Keep a clean coop

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Do like me. Scrub your coop and keep it nice but let your dog eat chicken poop and give you ample kisses. That should relieve your fears. LOL

Oh man! Dog kisses are always questionable - but so sweeet!!!

 

[member 158781]

@ethbarry
How big are these pieces of grass carpet....and how many birds do you have?
What sanitizer do you use?
I would not want a weeks worth of coop poop piling up here with 15-20 birds.

They are the rolls of carpet from Lowes. (recycled and recyclable) And no, I just pick up the poopies every day with a "poop collector". Then once a week I remove, wash and sanitize. Spray them with a little bit of Oxine in water. Then dry in the sun and put back. Or if it's nice weather, just put it back without drying because it dries very fast. It's a thin permeable carpet. Urine and rain goes right through so there's never any fungi.

 

[Love that Jazzy]

I hate to sound like a broken record but the latest news reporting 49 states blaming their salmonella out break on Back yard chicken breeders should be of concern to all of us who raise chickens ,whether for personal use or commercial purposes.
I am not convinced there are that many states with irresponsible back yard chicken breeders .
Are they not washing their hands after they have been in the coop or handled their birds and eggs? because it's the first thing any f us in the family do.Wash your hands! Are they not cooking their eggs or chicken meat properly to a safe doneness?
Seriously can there be all of a sudden that many people in 49 states that irresponsible??
I wonder how many of them also keep reptiles?? Reptiles, snakes, lizards , turtles all reptiles are notorious salmonella carriers .
I have noticed so many times when people show pics on this or other chicken websites , that their coops and runs look pretty disgusting and less than clean.
People jut keep doing what chicken ring people have done for centuries unfortunately .
They put straw in the lay box .They have just straight on dirt or just dirt on the coop floor and run areas .
Well, you can't clean straw! and when it rains that dirt and straw in the run turns to a muddy poopy disgusting mess .YULK!
I learned after 17 years of making the mistakes, when a man I hired to build my chicken coop told me the best way to keep a coop and run area and nesting boxes clean and fly free and I have thanked him in my heart ever since .
No straw EVER ! Put pine shavings in the nesting boxes, and most importantly , "Washed Plaster Sand" on the coop and run floor . But only washed plaster sand ( about 3 bucks for a 50# bag at any Home Depot or Lowes ). Any other sand will be bad for the girls to breath . The poop will suspend on the sand and make it easy to simply rake up the poop off the top of the sand and toss in the garden or compost pile . The girls will bee able to dust bath in it it's never muddy.
My coop never smells ad I never have flies!!!! M chickens keep clean and happy !!

Thank you for the great idea of 'Washed Plaster Sand', this really helps me, as I've been wondering how to manage the wetter climate. I've used "Mainely Mulch" to throw down in their run to help dry it up and not be so wet, but I have to rake it out and dump it after three days or so, it gets too mucky. I use the pine shavings in their coop, it's much easier to deal with and it smells good too.

 

[Love that Jazzy]

They are the rolls of carpet from Lowes. (recycled and recyclable) And no, I just pick up the poopies every day with a "poop collector". Then once a week I remove, wash and sanitize. Spray them with a little bit of Oxine in water. Then dry in the sun and put back. Or if it's nice weather, just put it back without drying because it dries very fast. It's a thin permeable carpet. Urine and rain goes right through so there's never any fungi.

What is a poop collector?? I need something like that.

 

[Patty from Ivy]

I use sand in my 10' X 14' run. Each morning I use a long handled kitty litter scoop that I got on Amazon and a small galvanized bucket from TSC to clean up the run and coop. Takes about a total of 5 minutes (I have 3 hens) and I have never had smell nor fly issues. The bucket contents go right into my nearby compost pile and will eventually break down for my vegetable garden. Win-Win!

 

[so lucky]

I wonder how pea-sized gravel would work in a run. Anyone tried it?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Okay 2 cents grew up on cattle ranch had chickens, pigs dogs and cats lived outside
garden about 3 acre farm people came by all the time only time we had kids to play with
always was yelled at pulling carrots, radishes wipe em off on my britches showed a bull in 4-H rode the horses or dirt bikes gee didn't get sick till I left the farm

 

[AllenK RGV]

Oh man! Dog kisses are always questionable - but so sweeet!!!

Yeah, I stopped letting the dogs tongues near me when I got chicken and see how much they like poop!

 

[aart]

Oh man! Dog kisses are always questionable - but so sweeet!!!

NO way do those turd eating butt lickers are ever allowed to put their tongues on my skin anywhere,
especially my face.
Well, maybe my sweaty feet in the summer.

I wonder how pea-sized gravel would work in a run. Anyone tried it?

Not a good idea, IMO.
It would eventually become saturated with pulverized poop and would reek.
Then what would you do with pounds and pounds and pounds of stinky gravel?

 

[so lucky]

Well, that would be nasty. Maybe if you had about 6" of gravel and good drainage, and could hose it down every couple weeks....