Coop cleaning, how & how often?

Petuniapigster · Oct 30, 2021

Iluveggers said:
Hi! Just wondering how you clean your coop and how often.

How much pine shavings do you put down on the floor, do you have poop boards (looking to put some in but not everyone is roosting at night yet), what do you use to scoop the poop out (especially when it very much stuck on the floor), and how often do you replace? Do you empty out the whole thing or just clean off the top? I am cleaning out the whole thing each week, but I am wondering if there’s an easier way.

I don’t know how deep litter method will go in the winter as if it’s super cold I don’t want things to take too long to break down. It takes forever for my compost to break down so I am assuming it would turn into a stinky mess.

Would love to hear what works best for you! Thanks!

I clean it in the spring. Rest of the year we scrape off the poop and let it go into the shavings. I usually put a whole bag of shavings when it starts to get low so it stays pretty nice for a while. Once it starts looking nasty ( too may feathers/ poop), we add more shavings. I use the cleaned out shavings in my garden as mulch. I put it in a 30 gallon trash can and let it set out, get rained on etc till summer when it’s ready to go in the garden . ( just have to keep the dogs out of it as they like to eat the chicken poo… ewww! )

NDrew · Oct 30, 2021

Iluveggers said:
Hi! Just wondering how you clean your coop and how often.

How much pine shavings do you put down on the floor, do you have poop boards (looking to put some in but not everyone is roosting at night yet), what do you use to scoop the poop out (especially when it very much stuck on the floor), and how often do you replace? Do you empty out the whole thing or just clean off the top? I am cleaning out the whole thing each week, but I am wondering if there’s an easier way.

I don’t know how deep litter method will go in the winter as if it’s super cold I don’t want things to take too long to break down. It takes forever for my compost to break down so I am assuming it would turn into a stinky mess.

Would love to hear what works best for you! Thanks!

I have a rough cement floor in mine and I do not use shavings. I sweep it out everyday and it takes about 10 minutes. I have 23 chickens and 6 turkeys. I do use DE on the floor sometimes. I have no smell and really no flies in the coop too.

eas2 · Oct 30, 2021

45lk9p459gm-w said:
Just general information: .......

From the center of the roost to the back wall is approximately 16 inches on my boards. The poop board is the width of the 2x4's away since it is attached to them.

Thank you for your measurements, one side is only 6” away!, the other is 8” so no wonder I have endless splats.
I know what I’ll be doing next rainy day. Then I might try lime washing the walls as scrubbing doesn’t get it off…

Sunrise Hollow · Oct 30, 2021

I built my first poop board and loved it. I also cleaned out the poop board about every other to every two days depending on how much was dropped into it. My birds are released to roam free during the day and are shut up at night. At first I didn't have to clean out my coop (floor) unless it was dirty (3-6 mo). I put Demetrius earth down first then straw and hay and just add to it if needed.

I outgrew that coop quickly and had a 10x16 custom shed built for my mixed flock of chickens and ducks. I got to say my chickens are clean and I would not have to change out bedding as often, ducks are pooping machines. I just cleaned out for the first time my shed and it took 5 large yard size black plastic bags to get rid of the old. I have to house my ducks over the winter with the chickens until I get a shed built for them.

I will include my first coop with poop board and then my larger coop with poop board. The only thing I have struggled with is nesting boxes and that is because I have not found any that my hens like. That is still a work in progress.

45lk9p459gm-w · Oct 30, 2021

Sunrise Hollow said:
The only thing I have struggled with is nesting boxes and that is because I have not found any that my hens like. That is still a work in progress.

Birds are strange. Four of mine won’t lay any where other than an old cardboard box with a used nest pad. Now that they’re happy, I’m afraid to move it.

the rest of them only use the center nest of these three.

holisticliving · Oct 31, 2021

We use organic hay in our coop, and after cleaning, I usually add a small sheaf of hay and break it all up and spread it around. Then I break up and add another small sheaf on top about a week later or when it starts to get packed down and smelly with poop (we don't use poop boards). This works well, and I clean it all out generally every 3-4 weeks in the summer, and every 2-3 weeks in the winter when they spend more time inside.

We have a small raised coop, so to clean it out, I just pull the dump cart up to the back doors, open them up, and rake everything straight out into the cart - it only takes about 5 minutes! Then the cart gets dumped in next year's compost pile. One hay bale lasts about 3 months, so it seems pretty efficient.

We use wood shavings topped with hay in the nest boxes, and I clean those out entirely about every 2 months - or on an as-needed basis if one gets really dirty or has a broken/soft egg in it.

hannahshatcheryofficial · Jun 9, 2022

629522 said:
I'm following because things have become less manageable as we add more birds. We have wood floors (storage building) and we put down cheap industrial carpet and then pine shavings. I just made poop hammocks on dowels using drop cloths and they are working but I underestimated volume so I need to adjust my methods. We clean out and replace once or twice a year, usually Spring and Fall. Recently ammonia was high so we put in a mixture of baking soda and flour. Helped immensely.

Carpet is a BIG NO NO!! Any type of porous fabric will absorb ammonia and bacteria and create a breeding ground for all sorts of nasty stuff that you definitely don’t want to deal with! The best coop flooring I’ve seen has been slick surfaces that scrape or wash off easily, like vinyl sheets or plastic squares.

BigBlueHen53 · Jun 9, 2022

hannahshatcheryofficial said:
Carpet is a BIG NO NO!! Any type of porous fabric will absorb ammonia and bacteria and create a breeding ground for all sorts of nasty stuff that you definitely don’t want to deal with! The best coop flooring I’ve seen has been slick surfaces that scrape or wash off easily, like vinyl sheets or plastic squares.

BigBlueHen53 · Jun 9, 2022

I just had the interior of my coop remodeled. Here's how it looks now.

Actually, this was still a work in progress. The poop trays are 16" from front to back and in the final phase all the roosts are 3" above the poop trays, like the one at the back. We lowered the one on the left. The nests are 12" high on the inside but I still need to install a "running board" in front of the nests to make it easier for the birds to access the nests. That will happen this Sunday. I use a slotted spoon type tool for cleaning the trays each morning. The trays contain a mixture of construction sand and Stable Fresh because the feed store was out of PDZ. We use shredded paper on the floor and in the nests; there is much more on the floor now than what you see here. Once we get a good base of shredded paper, we clean it out about once a year.

Happy hen lover · Jun 10, 2022

BigBlueHen53 said:
I just had the interior of my coop remodeled. Here's how it looks now.

View attachment 3142850
Actually, this was still a work in progress. The poop trays are 16" from front to back and in the final phase all the roosts are 3" above the poop trays, like the one at the back. We lowered the one on the left. The nests are 12" high on the inside but I still need to install a "running board" in front of the nests to make it easier for the birds to access the nests. That will happen this Sunday. I use a slotted spoon type tool for cleaning the trays each morning. The trays contain a mixture of construction sand and Stable Fresh because the feed store was out of PDZ. We use shredded paper on the floor and in the nests; there is much more on the floor now than what you see here. Once we get a good base of shredded paper, we clean it out about once a year.

SNOW IN JUNE !? Who knew??

Coop cleaning, how & how often?

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