Chicken House Cleaning?-maintenance-supplies

I would like to know what others do regarding keeping their chicken houses clean; how often do they sanitize waterers, feeders. Vaccum the coop? (i wouldn't) what sort of litter they use and what sort of nesting box materials they use. How often they scrape the poop boards, are poop boards just bare, or is there litter on the poop boards..
just hammer me with all of your stuff! 

Supplies: Dust mask, broom, shovel, feather duster. Use as needed.

Restock with: cedar shavings on floor and in nest boxes. Nest boxes also lined with indoor/outdoor carpeting, rubber side up, to prevent eggs from thunking on plywood bottom and breaking, since the silly birds insist on scratching out all the shavings.
- blow dust off of No Pest strip, nab a passing bird and do butt check for crawlers. No crawlers? The No Pest strip is still working.

-since area under roost is edged with a board, making a mostly contained poo pit, where most of the droppings are, that is the only area I shovel out. Picture a sandbox full of chicken poo. Then I shovel the dry but slightly used bedding from the rest of the floor into the poo pit under the roost. I top up the main floor area with fresh cedar. This way I double use all shavings. Once on main floor and then into poo pit and then out into pile. If there was no edge board around the poo zone the birds would scratch it all over and the mess would spread. The edge board keeps it pretty contained, reducing clean time.

I use shavings for litter on the floor. My floor is dirt. I have had chickens since June and I haven't had to clean it yet, thanks to my fantastic POOP TRAY!

Poop tray:
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Basically, it's also a giant sandbox, only it's above the ground (giving the chickens more clean floor space to run around), and instead of shavings or sand, mine is filled with a product called Stall Dry. It draws the moisture out of the chicken poop and dries them up, so there's no ammonia smell in the air in my coop. I scoop the poop up as needed with a kitty litter scoop - once a week or so.

It's actually a little dry in my coop, I may have to sprinkle water around on the floor to get it just right. Or put more chickens in there to poop on the floor. Heehee.

I use nipple waterers:
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I never have to scrub waterers, I just pitch the stale water out the door and refill the pails as needed.

I sanitize feeders and waterers for each new hatch of chicks, but otherwise, no. I want my chickens to be able to withstand normal germs. If I had a sickness go through the coop, I would certainly sanitize the crap out of everything, though.

I have shavings in my nest boxes.

I have a no-pest strip hanging, and I treat the chickens with Eprinex (for worms) and Frontline (for creepy crawlies) once per season. New chickens are treated before they go into the general population.

For cleaning, I just sweep the dust off of the horizontal surfaces, and would use a shavings fork to pitch out the old bedding. I am wanting to build up to the deep litter method, though, so there is minimal pitching of old bedding. I need to add some peat moss and straw to the bedding, but am still working on other areas of the coop, so that can wait a bit. Need hubby to bring me the core of a straw bale when he starts bedding shelters.

Restock with: cedar shavings on floor and in nest boxes. Nest boxes also lined with indoor/outdoor carpeting, rubber side up, to prevent eggs from thunking on plywood bottom and breaking, since the silly birds insist on scratching out all the shavings.
- blow dust off of No Pest strip, nab a passing bird and do butt check for crawlers. No crawlers? The No Pest strip is still working.


um...i was told that cedar shavings are bad-bad-bad.  resins are harmful to birds, can cause respiratory illness ?
wish i knew how you others use the "Quote" function

Big rock, I have heard the same thing about cedar shavings. Uno seems to have good success with them, though.

Pine shavings are what is available here, in big compressed bags, so that's what I use. If I wanted cedar, I'd have to get itty bitty bags from the pet store.

