How often to deep clean coop and how often to do regular cleaning?

[Shandina]

I am about to get some silkies and I am wondering how often you guys full out top to bottom clean your coops and what do you use to clean it with? Any tips? and with regular cleaning what do you do and how often? I am planning on using either construction sand or pine shavings for bedding, I haven't decided yet. Thanks guys!

 

[Rickba]

I change my bedding one a week, I use bale hay. At that time I change the hay and sweep out all the stuff that falls to the bottom. This keeps the mice, lice and any other critters that may try to nest out of the flock. I also bleach the water's. I do a deep cleaning, complete disinfect treatment, each spring and fall.

 

[andreanar]

I use deep litter method with pine shavings. Everyday or two, I scoop the poop off the poop board. Once a week I turn the shavings over adding some new shavings once a month. I only deep clean once a year, in the spring, take all shavings out, wipe everything down with bleach water, then replace shavings.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

I deep clean the coop Spring and Fall, and when I bring in new hens. Getting ready to merge new hens that have summered in another coop and pen. I will use bleach water in a tank sprayer after cleaning out all the pine bedding. Let the coop dry out a couple of hours, then put in fresh pine bedding. I will also spray the coop and run at this time for any mites or lice. The rest of the time I pick up droppings first thing in the morning, inside the coop and out in the run. I also pick up droppings a couple times a day in the run. Keeps the flies down and provides manure for my compost pile. Which then is recycled into the vegetable garden in the Spring and end of Summer. Which then, provides greens, tomatoes, and herbs for my chickens and family too. I use a pooper scooper set, which hangs on the fence for convenience.

 

[lazy gardener]

I do DL in both coop and run, only using shavings in coop when I run out of fall leaves. My usual bedding in coop is leaves and grass clippings, alternating. I also break open the occasional bale of hay from their in coop pyramid. Several times/year, or when bedding is building up quite deep at the back of the coop under the perches, I open the clean out door at the back, and push the old bedding out from under the perches. It simply plops into the run, where the girls spread it. It continues to break down there. The bedding at the front of the coop then gets pushed back under the perches, I add new bedding to the front and continue the process. As I expose the sheet vinyl flooring at front and back, I give a sprinkling of Permethrin, and Ag. lime. Perches get sprayed with Simple Green or any other soap product, scraped down, rinsed, and lightly dusted with permethrin, paying particular attention to the cracks where perches join the wall.

 

[aart]

I use poop boards under roosts with sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily into bucket going to compost. Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
Pine shavings on coop floor, totally changed out each fall, old ones added to run.
Runs have semi-deep litter, never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials.
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 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 4 years.

ETA: have to add, I do shopvac up dust and cobwebs in the fall too.

 

[RonP]

My coop is very well ventilated.

I use deep bedding, pine shaving, around 8 inches.

I don't change it out till late fall, by then it is mostly a fine grey bedding.

Once per year... just a quick shoveling out, no scrubbing...

It will look like crap in a week regardless... the chickens and I don't mind...they seem to prefer it that way, going to extreme measures to leave their mark on any cleaned surface.

It gets partially dumped in the deep litter outdoor run after each snowfall, the balance in early spring.

I have not cleaned the deep litter bedding in the run in over 10 years.
I continously add browns and greens in the deep litter run from early Spring through late Fall.

I collect the finished compost that gets sifted through the hardware cloth weekly for gardeners.

Easy, healthy flock, and no mud, flies, or odors...

 

[aart]

It will look like crap in a week regardless... the chickens and I don't mind...they seem to prefer it that way, going to extreme measures to leave their mark on any cleaned surface

.....and you 'dust the coop' with your blower system.

 

[RonP]

.....and you 'dust the coop' with your blower system.

Yup...
Perhaps twice per year at most...
But absolutely when shoveling out the spent shavings.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

How often you clean and how deeply really depends on your number of birds, size of coop, and general environment. What works in one set up; won't necessarily work in another. What doesn't work for you doesn't mean it won't for someone else.

For example, many extol the virtues of sand. However, in my clay soil, sand plus clay makes for cement. In my wet environment, sand plus constant drizzle makes for stagnate stink, until it dries enough for cement. All my chicken friends in my area hate sand too, but there are many in other places who use sand very successfully in their coops because of their environmental set up.

I clean out my coops about once a week, sometimes every other week. I have about 7 to 8 birds per coop in about 4 by 6 foot or 5 by 8 foot coops. So the birds have plenty of room, which means I have less build up quickly.

I dump the pine shavings from the coop onto the run dirt, which over time has deep littered with my clay soil into beautiful, non stinky loam. I don't use DE as that prevents the good bacteria from doing its job with the deep litter. The deep litter must be in direct contact with soil to promote the good bacteria breaking stuff down.

Every spring, since I have a bad back, I call up my gardening friends who gleefully bring buckets and shovels to scoop up my black gold for their gardens. (Yes, I have a bit of Tom Sawyer in me).

About once a year, maybe every other year, I take hydrogen peroxide in warm water and let that slosh over my coop floors. It lifts caked on dirt and crud as well as disinfects. I then can easily slosh it clean.

But I don't get heavy build up in my coops because I use empty feed bags cut up for coop floor liners. That really helps keep the floor clean. I just lift the liners, roll a bit like a burrito, then dump the whole lot onto the runs. I change out liners as they become soiled.

Pine shavings, in my environment, bind with the fecal material nicely (the carbon with the ammonia), and beautifully hold down the smell. If I notice any smell at all, or see some damp settling in (remember I'm in Oregon with nearly constant drizzle from September through June), I add fresh pine shavings to the runs.

This works very well for me and my soil and my size of flock and coop/runs.

Each owner must discover what works best for them.

LofMc