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

[LorinsEggshells]

This has been my first year doing chickens. I have 10 but it's basically an open area with their sleeping area covered and protected. I never clean it. I'm 67 with major arthritis and just haven't done it. They have all seemed healthy and happy. I do wash my eggs ( I know it's not necessary but I like nice clean eggs) and put them in the fridge to use and to share.

 

[DutchmenSport]

We do a LOT of camping, almost full time. So cleaning the coupe doesn't get done very often. My son takes care of the chickens when we are gone.

I have only 4 chickens (hens). I have a 24 foot long chicken run covered with straw and wood chips on the ground and then a store bought chicken coupe inside the run. There is straw above and of course, straw on the ground level. It's packed full of straw.

So, about every couple days, we pulled out the top straw that has the loose chicken poop on it and simply toss that on the ground. It coupe is small compared to some who have an entire building for a coupe.

In one year, (and that was just about 4 weeks ago), I shoveled and raked everything off the ground and started with fresh new wood chips and straw. The old "stuff" went around the trees and bushes which will further mulch down and eventually get chopped up with the lawn mower and become yard fertilizer as it spreads out. (we live in the country).

Here's a photo of my run and coupe when I rebuilt it with a wooden frame because the store bought aluminum one collapsed after a heavy rain on April 2. The run does not have the chicken wire on it yet in this photo.

 

[Hunlock Creek Chickys]

We've been doing the deep litter method, but our way...full clean outs about 2x's a year, but, we rake the litter, and add barn Lyme and stall dry every now and again. It's been working about 7 months now.

 

[ConvenientHomestead]

I do deep litter and I'll stir everything around about once a month, but I only swap out the shavings twice a year.

 

[GGsHens]

I've used pine shavings in my coop, and I allow the girls to run in my fenced yard 2-3 hours a day from their run. The girls always leave a thick pile in line with their roosts.... So when I let them out, I scoop their poop in the coop and when they get put back in the run, we always clean up the yard of any chicken or dog poop... so everyone lives in a clean environment.

 

[Wisger]

I clean once a week. But I only have 3 chickens and they free range during the day, so there is typically very little to clean. I am currently building a larger coop and I plan to use discarded feed bags under the roosts to help with cleaning, but I probably will still only clean once a week.

 

[Pretendingtowork]

we do the deep litter method with wood shavings, we end up cleaning it out about completely about 3 times a year. But add shavings as needed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I still Deep Litter. Harvest good compost from it once a year or so, and add about 7 cu ft of leaf litter every season.

 

[Corryn]

I clean the roost bars every afternoon. After I push or scrape the poop off the roost, I take a big rake and rake the new poop into the hemp and mix it up. I use the deep litter method with Carolina Coop hemp and it's awesome. It's been a year since I've had chickens and had been using the same hemp bedding for about a year. About two months ago I took out the old hemp and added new. I also go in about every two weeks and rake the hemp from all the corners and give it a good mix with First Saturday Lime. If they left a real runny poop, I'll throw a little lime on it to keep the flies away. Flies are not a problem in my coop and neither is smell. We're also making a new coop because the one my husband built was to his specs, not mine. He said, If you wanna build the coop, then You build it. I did the research and I'm doing what I think is right blah blah blah.... He's not the one cleaning it. After hearing me B* and moan and telling him he should get his a$$ in there and help me because the design is horrible, he got the message lol he's really the best guy ever, just gets cranky like the rest of us Oh, and my bunnies live in there, too. Made a nice coop for them and they always wound up in the chicken coop so we let them move in and do what they want. The chickens used to peck them here and there, but now they're all together and lovin' life. They also have about an acre to wander around in and come in at sunset.

 

[sals_chicks]

I am doing some level of "cleaning" on the daily, but for the most part, I am changing out the bedding every couple months (or as needed) and doing a "deep clean" twice a year in the spring and fall.