Inherited Large (for me) chicken coop, uncleaned.

[springvalley123]

As you're going through all the work to thoroughly clean that NICE coop, you may consider prophalactically dusting it with mite/tick powder that's safe for chickens. The name of the active ingredient escapes me, so hoping someone will chime in with the generic or brand name of the stuff I'm talking about.

That'd be Gardstar Garden & Poultry Dust, 0.25% permethrin, available at TSC.

 

[3KillerBs]

I am in Cecil County Maryland. Moved here in the early winter.

If you put your location into your profile people can give you better-targeted advice. Climate matters.

Hard work getting this ready, but not so hard as having to build it.

 

[ashcons]

you might have to chisel some away.

That's free coop poop flooring, though!

 

[kodster]

a beginner myself, in your case I would go with 'thorough' right now: poop and feather removal and a good scrub with a decent cleaner/disinfectant.
Just to be safe.
There might be some elbow grease involved (perhaps done masks to not inhale any sh*t?)

I'm a long-timer (10+ years now), but I would also recommend a thorough cleaning as Alagirl recommends. You don't know what diseases are hidden in that coop... some of them can be fatal to your new flock, such as Marek's or Coccidosis. Best to start out fresh and clean as possible to get rid of any bacteria, viruses, and parasites that are embedded in there.

 

[MsSueT]

That's a nice coop, I'm glad you kept it.
That big board under the roost looks like a poop board, which collects night-time droppings. It's a good thing to have, as long as you scrape it down on the regular—along with the rest of the coop.
I agree with the commenters that suggest you get rid of ALL your roosters, now. Unless you are planning on raising chicks, you don't even really need a male. But if you insist, just get ONE very young guy when your hens are already a year old and are established layers. He is likely to be less aggressive both with you and the hens. I rescued a very young roo by mistake last year, but my flock of 18 ladies taught him basic manners so he is pretty tame. And there are enough of them to keep him satisfied.....

 

[Chicnextdoor84]

That coop is amazing!!!!! You are so blessed to have that much work out of your way, it looks to have good bones and bells and whistles!! The chicks looks like red sex links or such, I agree completely on a good dry cleaning since it's been a solid year since any birds have occupied it. Dust for mites and maybe put them on a precautionary dose or corrid in their water to prevent cocci and skip the antibiotic feed.

 

[affacat]

We moved into a place with an existing coop. We cleaned out the worst of it, sprayed down the entire thing with diluted bleach, waited a few days, repeated. Then just put in new bedding and never had an issue.

Regarding '6 or 7' a year... IMHO the most difficult part of raising chickens is the chick/pullet period. Once they're adult, it becomes very easy -food, water, gather eggs except for the occasional issue. Point being, once you get used to the chickens you may want to just bump up flock size to about what you want egg wise if you have the land/space. That said, having a variety of ages can be great so you don't have chickens all aging out at the same time.

 

[Chickn Keaper]

Meaning I have 7 now, pretty sure I have two Cockrels and one I will have to get rid of. I want to add more annually, just need to become used to taking care of them.

Chicken math...

 

[stephenthayer61]

So my Chickens turned 12 weeks old yesterday. I have at least 5 roosters out of the 7 chickens we bought from tractor supply. I definitely have one hen, hoping the other is a hen also. Not gonna lie, pretty disappointed about that.

 

[rosemarythyme]

So my Chickens turned 12 weeks old yesterday. I have at least 5 roosters out of the 7 chickens we bought from tractor supply. I definitely have one hen, hoping the other is a hen also. Not gonna lie, pretty disappointed about that.

Did you buy straight run? Or is this a case of TSC mislabeling a bin? That's pretty discouraging to have to deal with right at the start of building up a flock.