How often do u clean your coop? Any tips or tricks how to not maintain

I clean the poop from the roost area almost daily.I usually clean out the entire coop every other month. In the early summer and fall I might wash the entire thing down and disinfect. I have a metal shed on concrete. If I had a wood shed I would clean out not wash,and maybe spray for bugs.

 

I clean out my metal chicken-shed once a week, just raking and scraping out the poo. I'm going to end up putting creek sand in mine because it's so much easier to clean. My hens just moved into the shed so there is still an old wooden floor that needs to be removed. As soon as it stops raining I'm going to go collect a ton of sand! I'm thinking about putting down a couple 'poop boards' or whatever folks call them but I've got to get DH to change up the roosts first.

 

I've got 9 birds in a 22 sq. ft coop. they spend all day in a 336 sq. ft run. Once a month, but since it's winter, I tripled the wood shavings and added DE. It's looking like I might get 3-4 months between cleanings. I'm thinking about deep litter method next year.

 

I use the deep litter method

 

Quote:+1

 

Quote:You could use less litter. If I lived in an area that was warm all year I'd clean more often. I'm in NY we only have two months of summer. Or so it seems.

I'm still working on perfecting my coops for easier cleaning. Here in the North the deep litter method helps to keep them warm in the winter, so it's almost a must. However there is a right way and a wrong way. The key is to keep the coop DRY. Humidity is not good for chickens. If it starts to look or smell damp dump some more chips. At least that's my OP.

I wish you well,

Rancher

 

I am inside the coop playing around for about an hour a day. I am trying to do deep litter for this, my first year with the coop. It would probably be easier if I cleaned the whole thing rather than push litter around and cover it with shavings.

I would clean for me, but leave the litter for the chickens. The walls and ceiling are insulated. The floor would be freezing without the litter.

 

I have a walk in type coop. I use a poop board and it takes maybe 2 minutes to scrape it off into a bucket to tote to the compost pile. I have only cleaned the coop out totally once since I put them out this April. I use deep litter method (shavings) and it stays dry and no smell. If I had no poop board it would be a mess I'm sure. Kudos to the wonderful people who posted how to design coops on this site!

 

We change the straw and scrape surfaces with a wire brush once a month. We pick up the poop from the roost area as needed in between. The chickens love it when we change the straw. They come in and rearrange it to their liking. It is, after all, their coop.