Admit it : Raising chickens is fun , but cleaning the cage can be a rough-and-tumble . However , it ’s a necessary part of the chicken keeper ’s job , preventing health trouble and decrease output in the flock . Because I work a couple side jobs in plus to a full - time farming and breeding program , I require a coop - cleaning method that ’s firm and efficient . as luck would have it , there are many style to clean a wimp coop , based on your location , housing and the phone number of birds you keep . Here are some methods you’re able to try on your farm .
1. Hay
Although in Florida , where I live , many chicken coops have scandal floors , I wish to compensate the dirt with barn lime to dry out the ground and belt down bacteria , then add a stratum of hay overtop to denigrate health issues . Hay is easier to pull off than straw and is sportsmanlike and dust - free , unlike pine shaving . Plus , hay is sparing and easy to obtain . Although you ’ll need to change it out every week , it can be ditch straight into the compost bin .
Diatomaceous worldly concern is often used in henhouse to keep pinch at true laurel , but I favour barn lime . Poultry experts recommend against DE because it make respiratory illness in chickens and is harmful to their lung . Barn calcium hydrate , on the other hand , is made of crushed limestone , or calcium carbonate , which aid in the formation of eggshells . Bear in mind , barn lime is unlike from hydrated lime ; hydrated lime should not be used for animals .
To pick the coop , we rake the ground and move the old hay to the composting bin , then rebed with barn lime and fresh hay . We clean the chicken coop every two hebdomad in live , dry weather condition and once a calendar week during the wet season . For a Gallus gallus cage of 100 chickens , it takes us about 1 hour to re - bottom .
2. Dropping Boards
Chickens naturally head to the coop at Nox to roost , so you ’ll typically find a hefty number of droppings waiting for you in the first light . minimise your morning work by placing dropping boards under the roosts . Dropping boards are plastic tray or wooden control board that can easily be installed into your chicken coop by nailing , screwing or just placing them on the reason . You ’ll necessitate to evaluate your coop match the appropriate size dropping board . As an choice , some Gallus gallus custodian build their coops with dropping pans , wooden boxes under the roost to aid in well-to-do killing .
you could bump manure scrapers on the market to clean the dropping boards , but a excess taping knife or spatula can be used or else . To clean , apply the scraper to force all the muck into a bucketful . Voila ! You ’ve clean the hencoop ! Compost the manure and use it as a raw fertilizer in the garden .
3. Removable Roosts
Many coops are constructed with build - in roost , but you could choose for obliterable ones for easier cleaning and disinfecting . Use undiluted distilled acetum or Oxine , an brute - safe ware effective against bacteria , kingdom Fungi and computer virus , for disinfect the roosts and inside the hencoop .
4. Deep Litter Method
For colder climates , the deep litter method is a wonderful way to keep your henhouse ardent and easy to manage . As the name implies , the deep bedding material method acting is a way to appropriate your litter to work up up and compost over a menstruation of time , from a couple months to a whole time of year . As the bedding and manure composts in the pen , it provides warmth to the chickens . For the colder states , the litter can build up the entire wintertime . To start the mysterious litter method , sprinkle b calcium hydroxide to facilitate with odor and wing control . Top with 4 to 6 inch of pine shavings or hay . Every few workweek , stir the litter , contribute more barn slaked lime and fresh shavings or hay to the mix . For natural mite and louse restraint , you may mix in ash once a calendar month .
5. Tarp Method
My protagonist Hope E. Tolda , owner of Fancy Feathers Farm , uses the tarp method on her farm and is able to clean 15 henhouse in less than 1½ hours . lie a tarp on the coop story and top with straw . When the pale yellow need to be changed , turn up the tarp and knock down the manure and drinking straw into the compost pile . press rinse the tarpaulin and disinfect it with acetum or Oxine before rebedding the henhouse .
