How often should I clean out the coop, and change the bedding in the run?

[ejtalbert]

Hi! I'm Emily, and we just got chickens.
They have been out in the coop for about a three weeks now, and I have been cleaning the coop about 2 times a week. Is that a healthy amount?
I have 5 pullets.

 

[MountainWoman73]

That's a lot. But it depends on your coop style and size and your own preferences. My coop is fairly large, and I clean it every other month or so. In between cleanings, I put down a fresh layer of straw on top of the old. I do clean the nest boxes more often. I probably do that weekly, but I don't really pay attention. If there's poop in a box, I just throw that straw on the floor and replace with fresh.

If you have one of those tiny backyard coops that's just reach-in instead of walk-in, I can see cleaning it weekly.

 

[BabasCoop]

[/QUOTE]

Hi! I'm Emily, and we just got chickens.
They have been out in the coop for about a three weeks now, and I have been cleaning the coop about 2 times a week. Is that a healthy amount?
I have 5 pullets.

I clean my coop daily, but I have sand and it takes me less than 5 minutes. I just use a kitty scoop and a bucket and pick up the poop under the roosts from the night. When the sand starts to get low, I add some new sand. I fully replace every 6 months.

As for my run, I bought a little doggie pooper scooper (a little extendable rake with a pan) and walk around the run just picking up random poop. Again, quick and easy to do when I’m out visiting my girls. I usually do that for about 10 minutes once a weekend.

No stink that way, with minimal effort. Btw I have 16 chickens.

 

[ejtalbert]

Thank you! We have a medium sized coop, I suppose, the run is walk in, but the nesting area and draft-free zone is not.

 

[ejtalbert]

I clean my coop daily, but I have sand and it takes me less than 5 minutes. I just use a kitty scoop and a bucket and pick up the poop under the roosts from the night. When the sand starts to get low, I add some new sand. I fully replace every 6 months.

As for my run, I bought a little doggie pooper scooper (a little extendable rake with a pan) and walk around the run just picking up random poop. Again, quick and easy to do when I’m out visiting my girls. I usually do that for about 10 minutes once a weekend.

No stink that way, with minimal effort. Btw I have 16 chickens.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you! One more question, though, is sand too heavy to use up in a elevated roosting area and draft free zone? That is my main worry about switching from wood chips to sand.

 

[BabasCoop]

I clean my coop daily, but I have sand and it takes me less than 5 minutes. I just use a kitty scoop and a bucket and pick up the poop under the roosts from the night. When the sand starts to get low, I add some new sand. I fully replace every 6 months.

As for my run, I bought a little doggie pooper scooper (a little extendable rake with a pan) and walk around the run just picking up random poop. Again, quick and easy to do when I’m out visiting my girls. I usually do that for about 10 minutes once a weekend.

No stink that way, with minimal effort. Btw I have 16 chickens.

Thank you! One more question, though, is sand too heavy to use up in a elevated roosting area and draft free zone? That is my main worry about switching from wood chips to sand.
[/QUOTE]
My coop is suspended from a roof 4 feet off the ground. I purchase pet grade washed sand in 50lb bags from Lowe’s. We put 3 bags in at a time on a full change, so 150lbs.

How big is your coop? Ours is 6x6 or 36sq feet. If yours is smaller than that, you wouldn’t need 150lbs of sand. (Note: the food and water are no longer in the coop, that was when we were coop training them, I added the picture so u can see the sand)

 

[3KillerBs]

For my 4x4, in-town coop I changed the shavings in the coop every 6-8 weeks as seemed to be required. That is, if I noticed any odor or if there seemed to be too high a poop-to-shaving ratio on visual inspection, but I also added additional shavings every couple weeks because the chickens scratching around would break them down some.

The one time I used straw, because a guy at the feed store convinced DH it would be cheaper, I had to clean it in half that time and so told DH never to get straw again (except for the occasional bale put into the run intact in the winter to give them something to sit on out of the wet).

The hens tended to kick shavings out of the nest boxes so I topped them up at need but only actually cleaned them between full coop cleanings if they'd been pooped in or had an egg broken in them. (Poopy next-box shavings were thrown into the run with the rest of it but eggy next-box shavings went onto the compost pile).

I always put a few handfuls of wood ashes in at the bottom when replacing shavings in the coop.

The run, which had a mix of wood chips, shavings, straw, pine straw, leaves, and whatever other compost browns came to hand in a deep litter setting, was only forked out a couple times a year when the buildup got too high to be convenient or when I needed compost for the garden. If it looked dirty or wet I'd throw in more bedding on top and trust the chickens to mix it up for me. The run also got a contribution from the ash bucket on the bottom when it was changed.

I chose the deep bedding/deep litter management system specifically because I didn't want to be out there having to clean the coop daily or weekly, rain or shine, regardless of the circumstances of my life at the moment but, instead, would be able to schedule the cleanings for good weather and my own convenience.

IIRC, the only time I had odor issues was from the run in an extended period of hot, wet weather and I solved it by adding another layer of pine straw, which doesn't compact and mat the way straw does.

I will say that I had naturally sandy soil and the coop was on a slight slope the draining was excellent. Therefore what I did can't be assumed to transfer to clay soil or a spot where water might accumulate.

 

[aart]

What kind of bedding you use may depend on how you manage the manure.
This is about cleaning, but covers my big picture

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.

-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.

-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.

- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.

-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).

There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.

That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 5 years.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

I change my shavings when they need changing (I know, that sounds like a smartalic comment but I'm serious). Every now and then a hen will break an egg kicking around in a box and that's a definite clean- but otherwise they stay pretty clean.

One caveat is check your chickens for mites. If you have a mite problem you want to either change them regularly, or treat the shaving with the dust too.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Frequency of cleaning depends on many factors - number of chickens, size of enclosures, materials used, climate, etc.

I currently have 7 hens and 4 chicks, 60 sq ft coop, 440 sq ft run.

I clean out the coop twice a year, though thinking of reducing it to once a year after the next clean out as it really doesn't seem to get dirty enough to need it twice a year. I do daily poop cleaning under the roost.

Run is left alone for the most part, as I use deep litter and it's well established. I do daily poop pick ups just to make sure there's not big obvious poops to step in.