Maintaining the coop

[cluckydog]

Ok so I haven't been a bit laid back with cleaning the coop, but after suffering consequences I've learnt my lesson and plan to work a bit harder at maintainence.
I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on cleaning the coop, so far I plan to:

DAILY:
- Change hay in the laying boxes
- Clean the dropping board
WEEKLY:
- Soak the feeders and waters in diluted dish-washing liquid, scrubbing and rinsing twice
- Remove the perches and scrub in diluted vinegar and likewise scrub coop
- Remove feathers from coop
- Use duster to remove dust

My questions are:

Currently underneath the perches I have placed hay, but is this necessary? The dropping board is removable but with hay I find it difficult to clean. I heard a few places to use sand instead so to clean I just have to sift the sand to remove droppings. Is this good or does anyone have other suggestions?

Is scrubbing the coop with vinegar safe or are there other home remedies I can use? (Parents not willing to buy products) Also how about dish-washing liquid? What else can I use?

What else can I do? I read up somewhere to spray with water using the hose but won't that take a while to dry on wood, especially when I can't put it out in the sun?

Thanks for all advice

 

[silkiechicken]

Sounds like a pretty solid schedule.... I don't have poop boards, just fill the coop with shavings and empty it all once every 3 months or so and scrape the roosts. I have not tried sand (which is likly to get soggy wet and heavy in the PNW) and dislike straw b/c of how it holds moisture and molds easily.

 

[aggiemae]

Though I do sometimes add a handful of bedding I have changed the bedding in the laying boxes twice this year. Once because a hen layed a shell less egg and once during our yearly steam cleaning. I pretty much find that other than in the chicken yard in winter to cut down on mud, using straw make work so I use pine shavings in the nest boxes and sand on the coop floor.

Our hens never go into the coop during the day except to lay but besides that we use sand (stall dry) on the coop floor and it dries out any poop so quickly that non is ever tracked into the nest boxes. Sand is a great medium, besides no odor and few flies it is easy to clean up. I the floor (sand, feather and whatever) using a kitty litter scoop it takes about two minutes to clean our 5x7 coop.

I don't dust but if it's gritty I do a quick vacuum with a shop vac and I wash the windows as needed.

 

[cluckydog]

Thanks again, I just cleaned it today and it was a hard job! My chooks too don't enter their coop during the day, but during my cleaning they got a bit curious and all of a sudden wanted in for a change.

The coop is much nicer now, at the moment we don't have sand or wood chips so I'll have to compromise, at the moment it looks a heap emptier! The sand is only for the inside of their sleeping and nesting 'room' and is completely weather proof so I'm not worrying about it turning damp, but I do have one more issue.

Our coop looks a bit like this:
http://www.thepetpads.co.uk/library/images/PP_NEW_norfolk_labelled.jpg

only rather than having a bottom like that their is a wire mesh, which underneath is dirt. When food spills it goes underneath and I can't remove it, so what can I do about it? The chooks are never really in there, they spend majority of their day in their huge run (which i plan to decorate with plants granted they don't dig 'em up) but when I tried to dig through the spilled feed today it wasn't all that plesant, I'm not sure but at the bottom it sort of had a blueish-white hue which I fear is mould. Feathers and leaves also tend to get caught in there and it's a pain getting them out, especially since we added an extension at the back that used to be the rabbit's pen and I can barely fit, so what can I do to prevent this? I've tried to even out the ground with new soil which also covered most of the left over feed, but that was only really a temporary solution.

Would be entirely removing the mesh be safe? I can close the small slide door to their nesting room so foxes can't get in, and I have a dog to defend from other predators, so will it be safe enough?

Thanks again

 

[happyclucker]

I have the chopped up straw as my liner of the coop, works fine.