How to Efficiently Clean Poop

[Clairemarie1982]

I was wondering how I can clean the chicken coop efficiently; I have wood shavings for bedding. Any suggestions?

We have pine shavings in our coop (we have a floor in our coop). I will turn the shavings every few days or so. When I feel it needs a cleaning (we do it way more often in summer than winter) I simply sweep the pine shavings from the coop through the pop up chicken door into the run. It’s a covered run with a dirt floor. We also throw in cut up grass clippings and leaves depending on the season, into the run. We have had chickens just over a year now and with this method we have never had to throw any pine shavings or poop out. It all decomposes in the run. Our coop and run never smell or have flies etc. Oh I also scrape the roosting bars daily. Hope this helps!

 

[Humanbean68]

I use wood shavings over vinyl flooring, and usually add another layer at least once before changing it out completely, which is probably once every 6 weeks or so. In the winter I just pull it out into the run so they have some protection from the snow, and the rest of the year I pile it to decompose.

 

[Monika S]

My actual coop has wood shavings, but I like the idea of a poop board.. makes cleaning easier.. just never thought of it. MY run is dirt with rubber chips on top. It pretty much cleans itself. I was told it can be cleaned with a hose, but so far, I've never had to clean it out.. it always looks and smells clean. I've had it for a year. I also let my chickens run in my yard on occasion.

 

[Maggie13]

I use a "Poop Hammock" a kitty litter scoop with sawdust or pine shavings in the hammock but I am going to try the coffee ground method to see if that is more efficient
Since I only have 4 hens I clean the coop every day.
PS: I am LUCKY my hens all face with their butts over the hammock
I also have a piece of vinyl on the floor

 

[munchkinlover]

I use and swear by sand. I have a raised coop inside my chicken run/tractor. I started with hay, switched to pine shavings and ended up with about an inch of construction sand (not play sand). Every morning, after the birds have been let out I use a small plastic rake to remove the litter sitting on top, and I dispose of it as needed. Half f the front of my coop opens, so I can rake it to the opening and then use a cat litter scoop to separate the sand from the poop and dump in a small bucket. Eventually I will remove the sand and wash it, let it dray and replace it after washing the coop. Two of my girls have raised chicks in there and they like having them on the floor. Sand is good grit for little ones too. This works well for m.

 

[gtaus]

After much reading, I decided to go with a dry deep bedding system using primarily wood chips. I set up my coop last summer with a base of about 4 inches of wood chips. Every couple of months I go into the coop and fluff up the wood chips, giving them a good turn, which seems to freshen up everything. Sometimes I add more fresh wood chips on top. My coop normally smells like fresh wood chips, which is fine with me. If I start to detect any ammonia smell, I'll add more fresh chips, fluff up the bedding, or throw some scratch into the coop and let the chickens themselves turn over the chips.

In the winter, where I live, the poop freezes hard on top of the bedding. In that case, I would just toss in new chips, shredded paper, or bags of tree leaves into the coop maybe once a month. The chickens spread it out by themselves and I encourage them by throwing scratch on top of the frozen bedding. Frozen poop does not smell, so it was just a matter of making it look nice throughout the winter. In the spring, after everything thawed out, I removed the old wood chip bedding (about 8 inches by then) and threw it out into the chicken run for composing in place.

I don't use a poop board under the roost bar. For the most part, the poop under the roost bar magically disappears. So it has never been an issue for me. But all that depends on how many birds you have and how big your coop is. There are many ways to have a successful setup for your backyard flock.

My approach to my birds has reduced my clean up to basically once in the spring and once in late fall when I take out the old bedding and put in new bedding. That is about a 2 hour job for me twice a year. I don't have to do any daily cleaning, but of course I do check everything daily when I feed and water the birds. Since my old, spent bedding was not even smelling bad this spring, I considered just letting it go until the fall cleaning. But, I am actively trying to make compost in the chicken run so I used the old bedding as carbon in the run. I'm still learning, but so far I am happy with my results.

 

[ChunksHouse]

I would buy some cheep vinyl flooring and put down.

Any other options for the vinyl floor? Just how would that hold up if you hose down. I am putting together ideas to build a coop for 12

 

[David61]

You can take the poop board out and hose it. Don't get water in a coop. Moisture = smell, don't do it stay dry.
I never have issues with my poop board needing to be hosed off. The little bit of sand and mostly PDZ granular stall freshener keeps the poop dry and easy to just rake off in a bucket and the vinyl clean. I rake my 4'x5' poop board every third or forth day.(10 birds) One $10 25lb bag of PDZ covers my board for set up and I add $.50 worth a week to keep it fresh.
Just so easy given no smell and mess. 10 times better than a cat box. I hate cleaning a cat box. Maybe I should have put PDZ in the cat box because there in little to no smell when I rake the poop board.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I added a poop board lined with Sweet PDZ and scoop it daily back in November. In February I switched the shavings to coffee grounds because the shavings were too dusty. I hated straw the most because it molds easily, among other things. I recently started collecting coffee grounds from Starbucks, drying them in the greenhouse or the yard depending on the weather, and using those as bedding in the coop. I scoop the coffee and the poop board daily but at this rate I am considering removing the board entirely because the coffee works so well.

 

[aart]

Don't get water in a coop. Moisture = smell, don't do it stay dry.

Ditto Dat!!