how often do you clean your coop

[karlamaria]

I do my coop every 2 or third week. Completely taking all shavings out and replacing with shavings an DE . Spring will get a total wash down and new carpeting on the roosts .

 

[chikinfarmr]

Roost house and sand outside run: I scoop the poop daily. coop house: deep litter with crushed corn cobs, I clean it all out and the hay in the nest boxes every 2 or 3 weeks. I keep a dusting box with dirt and food grade DE for the hens to dust in if muddy outside.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

I use wood shavings with the deep litter method over a dirt floor. Being in Costa Rica I worried about the 100 inches of rain we get a year so when the coop was built I had footings down 2 feet with 3 rows of blocks on top of the footings. I have only completely cleaned up the litter once. What I do is to replace a small area of litter, two 5 gallon bucket fulls of old litter with enough shavings to make it 8 inches deep. In the mornings and in the late afternoon I scatter cracked corn on the litter which the chickens go for in a big way then as the corn disappears they scratch turning over a lot of shavings. The flock spends most of the day in the backyard, each hen will make her trip to the nest boxes as needed. There are many times I'll go into the coop to find one or more chickens all but buried in the litter. No idea why but I have checked the hens for bugs/mites and found none, perhaps it is as I have read that the good bacteria and such that live in the good deep litter do keep them bugs and mites free. The chickens will be out in all but the hard rains during the day, the rain knocks down flying bugs then the chickens clean em up. They will be wet when they return to the coop to roost but nice a dry in the morning. I have had no sick chickens in the two plus years that I have had the chickens. Whether that is because of the microorganisms in the deep litter I don't know but I sure am not going to do any different, your mileage may be different.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

I use sand in the walk in run which I pooper scoop once a week. It takes just a few minutes. Then I hoe the sand and that takes care of that. I clean out my Eglu houses once a week which also only takes about five minutes. As we expand our coop we're debating different methods for the interior. I might stick with sand.

 

[Keltara]

I spend one minute per day completely cleaning ALL the poop out of my coop which has a sand floor. I clean my chicken run once per week which takes 5 minutes. Our chickens live in clean, healthy, dry, odor free conditions. Twelve minutes total per week is really no big deal. If you want to see the benefits of sand and how EASY it is to maintain, visit my blog by clicking here. If you're still using pine shavings, this information just may change your thinking and at the same time make your life so much cheaper and easier!!

Sincerely,
Kelly
✿Our Country Chronicles✿

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[suleo]

I clean my coop everyday! Have a schedule to do it in the early afternoon. Right now transferring hens from garage coop to outside coop until my run arrives. So cleaning 2 places daily.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

I chose the deep litter method for my flock not just because it is easier to take care but for the health benefits as well. I read an article in Mother Earth News written by Harvey Ussery which explained why you want to use the deep litter method. Harvey Ussery has also been written up in the BackYard Chickens magazine and is considered an expert on chickens and other fowl. You can read his article on his web site by following this link, http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Beginners.html. On the page scroll down to the article on HOUSING then scroll down 4 paragraphs. The article explains the deep litter advantages and how it benefits the chickens in your coop. The more chickens you have the better the advantage the deep litter method becomes. As I explained in my previous post the other great benefit is using the old litter around the yard for plants and trees. I was in the coop today adding more shavings as the flock scratches around in the litter it becomes finer and finer then as I explained I take out two 5 gallon buckets full of old litter and replace it with new wood shavings to at least 8" deep, more when the rains come. I have raised the laying hens, guinea hens, dozens of silkie chicks, several bantam chicks and several turkeys in my coop with no sick birds yet. Oh, my egg hens do die when their time comes as I do not butcher them just the meat chickens the silkie hen adopts and raises, 6 at a time in the coop. That silkie hen now has 5 of her own chicks she is raising in the chicken coop with all the other fowl. I hope this answers some questions about keeping the hen house clean and healthy for your flock.

 

[coolcanoechic]

I have found a method that works great for me. I use chopped hay mulch. It is the stuff they use on freshly seeded lawns. Some comes heat treated for seeds and some do not. I put a few inches in the coop and run and it lasts for a few months. I just stir it up with a rake every couple of days and it stays very dry and there is no odor. The birds love it so much, that when I do change out the litter, they can't even wait for me to get it out of the bag. They dive right into it. I think they love it because of the weed seeds in there. They turn it over so much that I find it up high in places I didn't think it could get tossed. It's great. Dry and no odor. Smells like sweet hay when I open the coop door....even after weeks go by.

 

[Nicole01]

2-4 times a day. Mostly the run since thats where they poop the most. I have 2 cat box scoopers in case I get a helper. I disinfect monthly with an oxine solution.

 

[mstricer]

2-4 times a day. Mostly the run since thats where they poop the most. I have 2 cat box scoopers in case I get a helper. I disinfect monthly with an oxine solution.

You have a lot of time on your hands. I clean mine once a week. The boards I do daily. I have sand in the bottom of my coop, and ad a small layer of straw, scoop it out once a week add more.
Michele