Synergize Cleaner / Disinfectant

[Fire-Chicken]

Has anyone used this product for coop housekeeping?

Any pros and cons would be wonderful.

Thanks a bunch!

Fire-chicken
Southwest Florida

 

[DobieLover]

Has anyone used this product for coop housekeeping?

Any pros and cons would be wonderful.

Thanks a bunch!

Fire-chicken
Southwest Florida

I don't think it's a good idea to disinfect a coop if that's even possible with birds still in residence. Just cleaning out the bulk of the poop load daily and vacuuming out the dust accumulation maybe quarterly in a dry, well ventilate, not over crowded coop is all that is necessary for coop-keeping.

 

[Fire-Chicken]

Thank you for that, great points.

I may have been remiss by not saying that I would use this product in the coop (if I so decide to try it) when the gals are out free-ranging for a few hours, as I do a routine maybe even deep cleaning.

Do you or anyone else use this product (Synergize) ?
What disinfectant, if any, do you use?

Thanks again!
Fire- chicken

 

[aart]

Just cleaning out the bulk of the poop load daily and vacuuming out the dust accumulation maybe quarterly in a dry, well ventilate, not over crowded coop is all that is necessary for coop-keeping.

This^^^
No reason to disinfect a coop unless you've had serious disease in your flock.

Why are you needing to disinfect @Fire-Chicken ?

 

[Fire-Chicken]

Well, I ask simply because I don’t know, respectfully.

In south Florida, never the less the rest of the State, we live in a swamp and don’t have the change of seasons like they do in other parts of the US, to assist with freezing out (or dormancy) of the bugs/cooties.

With my previous coop, about 8 years ago, I did a deep(er) clean about every other month. I used a very mild bleach solution to disinfect the coop, after a dry cleaning (sweep/scrape/vacuum), while the girls were out free ranging. Back then, I had almost no health issues with my flock of six.

Now, we have a flock of 10. They are soon to head out to their permanent coop/pen. It appears that some “chicken tenders” like myself, do a thorough cleaning more often than those whom prefer a deep litter method. Both seem to have their pros and cons.

It just seems to me that us Floridians need to be more aggressive with the worms/fleas/ticks/cooties. Am I correct? Again, respectfully, to yourself and the rest of the audience, is this good housekeeping or way overkill?

We have some beautiful chickens this go-around and would like to take good care of them in the sense of prevention...like anyone really anticipates chasing illnesses.

In case of need, we have (all hens):
2 Swedish Flowers
2 Wellsummers
2 Wyandottes
2 Speckled Sussex
1 Cream Legbar
1 Olive Egger

Thanks for your knowledge, input, and experience.

Fire-chicken

 

[aart]

It just seems to me that us Floridians need to be more aggressive with the worms/fleas/ticks/cooties. Am I correct?

Yes, it seems southerners need to be more vigilant about external(insects) and internal(worms) parasites. Everyone's regimes are different.
I'll tag a couple of the experienced Floridians I can think off the top of my head.
@dawg53 @cmom

 

[dawg53]

Well, I ask simply because I don’t know, respectfully.

In south Florida, never the less the rest of the State, we live in a swamp and don’t have the change of seasons like they do in other parts of the US, to assist with freezing out (or dormancy) of the bugs/cooties.

With my previous coop, about 8 years ago, I did a deep(er) clean about every other month. I used a very mild bleach solution to disinfect the coop, after a dry cleaning (sweep/scrape/vacuum), while the girls were out free ranging. Back then, I had almost no health issues with my flock of six.

Now, we have a flock of 10. They are soon to head out to their permanent coop/pen. It appears that some “chicken tenders” like myself, do a thorough cleaning more often than those whom prefer a deep litter method. Both seem to have their pros and cons.

It just seems to me that us Floridians need to be more aggressive with the worms/fleas/ticks/cooties. Am I correct? Again, respectfully, to yourself and the rest of the audience, is this good housekeeping or way overkill?

We have some beautiful chickens this go-around and would like to take good care of them in the sense of prevention...like anyone really anticipates chasing illnesses.

In case of need, we have (all hens):
2 Swedish Flowers
2 Wellsummers
2 Wyandottes
2 Speckled Sussex
1 Cream Legbar
1 Olive Egger

Thanks for your knowledge, input, and experience.

Fire-chicken

I have 21 chickens including 3 roosters, and 4 pens. Keep doing what you're doing. You have to be aggressive in our environment. Deep litter doesnt work down here and you need to keep everything as dry as possible. Whether people know it or not, deep litter is a hot bed for capillary worms to flourish which can be deadly to chickens. We live in the swamp north of Glen St Mary, very close to the Okefenokee swamp and St Mary's river is just up the road abit. I just got through worming my birds the other day. I use sand in the pens and coops because sand dries quicker than dirt and doesnt run off or cause nasty puddles. It's easier to scoop poop and helps deter insects and parasites. Think beach.

Last week we had a nice break from the rains we've been having all summer. I was able to clean all the coops top to bottom including all the fans and refresh the sand in the coops and pens. Bleach water is my go to cleaner/disinfectant. The only bad thing about sand is that it eventually gets beat down into the ground and needs refreshing about every 6 months.

Due to the flooding rains, rodents invaded my pens early last month. It took 3 weeks to get rid of them and I still set out poison baits to kill them just in case. I use 1/4" hardware cloth on the lower half on all the pens and field fence as apron on the ground to deter predators from digging into the pens. However, the rodents dug tunnels through the field fence and tunneled into the pens. They also climbed up the hardware cloth and went through the 1" chicken wire.

Ammonia soaked rags hung on the outside of pens deterred the rodents 100%, but didnt get rid of them permanently. Rat traps and glue traps didnt work. Bait boxes with 3 different types of poison bait did work. I also put out twelve 2" PVC pipes 24 inches long and put bait in them around the outside perimeter of the pens.
@cmom has battled rodents as well.

@Fire-Chicken Keep up the good work and you'll be fine.

 

[cmom]

I use the rat bait stations with poison. I had a coop that was infested. When I renovated it dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. They had built nests in the ceiling and wall that I took out. I tried a lot of different things. I finally bought some rat bait boxes that only the rats could get into and put them in the barn which is behind the coops. The rats didn't seem to care for the bait that came with the bait stations but did like the bait I got from the feed store down the road. I had noticed some tunnels around the coops which I'm sure were made by the rats. I didn't find any dead rats laying around so I assume they went into their tunnels and died. The baits haven't been touched in quite awhile and I haven't seen any signs of the rats. This is what I used. The bait station has a little window above the bait so I can check it daily.

 

[dawg53]

@cmom I had decent success with the Tomcat and Ramik baits. However when you recommended "Just One Bite," I went and bought a box. The results were excellent, better than the Tomcat and Ramik. Heck, the day after I set the bait out, I accidentally ran over a dead rat with my lawn tractor next to the carport pen. I use sand blades on the mower and it chopped up the rat real good! I got the 'Just One Bite' at a hardware store in town.

 

[cmom]

I was lucky, I didn't find any dead rats but there were tunnels around the coops and I think the rats went into the tunnels and died.