Keeping a clean coop...

[moniquem]

I have 3 chickens and my coop is 3X3. I did line the bottom with vinyl and keep the floor shavings pretty thick. I have a small dust pan that I scoop the pooh with every morning when I let them out. It takes about 1 minute then I refresh the shavings as needed. I try to keep the smell and flies down.

I clean roosts, walls and flooring monthly. I rake and clean chicken yard area every other week and add fresh grass cuttings weekly when I mow. Chickens are messy and don't seem to care about flies and smell, but I do, yuck.

I live in a neighborhood and have a small urban flock so want to keep everyones experience good. If my neighbors see how easy and fun it could be to have chickens maybe it will encourage them to get them. In fact my neighbors have been giving me their extra garden greens this year, zucchini, lettuce, etc, to give to the chickens and I repay with eggs. Everyones happy, especially the chickens!

 

[aart]

Look inside her quote. She wrote her question in there.

Oh, now I see, kinda buried in the middle, thanks! I looked, but not closely enough.

I like your coop and really apprecaite your wattering canteen for them. Very creative. I just bought some poultry nipples. So you have to fasten the nipples from the back once after you place them through your container? They didn't come with any fasteners. Thanks.

@cluckbuttwen sorry I missed your question.
The nipple you have is a Vertical Nipple, go into the bottom of container.
I use Horizontal Nipples, go into side of container.
The HN's are far superior, IMO, the leak way less and are easier to heat and keep thawed in winter here.

 

[Cryss]

The HN's are far superior, IMO, the leak way less and are easier to heat and keep thawed in winter here.

I made a bucket waterer with HNs. I've only used it in warm weather, switching to a heated waterer in winter. How do you keep water in the cups from freezing? Or being clogged in the valve by ice? I hate the mess made in open style waterers.

 

[aart]

I made a bucket waterer with HNs. I've only used it in warm weather, switching to a heated waterer in winter. How do you keep water in the cups from freezing? Or being clogged in the valve by ice? I hate the mess made in open style waterers.

They can freeze up if water gets left in the little lip and spring, pretty rare tho.
The valve is inside so stays thawed.
I DIYed my heated waterer, but you can buy heated waterers with HN's now.


Here's an interesting pic of an HN in a non-heated vessel, shows the rubber valve seal ring and that the freezing started around the surface of vessel and the metal nipple conducting the cold.

 

[Jealous Gypsy]

Im interested as well

I would LOVE to see these!
Do you have a thread or article showing them and their construction?

 

[Kdlevesque]

I would LOVE to see these!
Do you have a thread or article showing them and their construction?

I can make pictures but I don’t have an article or anything. My husband can make just about anything. The auger in the feeder is the most convenient thing. We go out of town a lot and my elderly mother does not like chickens as much as I do. She’s kind of scared of them...don’t ask me why...ha ha! This allows her to feed and water them using the “hands off” approach. You just turn the crank and the food comes down. I’ll get some pics tomorrow. My hubby also made a “dog poop composter” and a grill out of cinder blocks. He is something else.

 

[Kdlevesque]

Im interested as well

I’ll get you some pics

 

[khrisilou]

I have sand in my coop and in a good portion of my run. The nest boxes have straw in them. If the girls poop on anything I pour sand on it to dry it out then use a litter box scooper to clean out all the poo every week or so.

 

[Coopscraft]

Chicken coops will be poopy. I prefer a concrete floor with deep mulch over it. When I do my new barn, my nest boxes will be covered with a slanted panel to prevent birds from roosting on them. Keep the barn dry, keep the compost composting. The roosting perches are over a spot I don’t mind shoveling.

 

[jlwquilter]

I’m very happy with the coop we built a few months ago as for one thing it’s a snap to keep it clean. I have wide roost boards and I scrape them off onto the sand floor with the putty knife every morning. Takes about 2 minutes. Then I rake the poop on the sand floor under the boards out the coop door into the run. Takes about 2 minutes. Oh, I have a poop board over the nest boxes which are located under the roost boards. I either flip the big poops onto the floor before raking or if there’s a lot of poop that morning I’ll use the back of the rake and scrape it all off onto the floor and rake out. Then replace the sand/pdz mix using a trowel. Takes 2 minutes. My coop doesn’t smell and the only flies I have are on the dry food and there’s not many. I do get a lot of flies on the FF outside in the run. But they go away when I remove the feed. They are at ground level so at least not bothering me even when they are there.