What is your coop maintenance routine?

[minou33]

What is everyone's daily/weekly/monthly/yearly routines for coop maintenance?

I am a new chicken mom (my girls are 17 weeks) and was told that chickens are "easy keepers". I am actually finding that not to be the case so much compared to our goats who are definitely easy keepers. I hear that mite/lice prevention is a huge part of having chickens and that sweeping the coop and run out twice a week, which is my current level of maintenance, isn't enough.

I spoke with a woman recently who told me her routine is to clean out water bowls with soap and water twice a day, wear only designated coop shoes that she cleans daily, AND cleaning the entire coop out with bleach DAILY!!! Her oldest chicken is 15 year old! But who can actually commit to that sort of routine (and for 15 years?!!!.. plus I thought bleach in the coop was a no-no).

I'm thinking I need to up my prevention ante.. but I also don't have several hours a day to spend on my 5 girls. What do you all do? I'm thinking I may do a deep clean once a week with soapy water and neem oil, spraying down all the crevices and the roost every week, at least just for the summer months. I know we do have mice in our coop since they live in the barn and there's no way to keep them out of our barn. These girls are turning into a handful and I don't even like eggs all that much!

 

[BantyChooks]

Goodness. I clean out the coop and scrub the roosts down about 3--4 times per year. I don't think I have ever bleached anything; I scrub out the waterers with water and elbow grease alone whenever I note that they seem scummy. I bed my coop with pine shavings/leaves/hay in a sort of dry version of deep litter. My birds free range during the day. I clean out their nesting boxes as they become soiled.

I have had a run-in with lice once, which may have been a pre-existing issue from when I purchased the coop and adult birds. It cleared up after I treated with Permethrin spray. Honestly, I wouldn't sink that much time and effort into such an effort to prevent it that may or may not work. Sure, birds have health problems now and then, as does any other animal, but it is my opinion that if I need to spend half my life attempting to prevent such issues, those birds should be removed from the genetic pool. I prefer to breed for hardiness. And yes, I think that even suspectibility to external parasites depends somewhat on genetics; whether behavioural or otherwise, I don't know.

I haven't had birds for long enough to have any that are 15 years of age, but I had a bird for a while that was 10 years old, when I last saw her. The woman that raised her (and that she later went back to) was the one that taught me how to care for birds, so that 10 year old bird was kept in the same conditions that I describe above.

On the other hand, I have had far more trouble with my goats than I have with my chickens.

 

[RoosterML]

I have poop boards under roost with a layer of PDZ that I sift out about 1 time a week. Add some pine chips to the floor just to freshen things up every couple of weeks. I completely remove and change out all wood chips spring and fall. Dust bathing will helps with lice and mites if you have free range birds. If you noticed the birds have lice treat them with dust.
It’s pretty easy keeping! Keep nesting boxes clean and your eggs will be clean.

 

[minou33]

Whew! That's kind of a relief. I was thinking what did I get into here?! My goats eat pasture or grass hay which is super easy compared to grower feed, layer feed, oyster shells, grit, pellets, crumbles, fermentation, ACV drama with these chickens. And the idea of lice/mites strikes fear in me. In the 5 years that I've had my goats I have never had a single parasite problem. Our vet doesn't even recommend worming them unless they show signs of needing to be wormed. Maybe I will reduce the deep coop cleaning to once a month. That's manageable for me.

 

[minou33]

I have poop boards under roost with a layer of PDZ that I sift out about 1 time a week. Add some pine chips to the floor just to freshen things up every couple of weeks. I completely remove and change out all wood chips spring and fall. Dust bathing will helps with lice and mites if you have free range birds. If you noticed the birds have lice treat them with dust.
It’s pretty easy keeping! Keep nesting boxes clean and your eggs will be clean.

What do you use for poop board and what's PDZ?

 

[briteday]

I've never gone that far with chickens. I always check on the morning and night, collect eggs by noon. We have 5 gallon buckets that feed water nipples (I fill every few days and sometimes I add ice chunks late afternoon if it is really hot) ,triple digits in northern NV. Their food is in a PVC pipe that gets filled weekly. I have straw on the floor of their coop (and nesting boxes) and I only clean that out 3-4 times per year. I usually just replace roosts yearly when I do a good cleaning in Spring. I usually give them some dewormer in the Spring, just preventative. Otherwise, just take care of any messes as they happen but I really don't worry about it much.

 

[BantyChooks]

Whew! That's kind of a relief. I was thinking what did I get into here?! My goats eat pasture or grass hay which is super easy compared to grower feed, layer feed, oyster shells, grit, pellets, crumbles, fermentation, ACV drama with these chickens. And the idea of lice/mites strikes fear in me. In the 5 years that I've had my goats I have never had a single parasite problem. Our vet doesn't even recommend worming them unless they show signs of needing to be wormed. Maybe I will reduce the deep coop cleaning to once a month. That's manageable for me.

