I've had chickens for all of four days, and wonder how/how frequently I should clean the coop. I had an "extra part" after building my coop from a kit, which I realized was the roosting bar. I installed that yesterday (after three days) and the chickens seem to be using it. Prior to that, they mostly laid in the bedding, which is straw. The straw sits on a board, which is removable. However, when I try to remove the board, the straw bunches up and prevents me from removing it. See the attached photo. What's the best way for me to keep this coop clean?
How many birds do you have? It depends on how clean you want to keep it. If you keep using straw, you can just pull it all out each week and putting new in. Straw is ok for the nest box but pine shavings or sand are better options for bedding on the coop floor. Sand can be sifted with a litter box type scoop. Shavings can be deeper and will soak up the moisture in the feces. I only clean mine every few months by completely removing shavings and putting in new.
I have a similar design housing two chickens and use a thin layer of pine shavings to soak up the moisture. I empty out weekly into compost pile to keep coop clean. I also use the pine shavings in the nesting box and clean them out monthly. A three foot whisk broom works well to aid the job, get one thats no wider than the poop tray slot so you can do a proper cleaning.
Bin the straw and replace the floor with 25-50mm hardware cloth. The birds will be a lot healthier from the extra ventilation and you simply just need to move the coop every few days then clean up if necessary afterward These two don't have floors at all just Galvanized mesh
