Official BYC Poll: How Often Do You Clean Your Coop?

[jspeese]

My coop is 8 x 8 with an attached 320 sq ft run with a top. At the moment I have 14 hens. I built a droppings pit-type roost, which works quite well and is easy to clean out through a trap door on the outside. I rigged a tarp over the nesting boxes that I can simply lower at night to keep hens from nesting and defecating in them and on them. Things usually stay pretty clean inside the coop, although we've been experiencing a prolonged period of miserable rainy weather, so I've had to do a little bit of spot cleaning. I clean the entire coop thoroughly about twice a year. I do limited free-ranging (hawks), which helps some in keeping the run clean. Fortunately it stays dry because it's on a slight slope. I also rake the run occasionally. On a daily basis, I guess I spend about 5-10 minutes cleaning the coop (scraping the poop off the roost, picking up any poop in the bedding, etc.). I clean out the droppings pit every day or every other day, so that the mess doesn't build up and smell. If I do it everyday, it's less than a shovel full.

 

[cinful]

are 'poop hammocks' good?

 

[jspeese]

While I don't exactly use a poop hammock, I think any way of collecting nighttime poop under the roosting area so that it can be easily removed is good. I feel that sanitation is the best way to prevent vermin infestations and disease. It's been my experience that very few vets are able to diagnose and treat poultry diseases, and the bird often needs to be sacrificed in order to do so and diagnosis often takes a long time. Also, medications to treat poultry diseases are often not readily available and need to be ordered. Meanwhile, the disease/infectious agent continues to spread. Furthermore, all vets are expensive. So what I'm trying to say is that an ounce of prevention is well worth a pound of cure. In a lifetime of raising poultry, I've been lucky as far as disease goes. Predators, especially hawks, are by far the worst problem.

 

[Annabellarose]

When you had 7 hens, did you use a regular shovel and did you have to replace the pellets more often? I have 9 birds now and seriously considering using these. Been using litter method with straw for years but had less birds until recently.

I use a cheap pair of metal kitchen tongs that I just leave hanging inside my coop to pick up the poops which I toss into a small pail that I use to carry them to my compost pile EVERY morning after the chickens come down out of the coop and into the run. It takes me less than 5 minutes and one 40 pound bag of wood pellets lasted well over a year with 7 hens. I only emptied out my coop recently because I retired the last batch of hens to my farm across town and I am getting ready to start a new batch of young hens in my coop at home.

 

[Bird Worrier]

are 'poop hammocks' good?

any chance you can post a picture of your poop hammock?

 

[aart]

any chance you can post a picture of your poop hammock?

This is the hammock that @Flash2021 was talking about:

My coop floor bedding only needs changing 2x per year. I use a "poop hammock" under the roosts, so I just have to pull that out and hose it off once a week. There's virtually no poop on the coop floor because of that. Feed and water are in the run, so no spills.

 

[Cryss]

I clean out the coop once a year. Whether it needs it or not!
The poop boards are cleaned every morning. The floor of my coop gets very little poop in the bedding as the birds go out to the run as soon as they come off the roost and wait there for me to release them.
When winter really bears down, they will spend more time hunkered down in the bedding of the coop.View attachment 2583454
I'll be doing a cleaning next month. It'll get hit with a spray down of Elector PSP when I've emptied it and before I bed it down.

I wish we could have voted for more than one choice. I actually voted “every day” and then changed it to “once a year”. Talk about complete opposites!
@DobieLover said exactly what I would say almost word for word! Poop boards with PDZ are the best invention ever!

 

[ForensicNurse]

I clean (deep) once a month or sooner if I smell or see. Everything out, new stuff in. Plastic liners in the coop house roll up with bedding in it like a burrito. Into the cart out to where I want to dump it. Clean plastic goes in, new bedding. Dirty plastic lining goes under the hose outside and then soaks in 10% bleach for a while to disinfect. The run I rake and other areas as needed. I take their grass (extra) that I dump in piles in the run and when they are done with it (a werk or so) take it out in a pile. When they forage they return to those piles to get bugs out and whatever it is that a chicken does.

every month those piles compost in the yard (slo-co). Nice ground cover. No landscaping costs!

 

[GigitheBackyardHerbilist]

I clean out the coop once a year. Whether it needs it or not!
The poop boards are cleaned every morning. The floor of my coop gets very little poop in the bedding as the birds go out to the run as soon as they come off the roost and wait there for me to release them.
When winter really bears down, they will spend more time hunkered down in the bedding of the coop.View attachment 2583454
I'll be doing a cleaning next month. It'll get hit with a spray down of Elector PSP when I've emptied it and before I bed it down.

Yes I clean the poop from every night, the next morning, the bedding weekly, the nesting boxes every couple of days, depending on the poop factor. Lol

 

[Bird Worrier]

I clean (deep) once a month or sooner if I smell or see. Everything out, new stuff in. Plastic liners in the coop house roll up with bedding in it like a burrito. Into the cart out to where I want to dump it. Clean plastic goes in, new bedding. Dirty plastic lining goes under the hose outside and then soaks in 10% bleach for a while to disinfect. The run I rake and other areas as needed. I take their grass (extra) that I dump in piles in the run and when they are done with it (a werk or so) take it out in a pile. When they forage they return to those piles to get bugs out and whatever it is that a chicken does.

every month those piles compost in the yard (slo-co). Nice ground cover. No landscaping costs!

This is really helpful! What kind of plastic liner do you use? Are you talking plastic tarps?
Recently advised to use horse barn mats. I'm not familiar with them but I don't imagine they can be rolled up easily?