Paint color, cleaning, and nest lid ??s

[jennyinvermont]

We made MAJOR progress on our little coop but still lots of small things to do. A few questions:
- paint color - can I see your old dirty white coops? In the plan pics I bought, the white coops all look the cutest, but I'm wondering if it will look disgusting in a year? Our house is blue so I feel like I have to go white, navy, or maybe gray. I can't have it clash with the house! (Added one pic of our house color).
- cleaning - in reading these posts I'm realizing people are WAAAYYY cleaner than me. I had 3 hens in brooklyn and basically never cleaned the coop besides changing bedding. IT didn't smell too bad and they were healthy for the 5 years I had them, BUT we did have tons of flies which was gross. I'm reading here people cleaning every day like a litter box!?!? I'm going to look into a roost "hammock". Should I seal the plywood floor? Or paint it? And how do you deal with cleaning the run (dirt/grass floor)? And the free range parts of yard? The girls (probably 6-9) will be about 30 feet from the house, but I don't want flies and a smelly yard. Also, what do you do with all the poop? We have a compost bin but I feel like it will get filled with smelly poop way too fast if we put it all in there.
- exterior nest box lid - how do you waterproof these things? this is one of the detaisl we didn't really finish yet, but I have no idea how we'll actually get it sealed well, able to lift, and not drop water into the boxes. I'm realizing I'm kind of hating this part of the design. It's also about 50 lbs. I feel like I'm gonna end up just going insdie to get the eggs. You can see how it's just sitting there for now. (We're putting metal ont he roof and it's covered in a tarp for now).

 

[Krugerrand]

If you can, I'd try and match the blue of your house with white trim.

We're building our 1st coop now. I couldn't figure out how to water proof a top lid, so I'm planning on a front drop down.

 

[bikerchix]

we used water seal on the top of our nest box lids with flex seal tape on the hinged side so water doesn't run in when it's opened.

 

[rosemarythyme]

And how do you deal with cleaning the run (dirt/grass floor)? And the free range parts of yard? The girls (probably 6-9) will be about 30 feet from the house, but I don't want flies and a smelly yard. Also, what do you do with all the poop? We have a compost bin but I feel like it will get filled with smelly poop way too fast if we put it all in there.

I use a dog poop scooper and just scoop up the obvious poops in the run (I use deep litter though). All the poop goes in my compost bin with plenty of dried leaves and kitchen scraps and garden trimmings - yeah we get some flies but it's not too bad considering the sheer amount of poop in there. Free range area, well... good luck, you're going to have poops around there no matter what. I only let mine out for limited periods of time and when I do, I follow behind them with a poop scooper.

 

[3KillerBs]

in reading these posts I'm realizing people are WAAAYYY cleaner than me. I had 3 hens in brooklyn and basically never cleaned the coop besides changing bedding. IT didn't smell too bad and they were healthy for the 5 years I had them, BUT we did have tons of flies which was gross.

Check out my article on Deep Bedding in a Small Coop.

I don't do the poop-scooping thing and never have problems with flies. I attribute this to the dryness of the deep bedding in my extremely-well-ventilated coop. If the poop dries out right away the fly maggots can't live.

how do you waterproof these things?

That is one of the major drawbacks of this style of nestbox -- that joint is nearly impossible to waterproof, even with flashing and the best possible construction skills.

The best you can do is to have enough roof overhang above it that rain never falls there.