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

[Rimu Ridge]

I installed "poop boards" (pieces of scrap plywood) yesterday to make this job a lot easier. Deep cleans happen less often but I do enjoy water blasting the hen house out occasionally. The main trick - don't get too close to the walls otherwise you risk high pressure poop splashback!

 

[AmeraucanaChicken]

I don't have to do a lot of cleaning since the new coop we built has slats in the floor which the poop can fall through. (We built it on a trailer.) Of course poop can build up on the boards, but all I'd have to do it knock it through the slats.

 

[hennanny]

I voted twice a year because that's what we did with the coop out at the farm. Complete clean out and replacement of shavings in the spring and again in the fall. We've had the garage coop here in town since June and haven't felt the need to replace the bedding yet (although I do have a bag of pine shavings i keep thinking we should probably add to it) but I also have a poop board under the roost that gets scooped daily whereas the coop at the farm just had deep litter.

we were in the understanding Pine shavings are not good we use straw but yea we are 2 times a year and the cleanings go to the mulch pile

 

[NewcoopNewpoop]

I changed my vote to everyday. I have a litter scoop that i pick up their nighttime droppings with every morning.
I did the deep litter but this method allows for cleaner litter, and i can space out the litter changes significantly.

 

[Mountain Roost]

My (6!) coops are raised off of the ground 3 ft and have wire mesh floors. Once a year all manure is pulled out to the front or sides by homemade rake. Then it is raked onto a ground sled that I pull behind the lawn tractor to distribute to all my apple trees and hazelnuts.

 

[Scooby50]

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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!)

 

[Scooby50]

I use to have pine shavings on the floor of my coop and it was smelly and wet most of the time. Then my husband built me a sand box on wheels that goes under their roost. Boy what a difference! I took out all of the old litter and put down new shavings, slid the sandbox under the roost and it works great. I scoop it once a day and throw the droppings in the trash. I rarely find poop in the shavings and when I occasionally stir them up the coop floor is dry and not smelly. I am so pleased.

 

[ChookaPete]

I read a post recently on social media about clothing to wear while cleaning up chicken poop and the floor of the coop. From reading most of the responses, you'd think it was for a nuclear meltdown in a toxic waste processing plant with a fallen in asbestos roof!

Why do people fuss so much about wearing N95 chemical masks, heavy overalls, Hazmats suits even, and having several showers and being afraid of a bit of dust etc. They get all wound up about a bit of poop stuck to the wall and scrape every trace off the perches with a toothbrush...

A chicken eats dirt. They bathe in dirt. They love napping in the dirt. They poop everywhere, and aren't too fussed with foraging around it.
Why the excessive fussiness then?


Yes I understand that some people have asthma, but honestly I thought it was completely over the top. Is this due to a complete unfamiliarity with farming, or keeping animals in general?

 

[ChaosMom]

I read a post recently on social media about clothing to wear while cleaning up chicken poop and the floor of the coop. From reading most of the responses, you'd think it was for a nuclear meltdown in a toxic waste processing plant with a fallen in asbestos roof!

Why do people fuss so much about wearing N95 chemical masks, heavy overalls, Hazmats suits even, and having several showers and being afraid of a bit of dust etc. They get all wound up about a bit of poop stuck to the wall and scrape every trace off the perches with a toothbrush...

A chicken eats dirt. They bathe in dirt. They love napping in the dirt. They poop everywhere, and aren't too fussed with foraging around it.
Why the excessive fussiness then?


Yes I understand that some people have asthma, but honestly I thought it was completely over the top. Is this due to a complete unfamiliarity with farming, or keeping animals in general?

I wear coop clogs to avoid tracking "matter" into the house, but that's it. Oh, and I wash my hands when I come in.

I feel sorry for these people's children. Are they boiled twice daily to maintain sterility?

 

[SoCal Chicken Mama]

Every day. It took me a while to learn to do it efficiently. There is a wooden house (the bedroom) they sleep in (4 city chickens), on a roost. The whole floor of that is metal, and it slides out for cleaning, but mine doesn't come all the way out because there is a tree in the way. (The tree was there first.) Underneath the coop is a small run which has an earth floor. (the Kitchen). Once I have put fresh water and and food into the kitchen, I open the door and let them come down. While they are eating I get my poop bucket and a little kit for cleaning a fireplace that has a hand brush and a squared off black metal shovel. I remove the roost and put it outside. I don't use any bedding in the coop, just a Walmart pet mat that is meant to go under a cat litter box or dog crate, cut exactly to fit the floor. It's waterproof on the bottom and felt-like on the top. While they are eating I open an outside coop door and fold the mat in three and shake the poop out into the bucket. Then I pull the floor out so that it hangs down (almost to the ground), which causes anything remaining to fall down to the low end, where I sweep it into the bucket. Whatever the broom doesn't get, the square shovel does. Then I spray the metal floor with a homemade daily coop cleaner made of 3/4 witch hazel, 1/4 water, and a couple of essential oils. Some are for repelling bugs and some are just to smell good. I wipe it with a small cloth that has chickens on it (so that I don't use if for anything else.) I lift the lid to the nest boxes and clip on the fan, which I run for about a half hour to dry to floor and remove any remaining odors. (I run the fan all day in ultra hot weather. If there is anything icky in the nest pads I take them out and shake it into the run. The fan keeps the lid up but not far enough to let rain in. Then I take the poop bucket, mat, and cloth to the compost, where I spray the fresh poop off the mat with a jet of water, clean the bucket, and the cloth, and jet spray the roost, which is left to dry outside. I leave the mat and cloth to dry in the sun. They get a fresh one every day, and I wash them in the machine once a week. The coop is off the patio, so the last thing I do is clean off my coop clogs, and clean off the patio while I water the potted plants. I put a fresh mat down in the coop after cleaning (so they will have a warm place to hang out if it's cold, and their feet won't get cold on the way to the nest boxes), and they never poop on it until I put the roost back at night. That all takes about a half hour, including feeding. In the evening before I bring them in from the pasture, I rake up any poop laying around the run, the kitchen, or the poop shelf under the outdoor roost, and push it to the area under that (the bathroom), which has deep hemp bedding. Under 5 minutes. I hand carry them back to the coop before dark, because they are still young enough to think escaping is a good idea. (The've never seen anything get eaten by a predator.) I wasn't able to train them to follow me, but I did train them to come to me when it's time to go back, they get worms the next morning if they all come willingly and I don't have to chase anyone. They usually stand in line and wait for me to scoop them up. The rest of the run is bare dirt because if the bedding is all over they kick it into their water dishes in the run. I also just added a little "garden" area in the run under 1/4 " hardware cloth that has grass (sod) and sections of chicks mix growning in it. They can't get to it to uproot it, but they can eat it when it grows through the wire.