How often do you clean your coop?

[Orchid]

I have four chickens in a 4 x 4 coop and they spend the whole day outside. I scoop the poop out from under their roost a couple times a week, stir up the pine shavings and add a little more if necessary. So far, no smells, no sogginess and few if any flies.

 

[woodmort]

I clean the coop once a year whether it needs it or not--usually in early spring so the manure/chips can be tilled under. Once the floor is clean I dump a couple of bales of pine shavings to a depth of 4 - 6 inches--doesn't make much difference since the birds move them around. On occasion I will clean up around the general area of the waterer but otherwise that's it. I've found that as long as the chickens can get at the manure in the coop flies aren't a problem--that's why I rototill the stuff in asap. My chickens go out most days from March through December but in the months they are confined I will sometimes dump in another bale of shavings just so they have something to play around in. I had an old-time farmer tell me the composting manure generates heat that helps keep the birds warm in the winter. For more information see my coop on my BYC page.

BTW I use to keep half a dozen ducks--Rouens--in with the chickens. They made such a mess I had to clean the coop out a couple of times during the winter. Ducks are gone and never again.

 

[lacasitarojafarm]

You can make a fly can or maggot can or whatever it was called. Use a tin of cat food and an old plastic tub with a handle and lid and hang it up and drill holes in the bottom and the maggots will fall out and get eaten by the chikens. There's a link to it somewhere on here.

 

[RockwaterFarm]

my coop has a concrete floor that i split up, half bedding, saw dust, and half concrete. i clean the concrete part everyday and use a pitch fork to flip the saw dust. this extends the lif of the bedding by mixing air in with the bedding. i take the saw dust out once a year. i clean my smaller coops out once a week ......or so.

 

[jettgirl24]

My coop is 4 X 18 with 3 girls (soon to be 5 or 6 is my hatch goes well!). It has a concrete floor and like a lot of people here I use the DLM method with pine shavings as bedding. I usually clean off the roosts every couple of days and scoop underneath once a week. I'm planning to clean out once yearly although the first cleaning will happen this fall at about 6 months cuz I wan't to throw it on my veggie beds to compost over the winter. I plan to do the same every fall after that. So far I have had little to no smell and I only get flies out in the run if I've gotten busy and am a couple days late on raking it out. That combined with an auto-waterer and feeder makes my chicken maintenance SUPER low, leaving A LOT more time for chicken cuddles

 

[Wynette]

I use the sniff test...when my nose tells me it's time to clean, I do so.

 

[HudsonValleyGirl]

Every day I clean up droppings that are in their hen house and their run and their yard. On Saturday mornings, I take out all the bedding, clean the floor, roost and nesting boxes if needed. I then apply new DE to all cracks and replace new pine shavings and sprinkle DE. I feel that a clean coop is great for my hens. I wouldn't want to live in a poop infested house, so I imagine they wouldn't either.

 

[BarefootMom]

Thanks for all the replies!

I guess I shoulda stated that they are outside most of the day-except when they are laying eggs. We used wheat straw because it is free. DH baled about 600 bales a couple weeks ago and we have only sold about half of it so far. We will probably continue using the straw and just clean it out every week or more. Plus the straw will be great for our garden and greenhouse next Spring.

I live in HOT STICKY Missouri so flies are really bad ALL the time.

Pine shavings are too expensive, for us- would have to drive 30+ miles to purchase them.

I do use the DE and it helps some- but there are still 30-40 flies in there daily. It might get better once we get the chicken door cut out- right now we are just opening the full size door during the day.

Thanks Again!

 

[jettgirl24]

I forgot to mention how much ventilation helped that problem for me actually. I finished my coop in the winter and I was thinking it needed to be closed up tight. Big mistake... A little Spring warmth hit and I did get a musty smell and flies. We don't have a horrible fly problem here but it was more than I'm ok with. That weekend I went to work cutting out some vents and voila! No more must and no more flies! I bet if you add more more ventilation and clean out the coop every few days your problem will greatly improve.

 

[HottentotTeal]

I clean my duck aviary out twice a day, right before feeding them.

I leave a water dish in there at all times and when i replace it with their food and another water dish, I use the old water dish to wash any pebbles and rocks with their poop on it.