Mucking out the Coop. Wheeeeee!!!

[ARose4Heaven]

I LOVE cleaning my coop. Honest!

I must be half chicken, cause I feel like a kid playing in the sandbox, out there in my muck boots, having a ball with my girls. Today was the beginning of Spring cleaning. 8 - 10 inches of shavings and poo caked down in a heavy soggy mass, and I had just so much fun out there.

My main hen house is divided into 2 sections. Each has a 7 x 9 nesting room with wood floor, and a 15x9 dirt-floored indoor run. This is no small task.

All winter, I shovel the dirty shavings from the nest rooms to the dirt area. Come Spring, I dig, shovel, pitchfork, rake it all out the pop door into the chicken pasture behind.

I am gonna be SO SORE!!!!!!!!!!!! I can feel it already. I only got about 1/2 of it done, but the girls are having a blast playing in that new-found dirt floor!

The satisfaction of finding the nice clean dirt under the crap is so HUGE!


Am I just plain crazy, or does anybody else actually enjoy working in the hen house?

 

[Louise's Country Closet]

You ARE crazy - but so am I!

I love cleaning out the coop too, even if I do complain about it a lot lol. Something about cleaning it all up to make it nice and comfortable again for the girls makes it so much fun!

 

[newfoundland]

My chickens have a small hen house and it has to be cleaned every week or it would get very dirty. I also have ducks in two duck houses, so this is a job my daughter and myself do every Sunday rain or shine. Can't say that I really enjoy it though, but when it is done there is a great feeling of satisfaction!

 

[rancher hicks]

Cleaning is not my favorite job and I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't hurt my back and shoulders. I would like to have an easier way to drap the crap across the yard and dump it though. In the winter it's not an easy job. I do like a clean coop though.

 

[Mattemma]

I would love doing the same if only I had some muck boots.

My slip on shoes always slip off when I am hauling the used bedding all over my yard.Going to stop by goodwill and see if I can snag some boots for cheap. It is going to be 50 for the next 2-3 days so I want to clean the chicken shed. I hate it when I open the door and smell the ammonia. I want a nice place for the girls.

Yea, the hard part is dragging the stuff all over the yard.

 

[terrilhb]

I thought I was the only one. I spent 2 hrs cleaning my coop yesterday. Had my I-pod in and went to town. It looked so pretty and smelled good when I got done. But when I went in this morning to check on everyone did not look so pretty no more. Oh well will have to clean again. LOL

 

[Judy]

I enjoy all the aspects of chicken care, and sitting with them in the coop or yard as well. Nothing odd about it to me!

 

[cheri222]

I cleaned and raked the run yesterday, they track a ton of bedding out over the winter. I am saving the coop for our warmest day-friday. Even though I had some tarping up, some snow blew into the covered run. Now that it has melted it really smelled bad and was starting to compost. I can't wait to get to coop done. It doesn't smell but it sure isn't clean.

 

[old geezer]

...i have 2 medium coops and runs that i tend to regulary ...

...stinky , but i love the time spent with the girls , telling them how pretty they are...

... , and the best chickens in washington cty. ...

...they follow me arround and check out " every single thing i do " and make sure it's up to their specks .. kinda wussy for a big ole guy , but i love it...

:cd:cd:cd

 

[bakerjw]

Tomorrow will be a coop cleaning day for myself as well. I strongly suspect that an installation of a poop board will be implemented under the main roost.

They love it when I am out there with them because it often times means that I have crackers. And the girls love crackers. It is so cute the way they crane their necks way up in the air whining and begging. Almost worse than dogs.