How often does everybody change their litter in their coops?

[tclemts]

I live in eastern montana and have 8 Ladies. I do deep litter and thoroughly clean the coop fall and spring. No smell, no flies, no problems.

 

[JosieAndrews13]

We have a 4' x 8' coop with a roosting coop that we added white pine shavings, just curious how long folks go before changing out the litter? Our roost coop is dry is dry but does attract flies.

Thanks
Tom

Every morning, clean the poop out of both coops when I let them out in a morning! Why wouldn’t you clean it everyday?? Deep clean 3 times a year as the girls only sleep in the top of the coop

 

[Aunt Angus]

I clean it when I feel like it needs it. I use deep litter, so I usually just add more bedding when I see things start to break down. I do scoop poop boards at least once daily. And I clean feeders and waterers at least once daily (mainly because of the ducks). Oh - and I clean nests out every other week.

Flies are a problem this year when they've never been an issue in the past. Trying g to combat it with fly spray and traps. The traps are really helping.

But yeah. TLDR: I clean it when it needs it.

 

[gtaus]

FWIW, I use deep litter primarily of wood chips. My plan has been to clean it out twice a year, once in the fall before the snow falls, and then in the spring after the snow melts. The old coop litter gets thrown into the chicken run and I just let it compost in place. Every once in awhile I might go into the coop and fluff up the deep litter. Sometimes just throw a new layer of wood chips on top of everything. I have never used poop boards and don't do any daily cleaning. No need with deep litter.

But, like others have mentioned, you have to consider the size of the coop, the number of chickens, your local climate, etc... Deep litter just works better for me than any other method I have tried.

 

[Foxinthehenhouse]

I do the deep litter method with pine chips. Every couple of days I take a rake and turn over the chips under the roost and move it all around. I add more chips when needed. I sprinkle DE on roost bars and around floor once a week. It never smells and very few flys.

 

[Heidiypi1]

We have a 4' x 8' coop with a roosting coop that we added white pine shavings, just curious how long folks go before changing out the litter? Our roost coop is dry is dry but does attract flies.

Thanks
Tom

How often do you clean it? I clean all the poo out twice a day, never leave anything in there, I put fresh sand and pine shavings out about every 4 weeks, most of the shavings end up in the compost bins so it’s rotated all the time.

 

[3KillerBs]

Why wouldn’t you clean it everyday??

Because handling poop is not a good way to start a morning.

Because I don't want to have to get dressed twice before leaving for work (I work in food service so no chicken tending in my work clothes).

Because it's a lot of unnecessary extra work and I have enough to do already.

Becuase it suits my lifestyle better to have a large chore that I can schedule for good weather on a day off several times a year than a small job that has to be done daily no matter what else is happening in my life.

 

[JazzyLoo]

We have a 4' x 8' coop with a roosting coop that we added white pine shavings, just curious how long folks go before changing out the litter? Our roost coop is dry is dry but does attract flies.

Thanks
Tom

I have a box under my roost that I put PDZ in and each morning I use a cat litter shovel and sift the chicken poop out and they are good until the next morning. It works really well and the coop never smells. I only change out the shavings about every 3 weeks because nothing gets in it. It just tends to break down.

 

[MULENGA JK]

We have a 4' x 8' coop with a roosting coop that we added white pine shavings, just curious how long folks go before changing out the litter? Our roost coop is dry is dry but does attract flies.

Thanks
Tom

I clean mine on a fortnight basis

 

[Missmarigold]

We have a 4' x 8' coop with a roosting coop that we added white pine shavings, just curious how long folks go before changing out the litter? Our roost coop is dry is dry but does attract flies.

Thanks
Tom