Tell the truth - how clean is YOUR coop?

[kathyinmo]

I have a droppings board, and I plow threw that every morning. I have a large 12' x 16' coop, and use the deep litter method. I just keep adding more pine shavings, when needed. I knock down the cob webs every once in awhile. No smell, no flies. I LOVE the droppings board.

I did purchase some Oxine, that I plan to use someday, as I heard that bleach does not really work that well.

In the future I plan to paint the roosts with oil based paint, to keep the mites away and ease in cleaning.

 

[ubumartin]

I think my coop is very clean. It is small, a dog house converted to a coop. I have 3 buff orpington's in it. I spot clean it every morning and every evening. I have a dustpan and little broom and I use that to get the poop. I throw in new shavings to replace what I have taken out. I must admit, they are clean girls. If I didn't clean it daily I think it would be a smelly coop! It only takes me a few minutes in the morning. I change all the shavings about every two weeks.

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

I clean my 4x6 coop out every two weeks- to a month. I sweep and scrape out all of the bedding and poop, then spray disinfectant and put more bedding and that's it. I assume that is alright?

 

[janl]

My barn has a cement floor with 2 X 4 roosts. Of course under the roosts, there's a pile of manure that builds up. I spread straw all over the floor about 12 inches thick which gets flattened by the time I clean--twice a year. I've noticed that the manure, as it ages, just dries to a powder and sifts to the bottom, leaving the straw fairly clean. I clean out the straw with a horse stall manure fork and have "dirt" on the floor that goes straight into the garden. It's not smelly and I don't have any bug problems. I use square, plastic horse wormer containers laid on their side for brood boxes after filling them with straw. Only half of the lid is removed so the other half keeps the straw inside.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Reasonably clean. I sift through the counter-top level pine shavings every day and wipe off the roosts. I wash the small waterer and feeder that I keep in there every day, using bleach if it's particularly soiled. Once a week or so I use bleach on the roosts and the ladder. I spend 20-30 minutes a day, but some of that is plant-watering and tidying up the area outside the coop and pen.

I have back problems so I can't bend or sweep so I have to ask DH to take care of the floor. He doesn't clean it out as often as I would, but once every week to ten days, not bad. About once a month he rakes all the leaves out of the pen and replaces it, to give the girls some new stuff to work on.

A few weeks ago I persuaded him to mop the coop floor with a bleach solution, which we'll probably do once every three months or so.

I know it's not absolutely necessary to clean as much or often as I do, but I feel like if it gets away from me it will just be too overwhelming. If it smells, I won't want to go in there, and no one else will, either, so cleaner is better.

 

[TipsyDog]

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[chickenannie]

I didn't read through all the posts, but the Deep Litter Method is what many of us use, where you keep adding litter on top (of the right types) and then only clean it out 2 or 3 times a year. If you have more than a small number of chickens, it is totally impracticle to clean a coop out to the level that many of you are doing.

In fact, there are theories that keeping the correct balance of carbonaceous bedding mixed with litter keeps the smell away and the chickens healthy because the "good bacteria" in the bedding fight away the "bad bacteria". If you disinfect the coop, you kill ALL the bacteria (good and bad) and you disrupt the natural cycle of having good bacteria. Sometimes allowing chickens exposure to germs actually makes them healthier because they develop immunities that don't develop otherwise. Chickens have lived thousands of years scratching in dirt and it seems excessive to me (this is just my opinion) to continually clean and disinfect their coop. Sometimes those cleaning chemicals start to do more harm than good. I'm not advocating a stinky, dirty coop -- I'm saying that it helps to understand the organic method of balancing your mini-ecosystem.

 

[Chickenmaven]

Quote:
If you sweep & mop once a week, that does make you a fanatic.

 

[Chickenmaven]

Oh, and bawkbawkbawk, I plan to show your coop photo to my 17 y.o. to inspire him to make his room look that clean...

Chickenannie - thanks! Some of us will accept that chickens are okay with walking through poo...

Edited for spelling

 

[mmtillman]

With the help of 4x4 sheets of cardboard that hubby gets at work in the warehouse...I am able to clean my coop very easily...I line the floor with the sheets of cardboard...Put down a nice layer of shavings, some StaleDry. Clean coop! And, then, once a week, I fold the sheets of cardboard in half...carry out the poo and dirty litter while still in the cardboard, dump into my compost pile , fold up the sheets and stuff in the barrel for the trash man to pick up each Tuesday!!
ONce every 3-4 months I vacume out the entire thing, scrape the roost off, and brush out the dusty rafters with a broom....
So far , this routine works very well for us ...no scrapping the floor or messing with any poop boards. I do wish, however, that we had lined the floor with vinyl first...maybe this summer we can redo it .....