Need some advice about old barns as coops

[new_to_chickens]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this but I do need some help. We are converting part of an old pole barn into the chicken coop. We are covering up the "holes" in the wall with plywood where necessary and will chicken wire where it is necessary (basically we will use wire along the walls up the the "ceiling" part of the coop...on top of the coop will be some fine mesh netting to keep out overhead pests).

As far as I know there were not any chickens in the barn in recent history, but there were horses. We have some really old hay that we are "mucking" out and plan on turning up the dirt floor before throwing down some wood shavings on the floor. We will cut some windows in for cross-ventilation.

So my question is this: do I need to spray the coop part down with some "poultry friendly" chemicals to kill any pests/germs...or will the chickens be okay. If it is necessary, could you all be so kind as to recommend something? I have ten barred rocks that are about six weeks old...maybe a little older. We plan on putting them out there by next weekend.

Thanks for your help...

 

[Mahonri]

They are going to scratch around in that dirt and any bacteria at the surface will probably be there a foot down, so I don't know how you clean it... Can you put in a linoleum floor? Makes for easy cleanup.

Wish I had a spread big enough HERE to have an old pole barn on it.

 

[new_to_chickens]

Thanks for your reply...I am not sure about putting in a floor...we are doing this as "cheaply" as possible and have mostly used scrap lumber (we rent our house and the land). Don't feel bad about not having an old pole barn...because it is really old!! There are holes in bottom of the barn walls, plus it has cardboard and tarps over the walls on the inside (don't know why)! But it is nice to have!!