Materials Used in Keeping the Coop as Clean As Possible?

[jykmoy]

Am in midst of building a small 4x4 Purina Plan Coop and am anticipating what materials would be best to use in keeping the coop as clean as possible. E.g., someone suggested lining the bottom floor with linoleum. Someone else recommended raising the floor with wire for the poop to fall through on to a collecting board. The Purina Plan does not seem to call for that. I like the Linoleum idea. Someone else has suggested adding the stuff auto mechanics use for the floors of their garage to absorb their oil - its suppose to work wonders. I'd like to add something on top of the linoleum, thick enough so I can just scrape off everything and replace them periodically.

Question: How often should the coop be cleaned? I've read suggestions from several weeks to several months. Which is it?

I'd like to hear from you experienced chick coop owners! Thanks for your replies!

 

[bucky52]

we used linolium,what a waste it is way to slick even with shavings.so now it is covered up with plywood and shavings.

 

[suzeqf]

I have linoleum under my roost only and I clean my coop out about every 2 weeks or so and the reason I only have linoleum under my roost is so I can take it out and hose it off even though it has shavings on top of it my peeps really like to scratch and usually end up uncovering it so sometimes it needs a good hosing down. I've also found that the broom/dustpan combo they have at sam's works great for getting in the corners and the little kid size rakes are lowes work awesome for spreading out shavings. I've sectioned off part of my coop for my polishes and the small broom and rake make cleaning it much easier

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Your cleaning times will relate to how deep your pine shaving litter is. A deep litter will need far less cleaning than only a few inches of shavings would. The other factor is how anal retentive an individual is. Ya know, if it doesn't smell and there are no piles then it doesn't need to be cleaned in my mind but then I'm a lazy slob. We use 4 inches of pine shavings and I shovel out the dirtiest area under roost every month and mix in another small layer then shovel all out every three months or when needed. Winter is important to take off the top layer, and replace to keep humidity down.

There really is no need to line the bottom of the litter. All moisture/dropping is absorbed by the pine shavings. What I did do was lacquer the plywood floor. You could also lacquer up the walls some. Once a year I do a thorough cleaning on a hot day with the hose. As the plywood is sealed with lacquer it doesn't absorb the water and dries quickly.