When To Clean

[Beekissed]

I'm in the DL camp and only clean out twice a year, if that. I never wash down anything in my coop, though I do knock dried cookies off some corners and surfaces, sweep down some cobwebs. Washing down to what ends? Its chicken poop and dust....they will make more immediately. Old or new, the dirt there never changes...same ol' stuff. A good immune system develops when exposed to natural environmental pathogens...a too clean environment isn't always a good thing.

Of course, my chickens don't spend a lot of time in the coop like folks who have a run, so mine may be different. I never have bad smells, illness in the flock or dampness problems. My coop is VERY open air.

 

[User66184]

Little Reminder,



Dont Use Ceadar Shavings!!

 

[gjfarm]

Twice a year for me. In the spring everything goes in to the wheelbarrow and out to the garden. Late fall just as the weather is turning cold, since they do spend more time inside during the winter. I usually use straw since that is what I have for the other livestock, but may invest in some pine shavings since it does seem to keep the coop 'sweeter'.

 

[GrandmaAnn]

We do a major cleaning in the spring and again in the fall. We kick the chickens out for a day first thing in the morning and shut the door on them. Then, we clean from top to bottom and repaint if needed. We use whatever color paint we have leftover. I like to get everything cleaned out so that I can look for any holes rodents have made and repair them. (We usually fill them with cement, so eventually our coop will be all cement

) After the fall cleaning, we also get the coop ready for winter.

That is when we have only egg layers. When we have CornishX, we do a major cleaning at least once a week because they poop SO much!

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Here is why I like dropping boards. Granted, I only have 6.5 birds right now (bantam roo only counts half...lol), but it literally takes me a minute or less to clean during spring, summer, fall. I keep my dropping bucket behind my coop w/a plastic putty knife sitting inside it. I pick it up, go inside and do a quick scraping into the bucket, and take the bucket back outside. I use to grab up a handful or two of bedding off the floor and sprinkle about up there, but I've quit doing that this summer. Some do/some don't. Every few days I empty the bucket into my compost barrel. As a result, there's hardly ever any poop in my coop bedding. Now over the winter months, my bedding does get dirtier, as the girls are inside a lot more, and not just on the roosts. So I do a quick poop pickup from the bedding as well through those months.
Here's just one example of a dropping board; there are many variations.

 

[math ace]

I use hay on the ground in our coop. It stays dry except for their nightly droppings. One - two times a week, I go in the coop with a pitch fork and remove the hay with droppings. I do it more frequently if I am seeing a lot of flies. . . . We spread the hay with droppings in the yard where there are Bald spots or we put it in our compost pile for next seasons garden. At the same time, we use the pitch fork to scrap perches and poop boards or any other piles we see in the coop. Then, I re-hay the ground under the porch. IT takes 10 - 15 minutes to do this.

Once a month, I remove the hay and then take a water hose in the coop and BLAST away. Let the ground dry and later that day re-hay the ground under the perch. This takes an extra 10 minutes to do.

Twice yearly, I go after the inside of the coop with chemicals. I usually worm the birds during the same week.
I remove the hay with poop. Hit the inside of the coop with a water hose blast. Then I either use bleach (4 ounces to 1 gallon of water) in a pump up sprayer and spray everthing. When it drys, a couple of hours later, I come back and hit the walls, perch, nesting boxes, etc. with Adams flea and tick PLUS spray. This has a growth inhibitor for long lasting insect control. I try to do this in April and September. I JUST did it today. Tomorrow, I will worm everyone with wazine. I will also treat /inspect my birds for signs of lice, mites, etc.