What is your coop maintenance routine?

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).
Ridiculous, IMO. Some do all that tho. Herbs are for when you cook them.

Never use any cleaner or even water in coop.
I only clean waterers twice a year as they are closed so don't get dirty.
Check for bugs once a month, permethrin dust or spray if I find any.
-Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.
-Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.

-Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.
-Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).
Good post about mite ID by Lady McCamley:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-chicken-has-mites-now-what.1273674/page-2#post-20483008


-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.
-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.
- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.
-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).
There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.
That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 7 years.
 
Oh my gosh... my coop maintenance is nothing like that! I've had chickens for about three years and have found them very easy to care. I use the deep litter method in the coop with medium pine shavings that I change out once a year in the spring. I do rake/stir the droppings in the coop every couple of days and add a little more pine shavings weekly. When I change out the litter in the spring (which can be close to a foot deep) I leave a couple inches of the old littler on the floor of the coop to mix in with the new pine shavings. The coop has always stayed dry and I have had no problems with mites, lice or flies. I do not have any food or water in the coop. I line the walls of my coop with straw in the winter to offer a bit of insulation during our extreme winters, but I do remove all of it in the spring when I change out the litter. The floor of the attached run has some pine shavings and wood chips from our chipper. I rake up some of the material on the floor of the run in the spring to freshen everything up. I also clean the windows on the coop with a natural cleaner but never bleach. All in all I would say this annual cleaning process takes me about a hour from start to finish.

As far as daily/weekly maintenance goes I use a galvanized double wall water fount and rinse out and change the water every two days... more if it's really hot out. I clean the waterer with soap and water every month or two unless for some reason it has gotten dirty. In the winter I use a heated base like this and I have never had frozen water even at -28 below. I keep this heater in the run lifted up on bricks year-round (unplugged during the summer) and since it elevates the fount off the run floor I've found the water stays much cleaner. I have two galvanized poultry feeders that I fill every 4-5 days as well as a trough for some oyster shells and grit, which I top off when I am adding more food to the feeders. I use a little straw in the nesting boxes and put fresh straw into the boxes at least once a week. I also keep an eye on the roosts and clean them, if needed. This really takes me very little time at all to do.

I have designated boots that I wear into the run but often am wearing my regular shoes when I step into the coop to collect eggs. I only need to put one foot in to reach the farthest box so am careful where I step. That being said, my chickens free range most of the day so I'm always watching where I step and checking the bottoms of my shoes.
 
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 gosh, no. I scoop the poop every morning from the poop boards. Takes 5 minutes, if that. All of my chickens are on all flock and I provide a side of oyster shells for the laying girls. I change their water 2x a day but we're hot here in texas. I clean the entire coop and run every...4 month? Nothing else. Throw out some scratch once a week. Happy girls.

Wanted to add that the only reason I clean the coop often right now is because I have 6 week olds who still arent roosting so they're pooping where they sleep. Once they start roosting and pooping in the poop boards I will go back to cleaning the coop out to 2x a year.

W
 
What do you use for poop board and what's PDZ?
Here’s a couple photos. Pictures are easiest.
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Goodness! I don't clean my house that intensively!

I use deep bedding in the coop, which gets changed every 6-12 weeks when it seems to need it, and deep litter in the run, which gets shoveled out when it gets inconveniently deep.

I wash the waterer when it gets slimy and wash the feeder when it gets dirty -- with ordinary dishsoap and a brush or green scrubbie.

For my new country property where I will have a much larger coop and run my DD bought me a nice set of rubber muck boots to wear inside the run so I don't track poop into the house but to just collect eggs from an outside access nest box I will wear whatever shoes I have handy -- or possibly go barefoot because I often do.

I am thinking of a smock of some kind, however, since I may need to step out and do the morning feed and water check while in my work cloths.

My system, if you can dignify something that simple with the name, is designed to minimize the daily chores so that having chickens remains a joy rather than a thing of drudgery. :)
 
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!
 
