How often to clean my coop?

[PhenixJiRa]

I use pine shavings in my coop. I have about 2-3 inches at the bottom of a raised coop so I cannot do deep litter.

I was curious how often other people clean out their coop if they have one like mine.

I put in half a bag of pine shavings which covers the floor 2 inches. I need to clean it out every 3 weeks because that’s when it starts to smell like ammonia.

But now, I’m wondering if I should put less pine shavings in, maybe only half an inch, and clean it out every week?

If I use half a bag of pine shavings and clean that every week or two, I have way too many pine shavings for my compost.

Thoughts?

 

[Sally PB]

I have a poop board under my roost, and that catches most of the poop. So I can clean out my coop once a year, in the spring.

 

[Sally PB]

I use Sweet PDZ on the poop board. I scoop up the poop every morning, put it in a bucket, and it goes onto the compost pile. Not much poop ends up in the shavings.

 

[aart]

Thoughts?

You'll have to experiment with the amount of shavings and the timing to see what works best for you.

 

[thecatumbrella]

How many chickens do you have?

I like to scoop out the bulk of their droppings daily, then change over the litter whenever it's getting spent. Hemp lasts a lot longer than pine shavings (in my experience), but the price is ridiculous in comparison.

 

[chicken1234]

I do a full clean out once a month minimum but pick up under the roost once a week in winter and more often in summer.

 

[PhenixJiRa]

How many chickens do you have?

I like to scoop out the bulk of their droppings daily, then change over the litter whenever it's getting spent. Hemp lasts a lot longer than pine shavings (in my experience), but the price is ridiculous in comparison.

I have 9 chickens.
I basically want something on the wooden floor of the coop so the poop doesn’t just land there and make a huge mess when I try to scrape or pick it out.
That’s why I’m using the shavings. In my smaller coop I could use poop boards but can’t in this one.
Sounds like that’s what you’re doing? Shavings and general removal.

 

[thecatumbrella]

I have 9 chickens.
I basically want something on the wooden floor of the coop so the poop doesn’t just land there and make a huge mess when I try to scrape or pick it out.
That’s why I’m using the shavings. In my smaller coop I could use poop boards but can’t in this one.
Sounds like that’s what you’re doing? Shavings and general removal.

We use an Omlet Cube, so it's different from a typical coop (very shallow droppings tray), but I plan on treating a traditional coop the same way - manually removing the bulk from under the roost bar at least every other day, then a full shavings changeover as needed.

 

[Debbie292d]

We use a couple of inches of horse pellets and clean it out/replace in the spring.

Like @Sally PB, the Sweet PDZ for where they roost/poop does wonders too, and makes scraping poop off the wood much easier.

 

[Fulford]

I also use a couple inches of shavings. Small flock.
I do a quick poop removal everyday. Or two at most. It is so much easier then! I also find it helps to monitor health. I do a full clean 1 a week. But it’s pretty quick too and not gross then.

If you remove overnight poop, it’s a very quick job (recommend bbq tongs!) and just have a very small bucket full. If I skip a day or two, then it’s so much bigger a job and it’s expanded exponentially! If you go more than a few days, that’s too much ammonia build up and bad for the chooks lungs. Also, I remove fallen feathers at the same time.

Not a fan of deep litter method as winters where I live are often damp and definitely not in summer. Yuck.