greenpeck   Need Chicken coop cleaning tips
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First Post Posted on: 04-10-13 08:10 AM
I just brought in few of my chickens that I had ordered. I was wondering how often I should clean the chicken coop and put new hay..... Any help on this would be appreciated....
annemarie   Re: Need Chicken coop cleaning tips
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Reply #: 1 Posted on: 04-10-13 11:15 PM
I have a rubber matted floor and use wood shavings (pine).  It is very easy to clean. I just hoe it out when ever it gets matted. Only takes me about 15 minuted.
greenpeck   Cleaning chicken poop
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Reply #: 2 Posted on: 04-10-13 11:33 PM

Well annemarie.... I was using hay.. I think I will better switch to rubber matted floor and use wood shavings (pine) that you suggested.

 

The silkies free range during the day and at night they will be inside the coop... The straw bedding inside the coop is mostly piled up with nightly poop.... Can anything be done to easily clean this out...? I wish this cleaning could be made easier so that I can do the morning chores and go for work!!
annemarie   Re: Need Chicken coop cleaning tips
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Reply #: 3 Posted on: 04-17-13 11:10 AM
I thought I had posted this previously but I guess I never submitted, sorry.                                                                        I have used litter (cat) pans under the roosts and that worked out great until the turkeys and Guineas started jumping off the roosts on the edges or them and they started to break. If you try this use rubber boxes instead of hard plastic so if heavy birds jump on them they won't crack & break.
greenpeck   Cleaning chicken coop
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Reply #: 4 Posted on: 04-17-13 06:34 PM

Thanks for your suggestions annemarie.....

 

How about putting 2-3 layer of pine shavings above the matted floor... Will that save time? I mean, if I do so, may be I need to clean only once a week then. This is just my assumption... What do you think?

 

How about dumping the shavings and poo? I am planning to use the dirty shavings rich with chicken poo in my compost pile so I can use it in my veggie garden. Any ideas?
annemarie   Re: Need Chicken coop cleaning tips
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Reply #: 5 Posted on: 04-18-13 10:20 AM
I use about 4 inches of shavings, clean under roosts about 7-10 days when needed. I usually only have to clean out the whole floor about every other month or as needed.
greenpeck   Need Chicken coop cleaning tips
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Reply #: 6 Posted on: 04-18-13 06:20 PM
Well, that sounds GREAT!! What do you do with the dirty shavings?
annemarie   Re: Need Chicken coop cleaning tips
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Reply #: 7 Posted on: 04-19-13 11:51 AM
I put them to compost. But...since they are pine shavings and chicken manure the compost may need amendments. It depends on what you are trying to grow with the compost. You can have soil tested at many ag stores, your local Co-op Ext agency of a garden store.  I also mix in my horse, llama & emu manure along with my kitchen scraps.  On occaision I also put in wood ashes or lime, depends if it needs amending.  Good Luck and I'm glad I could help.
greenpeck   Compost..
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Reply #: 8 Posted on: 04-20-13 05:50 AM

Hey annemarie,

 

I happened to read something just now - chicken poo and pine shavings have different time period for degrading. So, they should be in different compost piles... Is it true!? I was wondering how difficult it would be to separate poo and pine shavings .. It would means loads of work...

annemarie   Re: Need Chicken coop cleaning tips
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Reply #: 9 Posted on: 04-20-13 10:32 AM
That's one reason I said to have soil tested! It's really not that hard to separate the poo. When you clean just under the roosts that will be mostly poo. The shavings in that should be a minimum and degrade rather rapidly with the poo. Next when you clean the whole floor you can keep that separate.  I also forgot to mention that I dust the floor with lime. Good for  compost  and cuts odor.  Also, if you use the pan method it would be very easy to keep them separate.   If you could get horse, llama manure, etc all would degrade much quicker.