Question Looking for info on cleaning coops

[Jonmarcus]

Good morning

Just a general question...how often do people clean coops? Should it be a daily, weekly, monthly thing? Are there some things I should keep in mind about coops?

Thanks

[WLLady]

depends on what is IN your coop ;-P
if you do deep litter methods, commonly it's every 4-6 months. if you keep minimal shavings then more often. if they get wet, more often. if there are fewer birds, less often....i clean out my 8x12 (4 bags of shavings and they house my grow outs) every 6 weeks....my pens up in the barn with 4-5 birds each are good for about 8-10 weeks. My turkey pens (16x10 with 3 birds) are good for about 4 months.....it really depends.
boards or bins under the roosts will save you a lot of time cleaning, they'll catch the night time s and are easily taken out and hosed off. also, raise your waterer out of your bedding so that there's less wet bedding....

[Jonmarcus]

Hey WLLady

I am a fairly new poultry farmer. Someone told me that it was okay to use sand in the pens and that it was also good for their digestive systems. Do you do small regular cleaning daily? and then a full clean every 4-6 months?

Thanks

[Ontario Chick]

You will get as many answers as there are poultry keepers I think.
We use drop bins under the roosts, so not much droppings in the actual bedding, deep straw bedding in the winter, muck out in the spring and replace with wood shavings for summer, fall start adding straw to build up the depth and so on and so on.
The bins get emptied when about 3/4 full otherwise they get too heavy, about ev very 3-4 month.

[WLLady]

Yep oc is right on. Everyone is different. I do not use sand because i cannot keep it dry....and my pens get a total clean out every few months or when they are wet or if they have kicked all the shavings out or they get bad, or if theres spilled water or....i really dont have a set schedule, but if i am putting new birds in or a new set of chicks etc everything is cleaned out and disinfected before the new birds go in.

[Ontario Chick]

if i am putting new birds in or a new set of chicks etc everything is cleaned out and disinfected before the new birds go in.

yup that's an important one I skipped, clean down to rafters before new chicks or birds come in.

[KimChick]

Our layers have a coop with a floor that is a pull out tray, and laying boxes that are accessible from the outside and is removable. To clean, I remove the laying box, pull out the tray, use a hand rake and dust tray (that thing that comes with a hand sweeper brush). Every 3-4 days or so, or when I see big clumps or a build up, I clean. Some times when I have removed all of the shavings, I sprinkle diatomaceous earth first.
For me, it's a visual and olfactory thing.