[quote="authenticfarm"]mine is filled with a product called Stall Dry. quote]

how much stall dry do you toss in there? it looks like it could be quite heavy-your poop tray

I can get a load of cedar shavings for 100.00 less than the fir/spruce and pine mix
Gosh...am i going to have to open another thread about shavings....trying to be so polite

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Big Rock I'm so glad you asked these things, I am wondering the same stuff.  I don't want to hijack  -  I saw some nipple waterers today, they look fabulous but I didn't have long to look so didn't get to contemplate long and ask questions.  Authenticfarm, what happens in the winter, do they feeze up?  The sandbox looks great.  Where does one get Stall Dry?  Please explain the deep litter method, I have a dirt floor also and usually spread a thin layer of shavings on there.  Thanks :-)

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Wow! thanks Tara..lots of good info here...

Cedar is toxic, cedar causes lung irritation, cedar is the root of all evil, blabbety blabbety blah. Yeah, heard it all too. I am here to tell you it's all crap.

From birth 'til death my birds live on 100% cedar. They eat it when they are little, they do not die from it. Meat birds at day old come home to it and if anything is liable to die a random death, it's a meat bird. But they don't die from it.

Who comes up with these ideas?

I can also tell you that cedar is supposed to help keep pests out of your hen house. It doesn't. My birds get lice and mites just like the next guy's birds. Which tells me that a cedar shaving or chip loses its volatile oils, very, very fast. IF you can get cheap cedar, use it. Hub works at local cedar mill, I am lucky to have an endless supply. For free  

I have also used cedar for years just not for free, I find that it works very well and does for a while keep pests at bay, but yes it does loose its power after awhile, but all the rest about cedar is horse crap.

bigrock wrote:how much stall dry do you toss in there?  it looks like it could be quite heavy-your poop tray

I have a bag - or maybe two - in the 3'x8' tray. The tray is sturdy - I gave it the fat girl test and it passed with flying colours. I can dance a jig in that thing.

Magdelan wrote:Authenticfarm, what happens in the winter, do they feeze up?  The sandbox looks great.  Where does one get Stall Dry?  Please explain the deep litter method, I have a dirt floor also and usually spread a thin layer of shavings on there.  Thanks :-)

I haven't taken mine through winter yet, but I asked a gal in Saskatchewan and she said hers don't freeze, just add a deicer in the water. So that's what I am going to do.

I get Stall Dry at my local UFA.

Do a forum search for deep litter, there is at least one good thread on it. I am apt to change my mind and start cleaning it more regularly, but so far, I am happy.

uno wrote:Cedar is toxic, cedar causes lung irritation, cedar is the root of all evil, blabbety blabbety blah. Yeah, heard it all too. I am here to tell you it's all crap.

From birth 'til death my birds live on 100% cedar. They eat it when they are little, they do not die from it. Meat birds at day old come home to it and if anything is liable to die a random death, it's a meat bird. But they don't die from it.

Who comes up with these ideas?

I can also tell you that cedar is supposed to help keep pests out of your hen house. It doesn't. My birds get lice and mites just like the next guy's birds. Which tells me that a cedar shaving or chip loses its volatile oils, very, very fast. IF you can get cheap cedar, use it. Hub works at local cedar mill, I am lucky to have an endless supply. For free  

Hummm, do you know if they sell bags of cedar shavings? I have purchased T&G for my basement and have done 4 or 5 fences with it too. They make a real nice product out there. 

thanks Authentic.  I spoke to the woman who has the nipples (what does that sound like  ) on the ph and she says you can put them on so many different things and arrange them with all sorts of insulation.  Also can bring your water in at night and back out again in the day.  I like the idea of putting them on pop bottles, hang them upside down some how.  What kind of deicer will you use?

Fat Girl test   I do that. kids call me "Short Round" after Indianna Jones' sidekick. I can fit into my youngests armpit fairly easily so guess I am short-ish.

UFA sells small sinking bucket de-icers for around $40, so that's what I got. I have mine in rubber pails, so worst case scenario, if they freeze, the bucket won't split.

I use the nipples on pop bottles as well, they are terrific for tractors and brooders!

The nipples are super cheap on ebay, or you can get them quite cheaply from QC Supply.