What is your bedding cleaning routine like?

[gale65]

We're using the pellets and it's not really easy to just pick out where the poop is. Do you just add more on top and mix it up? Pick out just the wet stuff (like around the waterer)? How often do you change it all out?

 

[onthespot]

I usually strip my brooders out on Sunday, and spot clean in between. Sometimes I just add fresh shavings over top of the dirty ones if I am lazy, or it is almost Sunday but not quite. If my brooders get too dirty between, that means I have too many chicks/sq foot and they need a bigger brooder or split the group into two brooder boxes. Speaking of which, I need to go buy a couple brooder lights today, LOL.

 

[Ogress]

I use white wood shavings about 4" deep, and I also have poop boards that I sprinkle with sand and DE under the roosts. I use a dustpan to scrape the poop into a bucket most days. My hen coop floor hardly gets pooped on at all, but my pullets still poop wherever and whenever they want. I clean the pullet bedding out monthly and the hens every other month, though I could go longer because it reamains dry and fairly clean. I do change the nest box material (shredded junk mail) out weekly, not because it needs it, but because I get too much junk mail.

 

[catchthewind]

When I had shavings I found it really hard to clean. I spot cleaned daily, which usually ended up with me getting more shavings than poop. I switched to sand with my second group of chicks and loved it. Spot cleaning was so much easier and the brooder felt and smelled so much cleaner. I didn't have to do a complete clean nearly as often even though I had more chicks in it the second time.