how often do you rake out your coop?

[catballou24]

realistically? we have 8 chicks who are about 6 weeks old. the floor of the coop is dirt and i've also put a bag of hay down in about half of it (8x10 space....2 walls are hardware cloth dug and cemented into the ground...the other two sides are wood and metal siding...it is actually a space in our tool barn). how often do you all think i should rake it out? we've had the chickens for a couple weeks now, and there is no smell nor does it look dirty in there....but i want to do the right thing as well...

our old coop was only for night when we rented a house on 200 acres...the chickens free ranged during the day, so cleaning that coop wasn't really a huge issue....

any thoughts? thanks!

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

We clean ours when it smells. My DH finally got with the program and made a poop board and I change that every week. That really cuts down the smell and in this heat thats important.

 

[Poison Ivy]

I have sand under my roosts that I scoop daily. Then hay in the rest of coop that I replace about every 4 months.

 

[millicent]

'When it stinks' is the answer to many of lifes 'when should i change.....' questions...diapers, jobs, clothes, hubby...

Our coop has slats under the roost, so it is kind of self cleaning (ultimate lazy mans coop!!!!) we sweep it out when its stinky and rake the poo from under it if THAT gets stinky (which it doesnt....not that many chickies, and they free range.)

 

[cookinmom]

When it stinks, or when I get impatient for more mulch for the garden! The feed store put some weird kind of hay in my truck last time (maybe it's straw; I don't know but I don't like it) and it seems to be not working as well this time, so with this stuff I'll probably do it once a week til it's gone. When I had 16 chicks I cleaned it out about once a week ( 6x6 ft house, with shavings then hay), but now that I have 9 I let it go about 2 weeks. I really like the idea of sand under the roost though, so that will be my next 'improvement' project.

 

[catballou24]

sand under the roosts sound great actually! how is that with composting?

 

[Poison Ivy]

The sand works great for me I love it and it keeps the smell out of the coop. I have a long handled kitty litter scoop from pet supermarket and a plastic bucket. I scoop it up everyday and throw the poo in a back wooded corner behind the coop. Never had a problem with it I guess the sand helps dry it out.

 

[aran]

i am just finishing my coop off this weekend...my chicks are 3 weeks old. Im done with the frame and walls of my coop...just need to finish the doors and water proofing the outside and putting the shingles on the roof and we are done! I have 2 rows of 3 nesting boxes. The coop is going to hold my first 10 chicks then I will make another 8x6 coop for the next 10 or so chicks Im getting in 2 weeks!

Man me and my son just finished playing with the chicks..they are growing by the day! they lool different tonight from this morning!!!

this is so much fun it oughta be illegal!

 

[MTchick]

We put our 8 week old chicks in the coop for the first time one month ago, and just yesterday we thought, "Gee, that kinda smells like poo." Now that the chicks are 12 weeks old they are pooping more so this might be a particularly good month, but with a dry henhouse and a big hen yard it took 1 month before we had to rake it out this morning. And the shaving were not gross or matted together at all- just had a bunch of poo mixed into the pile. Easy, quick, less trouble than pooper scooping every other week for my 70lbs dog.

-Leigh

 

[cookinmom]

Easy, quick, less trouble than pooper scooping every other week for my 70lbs dog.

Now that we have chickens and a dog, I would say the dog smells up the yard way worse than the chickens!!​