How often do you clean out your run and coop?

[scooter147]

skeeters are mosquitos.

 

[Jonathanq1]

I have 4 indoor coops that are cleaned out daily with fresh newspaper and power washed once a year. Being that they are indoor they must be kept cleaned daily and free from odor. Alot of work, but it can be done. I have a larger coop for my younger hens out door this gets cleaned twice a month with a rake and then fresh grass clippings get added.

 

[weaveagarden]

We are just getting a coop built and I am glad of this topic. It has been great to get so many perspectives. I think the Deep Litter method sounds like the way to go for me.

I just ordered 50lbs of Diatomacious Earth. How much of it would you all put into a 4X8 coop. What other ammendments would you add in an area with lots of moisure and rain like I have here on the Washington Coastline.

Oh, it will have a wood floor with a sealed floor. I'm not sure what I will find at the store today, but likely a fake tile bathroom wall type board, or a piece of solid vinyl flooring. Unless someone has a good idea of a more organic friendly form of flooring for a raised floor. (to avoid flooding)

And I am definately going to use droppings pans under the roosts.

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Quote:
Me, too, LuvChicks. But then, I only have four and their coop and run is small, so it doesn't take long. I think it's better for their health.

I try to treat them well - they do a lot for us - eat all those Japanese beetles we hate, provide fertilizer for the garden, and in another month or so, eggs!! I sure wouldn't want to live in a bathroom where the toilet gets flushed once a week or once a month.

Katherine/aka WisconsinGardenChick

http://www.backyardnestegg.blogspot.com/

 

[M To The Maxx]

Once a week

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Once a week seems a little extreme, wasteful, and expensive. Maybe in a urban area to keep neighbors happy it may be necessary???

I should probably clarify - it WOULD be wasteful if I replaced all the shavings once a week or every other day. In fact, I just scoop the poop and then rake through. Every once in awhile, I throw some more shavings on top. About once a month I rake all the shavings out and put in new.

But my chickies have a small space, so I really do need to keep up with it. I think it was this forum where I read long ago someone saying they spot clean daily, and it seemed a good idea to me, so I do that, too.

The prospect of a big nasty job requiring masks, scraping hardened crap, and spending a lot of time at the job it is so horrific to me, I'd rather just keep up with it a bit at a time.

Katherine
http://www.backyardnestegg.blogspot.com​

 

[mom2chicksandpups]

I scrape off the top of the nesting boxes and other high areas with a hoe. Then I scrap the top of the roost and other smaller areas with a paint scraper. When I scrape off as much poop as I can, I rake the bottom of the pen out and my husband hauls it off in 5 gallon buckets or we bag it up in thick black trash bags and put it by the road. I sprinkle DE in the pen and I also use sand occasionally to make it all a bit fresher and dryer. The chickens love dust bathing in the sand, also.

 

[mom2chicksandpups]

We also clean ours out about once per week. We live in a residential area, so we don't want the smell to get too bad and don't want to attract too many flies.

 

[Suburban chick farmer 09]

I scrape the poop boards every mourning and throw it into the compost pile. Since my chickens free range all day I just spot clean the coop floor daily. The bedding is changed about every 2 months.

 

[weaveagarden]

I was researching the Deep Litter Method a bit more today. I hadn't ever heard of Stall Dry until this Topic. Called my Feed Store and found out that it is simply Diatomacious Earth and Volcanic Clay. So it is the perfect dusting combination for chickens I think. On top of that, it absorbs 2 1/2 times it's weight in liquid. So using it with the DL method would give you basically a dry and odor free coop.

The fluffing would bring in lots of oxygen that would keep the urine from becoming ammonia. But another thought is to remember that ammonia is a disinfectant and is what some of us use to clean our kitchens, bathrooms..... So, how dirty can that be.

As long as the chickens didn't have too much of a meat diet, I can't see why the droppings would be any more of a problem than cow patties.... Which when dry are in fact not really that dirty of a material. Simply fermented grass and vegetable matter unless you are feeding the cows something other than their normal diet. The chicken coop would likely be cleaner than what most of us have on the bottom of our shoes when we return home after a day at the "office".

On top of that, there shouldn't be much scraping to muck-out the coop every few months to a year. The only way things would become caked on is if the litter wasn't turned regularly to keep it fresh.

This all seems perfectly natural, and a great way to keep a healthy organic flock.