Your sensation of being overwhelmed is understandable in the face of all that! I suppose I'm a bit of a traditionalist for feeding, as well. I give my birds regular ol' chick feed, and then all flock or layer when they are adults, depending on whether they are breeding pairs or generic laying birds. I don't bother with fermentation or ACV (or worming, unless they exhibit signs of it.) I find that free ranging does far more for their health than any fancy supplement mixes will.

Note that my rather relaxed approach to such things isn't shared by many others, so this isn't a recommendation, merely sharing my approach.

 

[briteday]

Whew! That's kind of a relief. I was thinking what did I get into here?! My goats eat pasture or grass hay which is super easy compared to grower feed, layer feed, oyster shells, grit, pellets, crumbles, fermentation, ACV drama with these chickens. And the idea of lice/mites strikes fear in me. In the 5 years that I've had my goats I have never had a single parasite problem. Our vet doesn't even recommend worming them unless they show signs of needing to be wormed. Maybe I will reduce the deep coop cleaning to once a month. That's manageable for me.

Oh heck no. Once the birds are all grown up and laying eggs decide if you like crumble or pellets better. Always provide oyster shell on the side. Fresh water at all times. We are going on 15 years with chickens and no problems, plenty of eggs, healthy birds. I've been away from the forum for a while so thinking they are giving ACV and fermented stuff for gut health and parasite prevention? YOu will get just as much out of them and keep them healthy with clean food/water and lots of sunshine.

I think raising chicks is the worst part because they require so much care. I am always happy when they feather out and can go into the coop along with their dust and mess.

When we had a large shed and many birds I provided a heat lamp and supplemental light in the winter since it was a 4-H egglaying project. But now, just for myself, 6-8 birds, smaller coop...none of that.

 

[chickinlittles]

Yeah your story seemed like over kill to me too!
My routine is, clean off dropping boards every day and replace pine shaving=5mins
Clean water daily with terra-cotta foot baths on hot days refreshed maybe twice a day depending on need.5mins
Weekly : add herbs to coop. 15 mins to cut and spread herbs. I use lavender, mint, rosemary and white sage in nest boxes, dropping boards and coop floor. Pests don’t like the herbs and I don’t have any pest issues. I also use a very diluted disinfectant on roosting bars. 5 mins
6 mos: spring and fall, clean out entire coop, clean with very diluted cleaner ( mr clean liquid or dawn dish soap) replace shavings and herbs.
We have goats too and they have a similar kinda schedule.
Hope that helps you some.

 

[Bear1978]

What is everyone's daily/weekly/monthly/yearly routines for coop maintenance?

I am a new chicken mom (my girls are 17 weeks) and was told that chickens are "easy keepers". I am actually finding that not to be the case so much compared to our goats who are definitely easy keepers. I hear that mite/lice prevention is a huge part of having chickens and that sweeping the coop and run out twice a week, which is my current level of maintenance, isn't enough.

I spoke with a woman recently who told me her routine is to clean out water bowls with soap and water twice a day, wear only designated coop shoes that she cleans daily, AND cleaning the entire coop out with bleach DAILY!!! Her oldest chicken is 15 year old! But who can actually commit to that sort of routine (and for 15 years?!!!.. plus I thought bleach in the coop was a no-no).

I'm thinking I need to up my prevention ante.. but I also don't have several hours a day to spend on my 5 girls. What do you all do? I'm thinking I may do a deep clean once a week with soapy water and neem oil, spraying down all the crevices and the roost every week, at least just for the summer months. I know we do have mice in our coop since they live in the barn and there's no way to keep them out of our barn. These girls are turning into a handful and I don't even like eggs all that much!

This lady must have A LOT of time on her hand! If she’s retired and no kids or any other responsibilities then cool for her. But I don’t have the time nor the desire to spend THAT much time and energy on cleaning poop.

I spray out the waterers to clean them whenever I refill them, which is about every other day when it’s really hot outside. I a poop board under my roosts so I use a kitty litter scoop to get the do-do out is the PDZ and to scrape off the roosts. I wear an old glove and pick out the chicken loafs out from the pine shavings on the floor. That process takes place about every day to every other day depending on my schedule. No feed in the coop so I don’t have to worry about that mess.

That takes about 5-10 minutes to do. During that time I usually hand feed the girls some mealworms and let the ones that are really friendly hop up on my arm for a petting session that lasts about 3 minutes then they’re done.

What’s funny is I have one girl who gets in coop with me while I’m cleaning it and watches me and scratches up the shavings while I’m picking the poops out from them. Lol

Basically, you will figure out a routine that will work best for you given your set up, chickens, etc. advice is good but it’s up to you.