How often should I fully change my coop bedding? Please help!

[MrOrpington16]

So I have an 8x8 coop and I have 4 chickens right know. I cover the floor with 4 inches of pine shavings. I pick up their poo two times a day to keep up with it . I also have a run so they can go outside. Thank you

 

[donrae]

I change my deep litter once a year-ish.

Weather it needs it or not

I don't clean, I just stir shavings around a little, or toss some scratch in there and let the flock do it cause I'm lazy. A few times a year I add another bale of shavings, I just go by how it smells.

 

[Big Bubba]

I'm new to this game, too, and, also, have 4 birds with a smilar size setup. Since I live in a semi-urban area I feel it's important to keep smell and flies to a minimum.

I put pine sheddings down and throw in glass clippings. Also, give them scratch every day.

Once a week I rake out all the shavings and hose down the coop.

I don't know if that is enough or too much. So far no complaints so it works for me.

 

[hen madame]

I'm a newbie as well. I clean the poop out of my coop every morning and put it in the run. Then once a week I completely remove all of the bedding in the coop, put that into the run, and put new shavings in to the coop. I don't wash everything down however, too lazy for that. Basically I'm using a deep litter system in the run. Everything is breaking down nicely and there is no smell (I am in a urban environment). This weekend I will clean out the run for the first time (I got my birds in March) and put all the contents in the compost pile to finish off the decomposition. I'm planning on only 2 complete clean-outs a year one in spring and one in fall.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I cleaned mine out last fall for the first time in four years. Not because I needed to but because I wanted that stuff on my garden. I do have a droppings board which I clean off about every two to three weeks to put in my compost pile. I go by smell on that.

Each of us is going to have a different answer to that. It’s going to depend on number of chickens, coop size and type, elevated or on the ground, what kind of bedding you use, how you manage the poop under the roosts, and much more. A huge factor is dampness. If it gets wet it will probably stink. If it stays dry you should be able to go a real long time with 4 chickens in that size of coop since you are removing the poop a lot more often than I do.

Donrae’s suggestion is a good one. Go by smell.