How often do you clean your coop?

[Dahlia2]

Hi Guys,

Newbie here, not sure if this has been discussed before, or what section it goes under, but I'm curious as to the routine people have with cleaning their coops.

How often do you clean your coop, or what is your morning/daily routine?

I have a small chicken coop (takes 4 to 6 chickens) & I have one chicken and 2 ducks in there. It is attached to a small run in which we keep the food, and we keep that open to a larger run during the day. When I am home I let them out to free-range in the back garden. I clean the coop of chicken poop every day (& the surrounding area of the small run or near food). If you don't clean regularly, do you have a larger coop, or what do you do?

Thanks
Dahlia

 

[brahmabreeder]

I have an 8x6 coop divided into three sections length wise. I clean it out on a weekly basis. I have three brahmas in each 16 sq ft. area and they are shoe birds with feathered feet so a little more up keep. I also have( I could go on forever because I have so many coops and I'm building another

) an 8x8 coop that I clean monthly to once every two months. In order to determine how often you wan to clean you need to figure out how dirty you are willing to let it get and how often it gets to that. With having ducks in there it will need cleaned more frequently.

 

[Ashburnham]

Once a year - whether it needs it or not! (Same as my house).


xxxx M

 

[Going Quackers]

I pick clean daily, and that is the duck mini barn and the chickens coop. I started a big deep clean of the duck barn the other day, stripping some of the stalls down to the floor and adding new bedding hoping to do the same with the main section this weekend.

I don't find the chickens that dirty(for now just 4) the coop is roomy could hold.. 6-8 but doesn't obviously lol I think people have to find what suits them best, depends a lot on your set-up and what your housing. Plus larger coops can get away with more spacing between big cleaning, smaller ones need more frequent changes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, it varies a lot between us. We keep them in so many different conditions and manage them so differently you are going to get a huge variety of answers.

I have an 8’ x 12’ walk-in coop on the ground and use wood shavings. The number of chickens varies a lot through the year depending on when they reach butchering size or when they hatch, but I don’t over-crowd my coop. I currently only have chickens, though I have had turkeys in there. Never any ducks.

I use a droppings board and scrape that once every two to three weeks, depending on how bad it gets. That pure manure is great for my compost.

I cleaned out the bedding in the coop for the first time in 4 years last fall. I didn’t need to but I wanted that stuff on my garden.

 

[appps]

We changed to the deep litter method and it really cut down the smell and work load. I redid it after about 4 months.

Only thing I'm now finding is it gets messy under the roost because they don't scratch under there so it isn't turned under the shavings.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

For a deep litter coop, I like to clear it out once a year, in the spring. During the rest of the year, I like to keep a compressed bale of shavings in the corner, with a feed scoop in it. Once in awhile I toss a few scoops of litter over the spots that need it, like under the roosts or around the feeder and water font. This usually works pretty well for me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I went with the droppings board, mostly for the good stuff to add to the compost, but also because of the poop build-up under the roosts.

Appps, a trick that might help with that is to toss some corn (maybe maize in Australia) or scratch under there. That way the chickens might turn it for you.

 

[Dahlia2]

Thanks Guys,

Great to hear what other people do. Loving hearing the variation and others routines.

cheers
Dahlia

 

[RoseMarie1]

I scoop the poop every day so it doesn't get to stinking so bad AND drawing flies. We put sand in there so it's easy to scoop. I scoop it up and then I rake it smooth and fill in the holes they have made with their digging. I get them all out in the run so I can do this without them being under my feet. They're all still chicks but I have 15 rir's and 23 black aust. and sex links so they can generate some poop. lol