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

[BantyChooks]

It's not a pleasant part of keeping chickens, but it's one we must all deal with regardless: poop. How often do you clean your coop out? Don't include pens in your answer, just your coop or coops. Do you find it easy or difficult to clean them out? What changes to your coop design or technique would you make to improve the process?

(Check out more Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[DobieLover]

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.

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.

 

[dawg53]

I clean my 4 coops early each morning. What makes easy cleaning is sand. Simply scoop the poop and put it in a bucket and dispose of it. Done.
Other than building coops to withstand strong storms including cat 1 hurricanes, ease of cleaning coops was a priority. It takes me about 30 minutes to clean out coops each morning.

 

[CHlCKEN]

I shockingly enjoy cleaning out the coop. Typically once a week or every other week.

 

[Meri Maura]

Well I wanted 91 chickens, sooo

 

[Ryguy3684]

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.

 

[K0k0shka]

I clean my coop twice a year - once in the spring, and once in the fall. That includes everything - deep clean to take all the bedding out, wiping dust off of surfaces, etc. I don't have poop boards and don't do in-between cleanings. I do deep bedding (dry) with pine shavings and all I do between the biennial cleanings is to occasionally stir it up and sprinkle fresh shavings and PDZ on top when it starts looking poopy, maybe 5 times in half a year. It stays dry and doesn't smell. My roosts are far from the wall so there's no poop to be cleaned off the walls. For some reason my chickens have never perched on top of the besting box, so I haven't had to clean that. It's a very easy setup and I love it!

This is what it looks like soon after the fall deep clean:

This is what the floor looks like currently, about 6 months after the last cleaning. Not too bad. Some poop is visible, but it's all dry and doesn't smell, so I don't care.

 

[EverythingDucks]

Do you mean just tidying up and cleaning areas with lots of poop, or like a deep cleaning?

 

[Meri Maura]

When I clean my chicken house I have to...
~Wear a mask
~Wear boots
~Wear glasses
~Turn on a fan
~Open the windows

Don't even ask what it's like in the 105F summer.

 

[aart]

Poll should allow multiple answers,
because I(and probably others) clean different things at different rates.

What kind of bedding you use may depend on how you manage the manure.
This is about cleaning, but covers my big picture

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.

-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.

-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.

-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).

There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.

That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 7 years.