How often do you clean your coop?

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
I've heard of these also and would really benefit from these. Thanks!

I use sand on my boards & scoop, if you use woodchips in your hen house then I'd say cover with linolium & scrape or do like me in most places, it's just a sand pit with perches over it

size? well.. a few inches wider than the birds so they can face anyway and still hit the pit

 

[kinnip]

I'll give you a 'don't'. My BF, who was very nice to have built me a coop, put 1/2" hardware cloth under the roosts. It's impossible to clean. I clean everything out of the coop every 7-10 days. Scraping the poo off the hardware cloth turns a half hour job into an hour job. I did coat everything, including the floor, in a thick coat of whitewash. It helps tremendously with sticky poo, odour and wetness.

 

[Anny]

I fluff the coop litter about once a week (mix it all up) I scoop out from under the roost (where most the poop will accumulate) about 2 times a week and put it in the compost pile. I'll add more shaving when I think it looks dirty (I'm going deep litter method kind of) and I add Stall dri if it smells a little.

EDIT: I have 5 hens in a 8x4 coop with a large run.

The bigger the coop the less cleaning you will have to go...

 

[patandchickens]

Here is a photo, although not a great one, of my sussexes on their roost over the droppings board (which doubles as the roof of the nestbox):

And here's what I had my ISA Browns on, back when there were 3 of them (sigh), with the roof of the nestbox doubling as a droppings board (yes, it's a repurposed cheap little nightstand type table):

The board in the first pic is about 14" wide -- in a perfect world it'd be a few inches wider, as I do lose occasional bits of poo over the edge. But it still works Real Good. I recommend either using a melamine-covered shelf board, or like some people here do, putting vinyl flooring on a regular board, as you will occasionally want to scrape the lingering bits off after softening them with water and this will not work so well directly on wood or plywood (she sez from experience trying to do that in the tractor

)

HTH,

Pat

 

[ivan3]

We only have six chooks and three turkeys, at present. I find that it is easier to clean daily except in the worst weather (too much rain/snow to rake runs, I'll hold off). I consider it good exercise and a way to keep a closer eye on any problems that can be nipped in the bud. Ours roost crowded together on a tiny area of a total of 11ft. of 2"x4" so poop removal is pretty simple.

 

[dancingchicken77]

Quote:
i'm sorry for being such a dum newbie, but could you please elaborate? where do you use the construction sand? and where do you use the kitty litter?

when you say you scoop it almost daily, do you mean you remove all the sand and the litter? or just the litter? or just the areas of the litter where most of the poo is?

and what does "droppings pits" means?

sorry, i'm just keen to learn it. that's enough dum questions from me for the day though

thanks so much if you can help. you guys all talk in "chookspeak", understanding each other very well, but it's harder for a newbie to get the lingo!

cheers

 

[dancingchicken77]

by the way, thanks everyone for your helpful advice. i really appreciate it

when we take our baby chicks out of their box for a play, we usually just cuddle them in our laps. they sleep in my lap watching law and order sometimes, it's really cute. last night however, rather than take them out, after i cleaned their box and fixed their water and feed, i just sat next to the box and watched them. they are so cool! i can see why people say watching them is therapeutic...

 

[Renee]

I have four chickens.

In the hen house I have a loose sheet of linoleum. I use a wide putty knife to scrape out the poop onto a dust pan every morning and I wipe it down with a damp paper towel.

Every two weeks or so I pull the linoleum out and hose it off.

I have sand in the covered run and I use a kitty-pooper scooper to scoop the chicken poops out of the sand. You know, those plastic thingies with the slits in them?

The uncovered run area gets raked up every few weeks. All the poop goes into the compost pile.

No smells at all. By the way, once the babies get older they won't make such a mess with the poop.

 

[chickmamawannabe]

Quote:
i'm sorry for being such a dum newbie, but could you please elaborate? where do you use the construction sand? and where do you use the kitty litter?

when you say you scoop it almost daily, do you mean you remove all the sand and the litter? or just the litter? or just the areas of the litter where most of the poo is?

I think bodyflight was saying that they put sand in the coop and or run, and just scoop the poop and wet stuff out with the kind of scoop you'd use for a litter box. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Cetawin]

Quote:
i'm sorry for being such a dum newbie, but could you please elaborate? where do you use the construction sand? and where do you use the kitty litter?

when you say you scoop it almost daily, do you mean you remove all the sand and the litter? or just the litter? or just the areas of the litter where most of the poo is?

and what does "droppings pits" means?

sorry, i'm just keen to learn it. that's enough dum questions from me for the day though

thanks so much if you can help. you guys all talk in "chookspeak", understanding each other very well, but it's harder for a newbie to get the lingo!

cheers

You can get construction sand at Lowe's, TSC, etc etc. and they are saying to use a kitty litter scoop to scoop it up.

I have 32 chickens in a 12' x 12' coop. I have a lineoleum floor with pine shavings on top. I scoop it out every other day, fluff it up and add a little fresh shavings and Sweet PDZ weekly. No odor problems at all.