What's your chicken coop and run maintenance?

[csaylorchickens]

I was just curious on what everyone does for daily, monthly, yearly upkeep of their coop and run? What materials do you use? What preventative measures do you use against bugs, mites, and predators?

I got a prefab coop that he's only four hens max. I really want to get a bigger coop and run but will probably wait till next year.
The coop sits on top of the small run on the bottom that has a swinging open door. I used an old dog gate and cut it in half leading it to undead neath the trampoline. I used thick heavy duty dear guard all around the trampoline and on top of the dog gate. I love in the city kinda so only predators I worry about are cats possums and raccoons. I fire since they are night time predators I'll keep the coop and small run locked down. Haven't had any issues. The prefab coop with small run is very steady with 1/4 inch wire mesh.
I use washed and screened river sand in the coop on the droppings board, under the coop in the small run, and in the section between the run and trampoline. I do this because the river sand is great for dust bathes, I can scoop poop out with kitty litter scoop daily, a and it also contains small pebbles to help provide grit.
I also sprinkle a bit of seven dust in the sand mixture when I first lay it down. I was having trouble with millions of these tiny bugs on the floor of the run and surrounding area called silverfish. Not anymore since I sprinkled seven dust in the sanded areas and around the coop.
I use pine shavings in the nesting boxes with DE sprinkled on the very bottom, the smallest amount. To prevent mites and bugs.
Everyday I remove the chicken poop out of the coop and two small run areas. About every month I go under the trampoline and scoop out the chicken poop in that area.
About every three months I washed the droppings board and rinse it down and air dry it. I also have a

 

[csaylorchickens]

I also have a spray that I use on the girls called poultry spray by mana pro. It helps prevent mites and fleas and I use that once in a while.

Just wondering if there are any other great ideas to help with upkeep? It's not too much work. It takes me ten minutes a day to clean the poop, clean the water, lay out clean pans of water, and fill their food. It gets hot in Cali so I lay down pans of water for the girls to walk in to cool off and it works very well for them. I also fill two trays of ice in the waterer so they have cold water most of the day.

Any other tips would be great and welcomed!

 

[csaylorchickens]

And I wish I could just let the girls free range in the backyard. But tons of neighborhood cats are around and my kids run around in the back yard some times barefoot and chicken poop everywhere would be a disaster! So with trampoline that is 12 x 12 feet and run which is 3x5 and middle run which is 5x4 that's a total of 179 square feet for four hens

 

[Teila]

Howdy csaylorchickens

I have two prefab coops, slightly altered and joined together to make one large coop.

As the floor of the coop is slightly spaced, I do not use anything on the coop floor and just clean up the poops each morning. Once a week I take the floor out and give it a good wash with warm soapy water, rinse, dry in the sun and put back in. With the Australian climate the girls are only ever in the coop to sleep or lay an egg, the rest of their time is spent outside in the run.

I use pest resistant straw in the nest boxes and also dust it weekly with Pestene which is a powder effective against lice, mites and fleas in poulty, dogs, cats etc.

The girls have a dust bath in their run [and a couple in the garden] and I also use the deep litter method in the run.

Once a month I strip the coop down completely and after washing [as per above], I spray with diluted Neem Oil, including the roost.

In the two and half years I have had chickens, I had one mite infestation which was as a result of a visiting bush Turkey and after treating the girls with Pestene, upped the above clean and Neem Oil to weekly for a while and once that infestation was beaten, back to the above. No reinfest since.

PS. That little episode freaked me out!

While the coop and run will keep out predators, I also have neighbourhood dogs and cats which are a worry for free range so I free range my gals supervised. Every afternoon they get a supervised free range and pretty much all day on the weekends while I potter in the garden.

I change their water every morning in winter and morning and afternoon in summer. Once a week I bring the water containers inside and scrub out with warm soapy water and rinse. I also add ACV to their water [ACV is a subject which has raised much debate and probably will continue to do so. For this reason, I will not expand on why I use it unless you would like me to].

Yep, the poop land mines are everywhere but not having bare footed children, not a problem here. We just watch where we are stepping and I sweep the paths each evening but do not worry about those on the grass or in the garden.

As my gals love to sit on the deck with us … gives a whole new meaning to poop deck

We do get some hot days here in Aus and I give my gals watermelon and also add frozen peas and corn to their water; this helps keep the water cool and bobbing for the frozen treats takes their mind off the heat

 

[barneveldrerman]

I don't have much to do but fill the feeders and waterer and clean the poop. One every couple years I repaint the coop and the fence. I also have a mister system so I makesure it works properly. Every month I clean the run for leaves. Also fixing the stuff that breaks like a fence.

Not much work to keep it up. Hope I gave some good info.

 

[junebuggena]

My coop has a dirt floor with about a foot of straw on top. Every other week, I use a pitchfork to scoop out the most soiled parts and scatter a fresh layer of straw. I haven't noticed any smell in the run and it's only about 10 feet from the house. I have really sandy soil in my area that the birds love for dust bathing.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

The coop floor 4-6 inches of pine shavings. I really haven't done much with it, the hens keep it fluffed-up. Come fall I want to shovel all the shavings out, throw them in the run and start with fresh shavings for winter. We have a poop board filled with PDZ, I sift out the poop every or every other day and throw it on the compost pile. Takes maybe 5 minutes.

The run is dirt covered with lawn clippings and straw. This fall we'll also add leaves and the pine shavings from the coop. In the spring I want to shovel out part of that and till it into the garden. The run is covered, so it stays dry and the hens keep it turned. We throw fruit, veggies, sunflower seeds, mealworms etc back there, so they are always scratching and looking for goodies or bugs. If we do have a heavy, blowing rain, I fluff it with a stall fork.

Their dust bath (a large galvanized tub) is also in the run. The ash and peat moss from there gets thrown out and added to the mixture as well.

We have no mites, no flies and no odor. It has been a humid, rainy year and I'm amazed we haven't had any of these issues.

 

[csaylorchickens]

deep liter method for the run and coop? I have heard of this but not sure what it is. I also wonder if deep liter method has more problems with flies and mites and unwanted bugs?

 

[junebuggena]

There will always be flys if there is poop around. The deep litter method attracts earthworms, ants, and all sorts of beetles and other bugs. These little critters are tasty treats for chickens and they turn the litter over and aerate it in their search for goodies.

 

[aart]

Daily:
Morning-
Carry out a gallon jug of water, top off waterers.
Open pop doors about 8am.
Feed is stored in coop shed, top off feeders.
Evening-
Gather eggs and close up pop doors at dark.

Every 2-3 days sift poops off roost boards into bucket for friends compost.

Intermittently toss some dried plant matter into run to offset stink, more often during heavy rain and snow melt season.

1-2 times a year, totally change out pine shavings to my compost.