Sanitizing an old coop

[mrste1984]

Our new house came with a really nice coop. Looks like it has good ventilation, also has a window with a screen that can be opened, there's a people door and a little chicken door with a ramp, nesting boxes that can be accessed from outside, two roosting bars, and a decent sized outdoor run. The fencing for the run needs to be redone and we need to do some major clean up of the entire thing.

Our plan is to spray down the whole coop with a pressure washer to get any gunk off, and we are going to white wash the inside as well.

My question for all you more experienced chicken people is: do you have any suggestions on what we should use for sanitizing the inside of the coop? We don't know the coops history, if there were any diseased birds in there before or not.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sounds great. On the plus side, most bad things will not survive long if there haven't been chickens in there for a while.
A very few things can survive a year in the absence of chickens.
I would clean it out completely as soon as possible. There are other things but a bleach solution should be sufficient.
The most important thing before that is to remove any dirt or feces. You can't wash a turd.
White wash or paint is a great idea. I try to fill any voids in the wood where dirt/dust and pathogens can hide.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree a bleach solution is a good idea. I use a lot of bleach, not for cleaning coops but to sanitize incubators, feeders and especially waterers, and when I butcher chickens for equipment and the general area. Let it sit a while before you rinse it off and let it air out really well before you out chickens in there. Bleach is basic, simple, an effective.

I’m not sure how much actual benefit you will get out of sanitizing it but it sure feels like the right thing to do and I suggest you do it. Anything that might survive without chickens will probably be in the ground and area around the coop as well as in it. You cannot sanitize the universe. The odds are there is nothing really serious there to start with, but cleaning the coop will do what you can.

Welcome to the adventure. It’s a great ride.

 

[mrste1984]

Thanks! Bleach it is then! I'm not sure when chickens were last in there, we moved in October and I know the house was more or less vacant before then. The guy who owned it got a job in Alberta, he came back to Manitoba (where we live) occasionally, and a lot of his stuff was still in the house when we looked at it. But there were no chickens when we first saw it in August.