How should I clean my coop out?

[Tomfieldenloveshichickens]

Hi

I am wondering how I should clean my chicken coop out. It has straw on the floor. Currently every week I take all thestraw out and put new straw in. I only have six chickens. Is there another way to do it. I also heard you can put wood shaving down and don't have to clean itout for months.

Thanks

 

[S*T*A*R]

Sounds like you're doing a pretty good job. I, also, have six chickens, and i use straw for bedding. I clean it out about every week and it seems to be fine

I haven't looked much into wood shavings so.... you're going to have to ask somebody else about that

Good luck!

 

[swimmer]

Sounds like your doing a good job. One thing about straw is if it gets wet, it doesn't dry out as good as pine shavings. But some people prefer straw over shavings. And if your cleaning out once a week, then it shouldn't matter. I use shavings and do the deep litter method. Do a search on deep litter and see how it's done. If your getting tired of cleaning the coop, deep litter is the way to go. Especially in the winter. It's just a matter of what you like to do.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

With the deep litter method make sure that your coop doesn't get rained into. My shed coop gets WET around the edges on the inside. I tried the deep litter method and it stank.

I removed all the yucky litter and now just treat the whole floor like a poop board. I scrape it up into a dust pan. But my floor will be ruined anyway by the rain eventually. If you have a nice floor I wouldn't want you to ruin it.

 

[PamB]

I use wood shavings, but I put a tarp down on the floor first. This way, I just pull the tarp out and dump it. Then, I lay the tarp back down and put the clean shavings on top of it. It makes it a fast job.

 

[Qi Chicken]

I just cleaned the coop today. It is 11x12 and has deep litter that we put down in May. It took about two hours with a snow shovel to scoop out all the old. The concrete floor was nice and clean under the shavings. The shavings were poopy, no doubt, but the coop didn't really smell. Installed new poop boards today so that should help keep it cleaner. I tried straw in the nest boxes and it made a huge mess. I would only do pine shavings.