Please advise on startinig new flock

[Horse-n-bunny]

Hi Everyone,
Happy spring! I currently have a flock of 10 red stars that are almost 3 years old (maybe more) and have slowed way down on the egg laying thing. We bought 14 new chicks of various breeds and so we are going to process the older flock and start fresh with this new flock. MY QUESTION IS do I need to do anything special as far as cleaning out the coop? do I need to sanitize it or can I just clean it really well and pout some DE down then fresh pine shavings? also, do I need to do anything with the run? i.e. add fresh topsoil or DE so that the old birds poop is not in the soil? Any help in starting with a brand new flock in an already used coop/run is gretaly appreciated... we are looking very forward to the new variety of chcikens and differnet colored eggs

Thanks in advance
Horse

 

[Judy]

DE won't affect the old poop being in the soil, other than to help dry it out. It is, however, very irritating to their (and our) lungs, so please use it sparingly.

If I were going to clean between flocks, I would use a diluted ammonia/water solution. The reason is thst ammonia kills coccci (but bleach does not.) You will never rid your soil of cocci, but you can cut down on the population.

Fine wood as in their dust bathing areas is quite helpful in controlliing lice/mite populations.

 

[Horse-n-bunny]

thank you for the response.. glad to learn about ammonia vs bleach