Is anyone else having to clean their coop in the dead of winter?

[terrilhb]

I clean mine at least 2 to 3 x's a month. I guess I am OCD.LOL I can not take the smell or the look. I would not want to live in it so I think they don't. I know funny but that is me.

 

[pattgal]

Quote:
ohhhhh, poop boards, that's what I need

I can't figure out how I would set mine up though I have 2 roosts that run across from each other. one lower and one higher

 

[Nava]

I clean mine every end of the month, love the sand in the coop. I don't have to clean a lot ,they are free rangers

 

[Gypsi]

I cleaned mine today. Opened the wide front door. Leaned in, pulled up the pond liner at the edges, folded together, and while wishing for a wheel barrow, just got it to the vicinity of the back yard compost pile before dumping it out. Most of it was Layena crumbles, the rest was straw and poo. But mine only spent what, 3 or 4 nights in it before most of the birds went back to the run roost.

On the bright side, the north side pop hole now has a hinged wooden door with epdm side flaps, and a flapped slit large enough to allow an electric cord if I decided to heat the water and keep it thawed in a freeze, but the flap over the slit will keep the wind out..

And there is a brand new west side pop hole with little horizontal ribs to help them get their footing on the way down (kinda steep ramp). Both can be locked shut, and no more stapled t-shirt door. Woohoo!

Grandchildren are great helpers, esp if you let them use the battery powered drill...

 

[AHappychick]

Has to get done. I did them all day before Christmas, and now they are really needing a complete change. I did half of them this weekend and the other half will be on tue. problem is I cant dump it to compost anywhere so I have to bag it all and throw it away or save if for when the 3 feet of snow is gone. I have no idea how the upper states deals with this every year. normally I can still get my wheel barrow around but now I cant even see it.

 

[pattgal]

Quote:
yeah we lost ours too. its out there...somewhere. lol

 

[Bleenie]

I totally clean my coop/run out about once a month but I am always removing dirty & adding clean straw to the more icky parts of the run about once a week, more if it's been really rainy. The ducks make quite a mess right around the pool though so that's kind of a must. I turn the bedding everyday though since I am out there checking on everyone anyway. I have a large area where our pigs used to live that I can dump the bedding in to compost. When that is finally filled in, we have their weirdo 'sink hole' spot on our property that's always been pretty mucky and just kinda eats stuff up... i don't know how much tree branch, plant, shavings, and other compost stuff we have put in there!!!

 

[bunnibird55]

My chickens are in the big barn with our two miniature horses and I have not cleaned it yet this winter - just keep adding straw - but they have a 20 ft by 40 area to roam around - now the duck barn is a whole different matter - I just had to clean it out again today - deep litter method does NOT work with 9 messy ducks! They even go outside every day and play in the compost heap and my snowy gardens, but they go in overnight and make the biggest mess imaginable!

 

[chellejeff]

Switch to sand, it's less dusty and easier to clean. I switched from wood shavings to sand a few months ago and the sand is way easier.

 

[Bleenie]

I tried sand and it just didn't work for me here in Western WA. The poo just compacted onto in and drainage was not good with it. with the straw over the dirt, if it does get wet in a spot at least the water runs through the straw and into the dirt.