Keeping a clean coop...

[Mybackyardpeepers]

My nesting boxes have wood shavings in them, my coop floor is sand with a little shavings. Half my run is mulch that I rake around to turn the poop under and half is mmmm some what grass that I put a layer of flock fresh over then rake up when needed.

 

[jreardon1918]

I too am part of the just get rid of the big poops. The poop boards get scooped 1-2 tines a week. In 2 1/2 years i have changed all pine shavings in coop 3 times. The shavings wenti into the run to mix in. The pine shavings in nests getthe say semi annual cleaning. But i do watch for the occasional poop in there. The removable poop boards get an occasional spraying with the hose. The inside design prevents poops from getting on most surfaces.

I think the ventilation and poop boards keep the coop "fresh".

 

[aart]

The dust in air really gets me though.
I'm surprised there's "dusty air" as the window is open, fan running, and we built a nice predator proof screen door to close if we must close the door at all.

Is your fan exhausting the coop air outside or blowing it in from outside?

My coop is built in a large shed, everything outside the actual coop or where there isn't daily activity is covered with thick dust. I take the shop vac out there once or twice a year and suck some of it up. But, yeah, dust is as inevitable as poop. Actually some of that dust is poop.

 

[aart]

I have anywhere from 35 to 50 chickens at any time, and daily poo scooping isn't going to happen here!

I'll bet!....and another reason I'm glad my housing won't hold that many.

The floor is old concrete, with cracks, covered mostly with rubber stall mats. It's easier to shovel out that way, and has worked to keep dampness out too.

Wonders, what's under those mats? Do you look when shoveling out?

I think for those of us who aren’t farmers, the amount of poop comes as a shock. And as the chicks grow, they poop more and more!

One of the funniest things I've heard here is folks overwhelmed with the amount of chicks poops....I tell them wait until they start laying, the poop size triples! Another equation in Chicken(poop)Math

 

[aart]

Wow! I've been wasting too much money! I've been cleaning my wood chips out once a week, and I put down several inches. I'm going to try this method of adding some fresh pine shavings on top with DE, and try cleaning it bi-monthly. That would make 6 complete cleanouts a year.

Skip the DE, doesn't do anything but add to the dust.
Add poop boards and you can change out floor shavings just once or twice a year.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Mine is so easy it's stupid. Deep bedding in the coop. I changed it once in the last year because I was worried about mites. I have poop boards with PDZ that I sift daily with a cat litter scoop. I use a putty knife to scrape dried on stuff from boards and ramps. Takes such a little amount of time. My run is modified deep litter. I use dry leaves mostly, but sometimes I mix in pine shavings, wood chips, or hemp - whatever. I use a cobweb duster thing to sweep out webs/heavy dust once a week or so. If I feel like it, I stir the shavings in the coop or the litter in the run with a rake. I doubt really need to. I just like to sometimes.

My roosts are attached to the poop boards. The whole set up sits on rails in my coop so I can lift the whole thing out, take it out to thelawn, and wash it with a high powered hose. I let it dry in the sun. I've done that once in the last year.

My nest boxes are lined with nesting pads. Under those, I have recycled feed bags. I had a pullet sleep in one for a few days there. I just let dry the poop she left and shook out the pad. Totally clean.

My 4×8 coop never stinks! Yay, me! Of course, I only have 5 pullets...

 

[Farmgirl1878]

Lol @Cryss, me too!!

 

[ValerieJ]

I use a rake, a hoe, and a long handled scraper. I put plenty of straw everywhere. I don't think you can keep things pristine for chickens. They aren't very discriminate about where they poop. I clean often, and add plenty of straw everywhere, but there will always be a residue left behind it seems. Next year we will build a new coop, walk in style, and I hope with the sand ideas and careful layout planning my coop will seem cleaner. Still, they are chickens.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

I'm feeling a bit less dirty now!

Granted, before the chicks were added in, most poo was concentrated under the ladder roost. I'd toss a few hand scoops of shavings over it once a week and good as done.
The chicks really wrecked it all up lol!

I've succeeded in having a fairly smell free coop. The dust in air really gets me though.
I'm surprised there's "dusty air" as the window is open, fan running, and we built a nice predator proof screen door to close if we must close the door at all.

 

[HopeSprings]

I made poop board trays filled with sand (1 1/2 to 2" deep) that I sift out daily -- like my own little beach! The poop board square footage is about half of the coop square footage, so the pine shavings so far have stayed pretty clean. When it is time to clean, I can open a window at floor level and just push it all out into the wheelbarrow. Vinyl flooring covers the floor and the walls to chicken head height (on roosts), again aiding in keeping the Chick Inn clean!