Must have supplies for clean coop

[RomeoAlpha]

Yes and no. Mulch is usually less chunky. It might be more convenient in that it can be bought bagged, but wood chips can be way more cost efficient (in my area, they can be gotten for free from tree service companies) and you can get it in larger quantities, provided you have space to store it.



So shavings are NOT my favorite. They're not great for drainage/aeration of deep litter and tend to just hold onto moisture, which is why you see so many people specifically say wood chips.



Is the Elector PSP not working? I've read that it's really good, just costly. So I haven't tried it myself. I used permethrin (powder on chickens, liquid on coop) and it cleared up my mites in a couple of weeks.

Gotcha, I’ll start asking around for wood chips, free would also be awesome!

I think too early to tell. I used it on Wednesday and haven’t inspected them since then since it’s been raining. I read lots of great reviews and yeah for the price I’m hoping it does the trick.

I was just asking what else was suggested in rotation with elector psp, or what others use just for reference.

My chickens also had scaly leg mites so dipped their feet in a bath with diluted psp so hoping that killed the mites.

I have been treating them with Vaseline until the psp finally came in the mail, it seemed to help, but I couldn’t tell if it was killing them.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I am a bit late to the convo here so I only skimmed the post. I wanted to share my story of coop management just because it's a relatively new method I suppose. I switched to Ground (coffee grounds) bedding about two months ago and I am never going back! When I got chickens initially, I only had four. I used the deep composting method with straw, and just turned the straw and added more bedding and the coop always had a nice barn smell. I added 7 more to bring the total to seven and suddenly the stench of the coop was too much. The straw was molding, always wet, despite constant turning and adding more. I switched to pine and added a droppings board lined with sweet PDZ and that helped subtantially with the poop issue, and I was able to kind of scoop any stray piles of poo. After 1-2 months though the pine shavings just turned into crumble and was so dusty, so I was adding more and more to make up for the loss, and even that was starting to smell. When I came across Grounds, I decided to give it a go. I still use pine shavings in the nest boxes though. In two months I've been able to keep out all of the poop, the coop smells lovely, the dust is lessened, and there is no sign of the Grounds breaking down. Its much easier to scoop any stray poop as well. I replenish what is lost by saving and drying my morning grounds, but I imagine in six months I will empty it out to get some fresh Grounds in just for good sanitation. While the upfront cost was higher, so far I've spend a tad less in the long haul. I'd like to add, I considered sand but I thought the weight of the sand could be a problem in the future if I wanted to put in clean sand (again, for sanitation), it's not compostable, and getting good clean sand was a challenge for me as well.

 

[RomeoAlpha]

I am a bit late to the convo here so I only skimmed the post. I wanted to share my story of coop management just because it's a relatively new method I suppose. I switched to Ground (coffee grounds) bedding about two months ago and I am never going back! When I got chickens initially, I only had four. I used the deep composting method with straw, and just turned the straw and added more bedding and the coop always had a nice barn smell. I added 7 more to bring the total to seven and suddenly the stench of the coop was too much. The straw was molding, always wet, despite constant turning and adding more. I switched to pine and added a droppings board lined with sweet PDZ and that helped subtantially with the poop issue, and I was able to kind of scoop any stray piles of poo. After 1-2 months though the pine shavings just turned into crumble and was so dusty, so I was adding more and more to make up for the loss, and even that was starting to smell. When I came across Grounds, I decided to give it a go. I still use pine shavings in the nest boxes though. In two months I've been able to keep out all of the poop, the coop smells lovely, the dust is lessened, and there is no sign of the Grounds breaking down. Its much easier to scoop any stray poop as well. I replenish what is lost by saving and drying my morning grounds, but I imagine in six months I will empty it out to get some fresh Grounds in just for good sanitation. While the upfront cost was higher, so far I've spend a tad less in the long haul. I'd like to add, I considered sand but I thought the weight of the sand could be a problem in the future if I wanted to put in clean sand (again, for sanitation), it's not compostable, and getting good clean sand was a challenge for me as well.

Definitely thanks for talking about this. I’ve recently joined a FB chicken group and that seems to be a hot topic right now is the coffee grounds. I would love to have that smell in there!

I just hope they carry it at my TSC. I’d definitely like to incorporate it in the coop.

Yeah I’ve had 3 so far, so me not being on top of cleaning I was kind of able to get by, but adding the new chickens I really want to be ready for it. Crossing my fingers they have it!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Definitely thanks for talking about this. I’ve recently joined a FB chicken group and that seems to be a hot topic right now is the coffee grounds. I would love to have that smell in there!

I just hope they carry it at my TSC. I’d definitely like to incorporate it in the coop.

Yeah I’ve had 3 so far, so me not being on top of cleaning I was kind of able to get by, but adding the new chickens I really want to be ready for it. Crossing my fingers they have it!

I honestly think I spend less time cleaning poop than I ever have before. It takes me about 1-2 minutes, honestly no more than that, to scoop and remove the poop from the entire coop and I do it daily. No more turning, ever! I don't leave the water in the coop to avoid spills as coffee will mold.

 

[2Old2Crow]

Starbucks and others bag up their used coffee grounds and give it away. You would have to dry it out. I put in my compost. Never heard about coffee grounds ina coop. Interesting.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Starbucks and others bag up their used coffee grounds and give it away. You would have to dry it out. I put in my compost. Never heard about coffee grounds ina coop. Interesting.

If I'm not careful with drying my meager amounts of coffee that I add to the coop, it molds. For me personally I would be overwhelmed at the task of finding an effective way to dry the coffee. But if anyone has a solution, I'd be curious to try! I'm all about reusing old grounds either in the garden or the coop.

 

[RomeoAlpha]

I honestly think I spend less time cleaning poop than I ever have before. It takes me about 1-2 minutes, honestly no more than that, to scoop and remove the poop from the entire coop and I do it daily. No more turning, ever! I don't leave the water in the coop to avoid spills as coffee will mold.

That would be a life saver. I will be going Back to work soon and less time to maintain everything!

The coop we currently have was left over from the previous owners, but really wasn’t the best, so the roost bars are in the run together no real closed coop. We’ll be adding on to the structure and creating a closed area for them to sleep, and it looks like everyone is suggesting food and water go outside the coop in the run.

 

[RomeoAlpha]

Starbucks and others bag up their used coffee grounds and give it away. You would have to dry it out. I put in my compost. Never heard about coffee grounds ina coop. Interesting.

I’m very new to chickens but it’s been the hot topic in the group I joined. I have read the caffeine is not good for the chickens and the brand “Grounds” they sell at TSC has no caffeine. But others did say they dried theirs out from Starbucks no problem.

So I’d do more research about the caffeine. I definitely want to try it if they have it at my local TSC.

 

[2Old2Crow]

Sweep driveway. Spread out the grounds. Let the sun do it’s job. Sweep up grounds. If you sit down wind you can absorb that wonderful aroma.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Sweep driveway. Spread out the grounds. Let the sun do it’s job. Sweep up grounds. If you sit down wind you can absorb that wonderful aroma.

That would be an excellent suggestion if I had a paved drive Haha