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

[jillybeansisme]

I clean it 2x - 3x each year. I use the deep litter method. It doesn't take me long to clean it either. I simply open the door and rake it into a wheel barrow.

 

[Ella_michele08]

I clean mine maybe two to four times a year, and it's pretty big

 

[Shelly L]

I clean mine whenever it needs it. Thankfully our chickens are not too messy!

 

[AjB]

Deep clean once a year. Sift the sand once a week.

 

[my spoiled chickens]

My coop is one that doesn't need to be cleaned other than scraping off the poop board but my brooder when it had ducks in it I had to clean it every other day to prevent maggots

 

[Abby3465]

I clean the coop & the run everyday without fail. We live in Florida so heat & poop make for a horrendous smell. Total area, including coop, is only 26'x7' so it isn't difficult to keep clean. We also only have 5 hens so it's pretty easy to keep up with. I'm actually a retired zoo keeper so it's ingrained in my brain to clean daily. I feel like the girls appreciate it.

 

[Ponypoor]

I clean the coop & the run everyday without fail. We live in Florida so heat & poop make for a horrendous smell. Total area, including coop, is only 26'x7' so it isn't difficult to keep clean. We also only have 5 hens so it's pretty easy to keep up with. I'm actually a retired zoo keeper so it's ingrained in my brain to clean daily. I feel like the girls appreciate it.

I hear ya, having horse stalls to clean each day has trained me to clean the hen house daily also. Take me about 5 min, and I know they all appreciate a clean place to sleep.

 

[mingaling]

We do the deep litter method with hemp bedding and only need to sift once or twice a week. It's perfect for us.

 

[Thanson]

I spot clean regularly, but do a deep cleaning monthly. I use Koop Kleen for bedding. The chickens love it.

 

[SoCal Chicken Mama]

My coop is very close to my daughter's bedroom window, and I clean it every day because I don't want it to stink. When I first read my city's ordinance about location, it said the coop has to be 25 ft. from all neighbors, and this is the only spot that is. I decided on coarse sand for the bottom of the coop (which is a run that is under the coop building). The pee just goes down, and I rake the poop out every morning with a child's leaf rake. it's very small, only 40"x70 ". Once a week I spray it with water to wash any lingering things down. The "Upstairs" is where the chickens actually sleep. Since they are so tiny now (3 weeks old), I close that off during the day and they run around below all day. There is a (very) small pet crate in there, where they like to go hide if they hear anything scary, like the gardeners using leaf blowers, and some chicken toys and a flat of "chick's mix" grass, along with their food and water, and a dust bath tub. I only put the "bedding" (shredded paper mixed with hemp) in their actual beds, which are keyboard boxes, lined with the free brown paper that comes in Amazon boxes. It fits perfectly when cut to length. there is one bed in the crate and one "upstairs" under the brooder plate. they don't poop in the beds much, so I just flick out the visible poop and put it out in the sun all day, adding a bit of fresh bedding when needed. When it's time to change the bedding, I just roll up the paper with the bedding in it, and the box is perfectly clean. When the chicks have gone down for the morning, I clean the coop itself. the floor is a tray that can be pulled out, but I have lined it with a machine washable mat that is meant to go under a dog crate or a cat litter box. (Cut to fit). It goes under the bed, which is under the brooder plate and covers the whole floor. So every morning and every night they have a poop free place to start out. We are going to built a run outside the coop which should help with the poop density, and give them more room to forage as they grow.