosts a little, to keep the chickens out of a draft in cooler weather.

We have very hot, humid summers here and can have both temperatures and humidities in the 90s. Our 8'x10' garden shed style coop has a pair of windows at one end that have a combined size of 4'x4'. All of the windows on that coop swing open, so the ventilation opening size is the same as the window size. It has two smaller windows that are 18"x24" on the opposite wall, on either side of the door. A third 18"x24" window is on one of the sides and makes a corner breakfast nook for the girls to look out of.

 

[Nugget]

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come Lynn (global warming?). It's not been a very nice summer! We do have plastic on the inside of the insulation (sealed with tape), and there is tyvek outside the plywood.

I used Tilex to clean the mold and washed with water after. I was going to use javex, but didn't have gloves and didn't want my hands in it! Cleaned all the wood chips out and dried it with a big fan. It's so clean now, and with the sunny weather today I really got it aired out. I'm going to play with fans and ventilation but if it continues to be an issue we may stick the dehumidifier in there.

It sounds like you were thinking about ventilation when you made your coop Woodlandwoman, a crossbreeze would be great.

 

[LynneP]

I'm glad to hear you're making progress, yesterday was lovely and I was in the coop at dawn today to open the big door and the girls were already lined up to go outside. They know I'm in the barn because the light comes on in the coop part when I enter the main door. I forgot to mention that we leave a standard size door open to the run during the day. Your coop is constructed like ours and I think you'll find a huge difference now. It's been a strange summer!

 

[simba49450]

hi there

depending on what kind of mold it is. black mold which i have had a bad experience with. and regular mold. you use a very high concentrate of bleach, more than they recommend, spray let dry then repete. do this 2 or 3 times, make sure in between it is dry. do the same with food and water dishes flooring etc. wear clothes u dont mind if they get bleach on. trust me been there. make sure that the chickens cant get anywhere near the coop. this will elimnate the mold, if done right it will kill the mold. dont forget the ceiling.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Even houses can get oppressively hot in the summer here, during heat waves. I've spent plenty of time on porches and shaded patios, when there wasn't air conditioning. My grandparents' house had a big screened in porch upstairs with twin beds for summer sleeping. I wanted to be able to really open up the coop in the summer, so the chickens wouldn't cook. They have better air flow than our house! It cools off faster in the evening, too. We have air conditioning, though.

Actually, I designed this coop right after there was a killer heat wave here. We lost a huge, beautiful koi to the heat and ended up redoing the pond after that, too. She died while I was at another person's farm. I arrived there to find a rabbit that had died from the heat and they had also lost one of their sheep to the heat. It was a bad spell, that's for sure!

So, I wanted to be able to really open up the coop in the summer and close it down more for the bitterly cold winter weather. They still have ventilation in the winter, but since the air is really, really dry here then, they don't need as much.

It's good to kill and clean up the mold you have already. I think if you open your coop up and get more air flowing through there, it will keep more mold from developing.

 

[Jenski]

Nugget, your coop is absolutely gorgeous!

I used to live on the Central Coast of CA, and every winter we would get mold on the walls no matter what we did. The air was just too damp, and even when we left the windows open we'd get black mold along the edges of where any piece of furniture or wall hanging came near the walls. Yuck! I would just have to take a bucket, antibacterial soap and a rag and scrub away every so often.

There has been a lot of discussion on the forum regarding Oxine in poultry houses; I would probably try either that or antibacterial soap on painted surfaces. Oxine is chlorine dioxide, similar to bleach but it breaks down into a simple salt after disinfecting. Many folks have used it quite safely around chickens.

You may find more information about it at http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/oxine.htm . Good luck!