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

[TamaNicole]

Welcome to BYC.

This is my article on Deep Bedding: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

Thanks so much!

 

[Coyoteowl]

View attachment 2583103​

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!)

We use the deep litter method, using straw and the floor covering. It starts out at about 6 inches deep and in a year is about a foot deep. The Hen house smells great (just like chickens, not their poop). I clean off the roost bars every morning while looking for eggs. Well I used to before that dang bobcat ate my flock and left me the one shell-shocked (non-laying) hen

 

[Shezadandy]

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?

Horse stall mats have worked great in our coops and goat houses. No, definitely cannot roll them up (3/4" rubber is heavy!) - but the hold up well to all cleaning efforts and they do add kind of a cushion to the floor. There are thinner lighter versions (1/4") that we use in our nesting boxes as a liner, and as a liner on our poop boards (again, easy to scrape). We do the 'burrito' thing with the nest box liners, but everywhere else our mats are secured into a frame to keep debris from getting under corners.

 

[Ajducklover]

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

Ducks need it to be cleaned more often i think. They are messy birdies

 

[Farmgirl1878]

I’ve been thinking of switching to sand but worried about losing the warmth factor from the pine shavings. I live in KS. Thoughts?

Our Winter temps range from 45° to -15° with high humidity here in Southern Ohio. I have sand in the coop, run, and nestboxes. The girls have plenty of roosts, but sometimes choose to just park it right in the sand. They still dustbathe in both the coop and the run and don’t seem to mind the sand in the nestboxes. I do have two seedling mats that I have put under a layer of sand. The heating mats keep the sand in the nestboxes slightly warmer so the eggs don’t freeze.

I think the key is to keep the sand dry.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

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?

Try a plastic pond liner! You can cut it to fit and they’re inexpensive.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

I have organic cat litter on the poop board, I use a kiddy rake to rake the poop into a bucket, takes me less than a minute a day, I used to have sand, but the vet said it is too much dust and bad for the chickens, I tried regular cat litter, and the chickens started eating it so now it is organic ( may I mention, my chickens are my pets with benefits!) , I deep clean it one or twice a year, that means dragging everything out of the coop, vacuuming it, then scrubbing everything down with water laced with vinegar, then white washing with milk of lime 2 times, letting it all dry in the sun, in the evening, everything goes back inside, fresh hay in the nests, ( I switch it out more than one or twice a year ) then I spray diatomaceous earth ( with a mask) everywhere and the chickens have it “ruined” in one day

 

[ArtsyLady]

I do a deep cleaning with the change in seasons so 3-4 times a year. I have poop boards though that I scoop 2-3 times a week as it just takes 5 minutes.

Same here. A good thorough cleanout quarterly and poop board cleaning and nest box refreshing often.

 

[Uphillfarmswinthrop]

I have a sand floor in my coop, so I scoop up the litter with a cat box litter tool every morning. Works like a charm.

 

[Devorah]

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.

What is elector psp?