Please help! Chicken coop nightmare

[jahra]

We purchased a farm with a small horse barn.
In the back is a small building which was used by
the first owner for raising chickens.

The coop is an unsightly mess, looks like it
has never been cleaned.

What is the best way to clean an old coop and
how? What products do I need to spruce it up.

Has anyone tackled a project like this?

I was planning to turn it into a potting shed

Thanks so much for any suggestions.

Thanks for letting me be a guest on your
site!

 

[MissPrissy]

My poultry barn was built in 1915. For the 10 years previous to our purchasing this place the previous owners used it as a catch all junk building (you wouldn't believe the garbage and filth, yuck) as well as left the doors open so that their mishap poor creatures of the goat, sheep, and pony variety wandered in and out at will. When we purchased the farm we required that the buildings be totally emptied. We didn't want to have to haul their junk to the dump. And so they did clean them out. But they didn't 'clean' them in other other way shape or form.

When we finally got around to having the energy to even think about any type of livestock we had to do some major cleaning. We had to shovel out tons of decade old poop from goats and sheep. We used a pressure washer and cleaned every room top to bottom making sure all poop(or as much as humanly possible) and other stuff was powered away. We used a standard disinfectant cleaner.

After the rooms where clean, we left them open exposed to clean air and lots of sunshine. We mixed a heavy strength mix of bleach and water and used a pressure sprayer to soak down every inch of the walls, floors, roosts, nest boxes, feeders, etc. We then let that dry leaving the barn doors open so that good ventilation and sunshine helped to air it out.

It was a good several weeks after that we began to build a layer of deep litter on the floors and a very good dusting of food grade DE. About 2 weeks later we moved the first of our young poultry stock into their new home.

We haven't had any problems with anyone being sick with illness or disease.

We are very sure we killed whatever germs could have been laying in wait under all of the poop for so long a time. While I am thinking about it you might want to get a few of those face masks to wear when cleaning out that barn incase of any air born illness that you could easily inhale and cause a respiratory infection in yourself.

Good luck. I have been where you are and know the job you are facing. I'll send good vibes your way.

 

[rooster-red]

If you're not going to be housing chickens in it any time soon, bleach and water is fine, will kill all the germs.

Sure you don't want to join us in our addiction?

 

[jahra]

Thanks so much to MissPrissy and
rooster-red for the replies !

We will tackle this project in the spring--

busy staining and painting the barn.

To rooster-red --thanks for the invite!
Do wild turkeys count?

We have four
who have adopted our pasture.

Your site is informative and has wonderful members-
I just may hang around a bit

Thanks so much again!

Jahra

 

[TundraChick]

Ah Jahra

Chickens are contagious round here..stay too long and you'll catch "chicken fever"!

 

[nccatnip]

Oh brother, I can relate. When I bought my farm, tons of junk had been left all over the place. The chicken coop had been built in 1900, full of all kind of clutter and tons of old straw, at least 5 years old.
On Freecycle.com, I noticed a post for someone wanting old hay and straw for an organic farm. What a stroke of luck. The guy came and cleaned out 5 truck loads of old hay and straw from the coop and barn and straightened everything up before he left. I only had to put hardward cloth over the windows, add feeders and waterers and I was good to go in the coop.
I have got several dumptruck loads of stuff hauled away free by letting guys take stuff for scrap metal in exchange for emptying everything out.

 

[homecatmom]

Quote:
The face mask comment is very important. One of my neighbors purchased a home that had an aviary for finches in the yard. He got out there with a shovel and trash cans etc and spent the weekend cleaning. He spent the following week in intensive care with a respitory problem. Better safe than sorry!
Cathy