Wow, that's overkill. I've only had these particular coop/run/chickens for about 3 months now, so I can't speak long term, but I can say that I have not cleaned anything in those 3 months. And it looks and smells fine. I'm very happy with my choice of bedding materials and the setup, and I think that's what's allowing it to be this low maintenance (this was by design). I have a thick bed of pine shavings in the coop and no poop board. I didn't want to scoop poop every day, that's too much. No problems so far. My roosts are thick branches, so round and nothing sticks to them. The poop falls down and gets mixed in with the shavings when the chickens scratch around in there. I let them out late - around 9-10am, because of complainy neighbors, so they have plenty of time in there to get bored and look for spilled feed among the shavings, stirring everything up. It's very dry and there's no smell. I might throw some fresh shavings on top at some point, but I don't plan on actually cleaning it out until the fall, when I'll scoop everything out and put it on the compost pile.

My run is covered and I have yard waste as the bedding (collected dry leaves from last fall, grass clippings, weeds from the garden, etc.) Same thing as the coop - the chickens stir it up and the poop gets mixed in with it, dries out and doesn't smell. I don't clean it. It doesn't look poopy either. I throw scratch on the ground in the morning and it entertains them for a while, and encourages them to scratch and churn the bedding.

The waterer in the coop is closed with nipples, and I haven't cleaned it yet. Looks clean when I refill it. The waterer in the run is open. I dump the water every night so as not to attract mosquitoes, and rinse it a bit on the spot and refill it in the morning.

So, for the past 3 months, I'd say the only cleaning I've done is the daily rinsing of the outdoor waterer, and even that can be eliminated if you use a closed waterer with nipples (I use an open one only because the chickens love it and prefer it strongly over the nipples, and I want them to get enough water in the heat). I love my low maintenance setup!
 
Goodness! I don't clean my house that intensively!
AMEN to that!
LOL... Dear Heavenly Father... Does this woman have NOTHING else to do!!!!????

I spent about 45 MIN yesterday raking my coop, and I was ticked off it took THAT long! LOL
TOO hot for craziness!
For real though, I have a dirt floor in my coop that is SUPER dry so it dries out poops when they hit the floor. I try to rake under the roosts about once a week, totally rake the whole coop about every 2-3 months. They stir that dirt up so much, poops are usually gone in a few hours. The waterers do get a brush scrub every or every 2 days to knock any dirt off... but thats because their water in in the coop... no panic...its DRY! Every year or so, we will till the dirt with some lime. OH... on occasion, I'll go in and knock down the cobwebs and such... but thats it for summer. In the winter... Im LAZIER! Straw, leaves, grass, some shaving will get thrown down so they don't have to walk on the cold dirt... but they end up tossing that aside to dust bath. Add straw and shavings as needed... all to compost in spring and back to dirt.

I must be the WORST chicken mom...:thumbsup
 
We all have different coops, flocks, management techniques, weather, room, urban versus rural, just so many different things that what works for one doesn't work for another. I have a large walk-in coop with a dirt floor covered with wood shavings, lots of room outside, and weather they can spend all day every day outside. That makes it easy.

In the morning I open the pop door and feed and water them. Late in the afternoon I gather eggs, feed and water. After dark I lock the pop door. That's my daily routine.

I rake off my droppings board when it needs it. If the coop is pretty full and the weather is pretty humid that might be one day a week. When my numbers are way down and weather is pretty dry that might be once every six weeks.

Once every three or four years in the fall I clean out the bedding on the coop floor, spread that in my garden, and till it in. By planting time in the spring it's broken down enough. My method is similar to the Deep Litter method but I keep it too dry for the stuff to compost in place. When I replace the bedding I usually sweep the spider webs down. Not sure why, they are not in the way and those spiders are not poisonous, but it seems the right thing to do.

I use zip ties on their legs to identify them. Every month or so I check to make sure they are not too tight and check for mites and lice. Never found any.

With a different coop and run, higher chicken density, different weather, different management techniques, and many other differences you probably will have to clean more often. But not like you are doing.
 
What is everyone's daily/weekly/monthly/yearly routines for coop maintenance?

These girls are turning into a handful and I don't even like eggs all that much!

