Huge deep bedding coop clean out...job done and a lesson learned!!

[Tre3hugger]

Well, this week all the frozen poop from over the winter melted in the coop. It was offensive when I collected eggs this morning, and since we had a 40+ degree day today, I made the snap decision to do a big clean out. Went to tsc real quick, got 5 bags of shavings, and went to work on the coop. OMFG THERE WAS SO MUCH SOILED BEDDING. I stopped counting at 25 gorilla carts full. I didn't really take into account when thinking about my deep bedding the mass melting that was going to go on under the roost bars in spring! I am going to try to do my deep cleaning about twice as often. With a 10x12 coop that hasn't been cleaned out since September, it was really just more ammonia smelling bedding than I want to deal with in a day. The rest of the year the litter keeps up as the poop slowly is added each night. But the shavings just couldn't handle the thaw. And I have been liberally adding shavings for 5 months!
So I am going to aim for cleaning every 3 months ish. And never have that much heavy bedding in there at once. This way, the spring thaw should have literally half the bedding to change out next year. Nerxt winter, I may also add removable poop board. I will leave it til the poop mounds up too high than take it out and scrape it into the compost and put it back. Seems more manageable. Lesson learned!

I did manage to finish the job but it took me about 4-5 hours and I am VERY sore lol. I put all the fresh bedding in and the girls are lovin it. I made a new compost pile that I will use eventually for the medicine garden I have in that area. I wasn't carting all that to the veggie garden compost. It wouldn't have fit in the bin anyway!

Thanks for reading. Feeling accomplished!

 

[3KillerBs]

Yikes!

That is a lot to cope with all at once. Deep bedding is wonderful, but there is a limit to what even the best system can handle.

Hope all is well now.

 

[the_peanut_coop]

I am never ever not cleaning out my bedding again I want to prevent that from happening to me!

 

[Tre3hugger]

Yikes!

That is a lot to cope with all at once. Deep bedding is wonderful, but there is a limit to what even the best system can handle.

Hope all is well now.

Thanks! The girls were really only exposed to the heavy smell for a little while and they had the option to go outside if they wanted. Of course they preferred to party in the nasties I was shoveling around. Ohhhh well. Now everything smells like pine shavings and both them and I can sleep well tonight.

I did forget the PDZ today. Guess it is back to TSC tomorrow. When I'm there I can swoon over the turkeys again.

 

[Byrd gal]

I use sand in my coop I just get the scooper out and rake thru it everyday and clean the boards. Once a week I add a bucket of sand and pdz if it needs a refresh. I have a covered run with a straw area so they go out and sun most days. You know the adage pay me now or pay me later, $#!t happens.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thanks! The girls were really only exposed to the heavy smell for a little while and they had the option to go outside if they wanted. Of course they preferred to party in the nasties I was shoveling around. Ohhhh well. Now everything smells like pine shavings and both them and I can sleep well tonight.

I did forget the PDZ today. Guess it is back to TSC tomorrow. When I'm there I can swoon over the turkeys again.

In my article I did calculate how much work was involved in the different systems and came up with nearly 5 hours a month on scooping vs. -- for me -- 90 minutes once every three months.

If you've got another nice day take a cup of coffee out and sit with your chickens to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

 

[Sally PB]

I scoop the poop every day out of the bedding. I have the roosts down low right now, so poop boards aren't an option. Last summer, I had "poop mats" with PDZ under the roost, and that worked really well.

Once the cold weather hit and the chickens didn't go outside first thing, the mats weren't very effective because they scratched around in the coop for a few hours (or all day) and buried the mats with shavings.

I hear ya, @Tre3hugger, though. Eventually I have to get all that bedding out. I keep telling myself that it'll make a really nice bunch of stuff for the chickens to scratch through out in the run.

The only thing I will miss about the cold weather is that the poop froze. Scooping was easy-peasy!

 

[RojoMarz]

I have poop boards under the roost. Very rarely do I have poop someplace besides the boards.

 

[Tre3hugger]

I have poop boards under the roost. Very rarely do I have poop someplace besides the boards.

How often do you clean them?

 

[RojoMarz]

How often do you clean them?

I scoop the poop boards daily. It only takes about a minute to scoop mine. Think it's 8 ft long by 2 ft deep. I've seen that others scoop theirs less frequently.