I think I was told something similar but understand, I'm in the land of "chicken facilities" (lots of commercial houses)!! Due to the "work load" I went years w/o even considering chickens ( I could have gotten started with a 5 chicks like you clear back in 1993). A horsey friend tried to introduce me to chicken rearing in 2008, but I was totally grossed out by her coop situation (me the person who will check all pony poops to make sure the production is good, the consistency & color "right" - :lau ). When free ranging, her chickens were really beautiful and fun to watch, but coops just grossed me out and the thought of cleaning that - NO WAY. Instead, I was gifted 15 mixed bantams by a friend of an acquaintance at Christmas 2011. For two years, mine free ranged out of a HUGE (to me/us) tin barn - sometimes they roosted at the top of the rafters (more than 16' above) and I'd find piles (and an occasional egg) in the pony's feed buckets in the morning...
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I found BYC in 2013 and we built our first tractor/coop in 2014...

We moved to this 20 acres, our very own property, in January of 2015.

Now, I use a mixture of tractors that are moved across the ground w/ no bedding and only cleaning is the water buckets. The handful of actual coops are all on the ground - the chickens can dig, dust bathe and and "waller" all they want. I do put down a dust box on occasion - mix has a bit of sand, dirt, DE & ash from a wood fire.

I did purchase some chickens that came with a "healthy" dose of scaly leg mites. I followed "BeeKissed" ideas - drenched the birds in DE, then coated their legs with Vaseline (later I switched to veggie oil - easier to lift a bird off the roost and duck their legs into a bucket with oil in it that was then recovered until a few days later when did it again) , got them going on better feed. Got rid of the two wood roosts (they were strung through the wire/CP panels). The roosts went into the compost - haven't seen any more mites. There had been card board as part of a wall - that also got replaced several times until saw no more mites. The top layer of composting litter in their pen was regularly replaced until we saw no more mites. The chickens were probably older than I was told, I had them a couple of years and then each of them just started being "off" and eventually passed with-in a couple of months of each other. Two different equine farm vets thought they were much older than we thought they were. None of the 4 hens ever laid eggs. They were pretty and fun to have - even if they weren't productive. I never really knew what breed they were, either... Here's some pics -

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As you can see, nothing fancy. Here's what that same coop looked like a while later - They were in the one in front. The later occupants have never had mites. There were too many birds in it for the hurricane, but after Florence, they went back to their open tractors - some were processed (the extra roos), some sold, some re-configured by breed into other arrangements. The 2nd pic is the BB (behind barn) Coop #2.

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And here are some pics of those same two coops - with different bedding/DLM.

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We are getting ready to raise these coops, widen them from 8' to 10'. I will re-level the current floors - removing some of the compost to build raised garden beds along the outside of each coop. The length(s) will be about the same - around 100" or a little over 8'. The new bases will be about 12-18" tall - allowing for more material at any one time for DLM (current treated 2x 4-6"s that have rotted out).

If rain blows into the feeders, they get cleaned out - feed gets put out side the coop/pens. We have always had a couple of free ranging chickens (bantam barnyard mixes that have come down from the originals in 2011) - that will go thru wet feed and either pick at it or scratch it into the sandy pastures. Water cans, tubs etc get cleaned as needed. Never bleached them. Knock the rust out (actually no longer have any galvanized waterers), swipe out with a toilet or bottle brush & refill. On 100* days, at least check and fill 1x, usually topped off with cold water a 2nd time.

Remember above - where I stated after Hurricane Florence went through, the birds moved back to their "open runs"? Here were some pics that summer, before the hurricane.

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Umm, what work? The chickens do most of it, thankfully! I DO like not having a lot of wood - possible due to our climate/heat/humidity. We'll see what I do when I widen the coops, I was thinking doing at least partial backs in wood ( or maybe a composite material?). I'd like to not wrap the backs in tarps - that seems to contribute to the tarps getting torn up faster in wind/storms.

We have 2 (of 3) occupied 8x8' coops in the pony pasture by the barn, 4 (of 7) - occupied 8x8 pens/coops behind the house & 6 - 5x8' a-frame tractors in the front yard... Can do all chicken chores, to include moving the tractors, in one hour if don't stop to visit them or sit and watch any... Of course, there's also the pony chores and the duck & rabbit chores, too... Yes, that adds a bit more time, LOL. When I do it all myself, I split it up and do some in the AM before work and some in the PM after work. Also, most feeders are some type of free choice set up - NOT hauling feed to everyone every day, LOL.

Again, our set up is far from fancy, but it has worked for us. When one thing doesn't, we try something else. If it works, we keep it.

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