Spring Coop Cleaning: 2

Anyone who keeps birds knows they are messy and dusty and it’s a constant battle to keep after them. What kind of animals poop in their own beds and in their food and water dishes?! Let’s face it, chickens have a lot to be desired when it comes to housekeeping. And that’s where I come in. I like a clean house, but I’m not too keen on cleaning my own. I also enjoy a clean coop and actually do clean theirs. I scoop poop every couple of days or so and shovel out the bedding weekly, or bi-weekly, depending on the season. I used to do a major twice yearly clean, but this year only managed it once. In fact I’m a bit late. I usually get around to it on spring break in March or Easter in April, but this spring was unseasonably wet and cold and so it’s taken me till the third week of May to cross it off the to-do list.

I always choose to do the coop overhaul when I’m off work because it takes about six hours, which I spread over two days. The best scenario is a sunny day: not too hot for working in, but warm enough to dry out the coop before everything goes back in.

I don’t handle my birds much, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t friendly and constantly underfoot. They love ‘helping’ when it comes to a project and weren’t deterred by the hive of activity I created trying to spruce up their digs. Their only complaint was when I inadvertently sprayed a couple of them with the hose and they expressed their displeasure, over and over again Bitchin’ Chickens style.

Day One involves removing everything that isn’t bolted down: feed containers, feeders, nest box liners, shavings, shovels, and supplies. I start at the ceiling by sweeping down the cobwebs, then shovel out all the bedding (which isn’t too deep as I change it at least twice a month), remove the sawdust from the droppings board, open all the windows, and clip the hinged roost bars to the wall. Next comes hosing, which is a bit gross as inevitably I splash my face with poopy water and don’t like to dwell too long at what might have touched my lips. I blast the walls, windows, glass door, nest boxes, and roost bars – watching the poop and dirt fly, which is oddly satisfying.

My hens were not amused as they wandered in and out looking for a place to lay their eggs. I like to work quickly to avoid them finding a spot in the shed, which could be the start of a bad habit.

My coop is double-walled: cedar siding on the outside, plywood on the inside and sandwiched with insulation in the middle. The foundation is concrete. There are two pop doors and one larger clean-out hatch which can all be opened allowing the water that’s accumulated to be swept outside. I can’t say enough about having a cement slab. It wasn’t inexpensive, but so worth it.

I worked quickly to get all the water out so the floor could air dry. Once that’s done you can use an antimicrobial disinfectant like Virkon to spray down the surface areas. The girls were still harassing me so I focused on getting nest boxes ready. I have a bank of three, which I salvaged from someone’s old coop for free and six made of plastic milk crates, also free. I had lined the bottoms with squares made of old yoga mats, which I picked up for free. (Are you seeing a trend here? I am a first class freecycler and proud of it.) After a couple of years of my hens scratching them, most had a big hole in the centre. I had two heavy duty door mats which had bitten the dust but were still salvageable so I used them to cut out replacements, then added shaving and Bob’s your uncle, they were good as new. Before I knew it, there was a line up to check them out.

Amongst the pile of things I had hauled out of the coop were five heavy green bins holding feed and oyster shell, which required dusting. They were given out by our municipal garbage service for weekly compost pick up, but were later replaced with a different model. I managed to snag a dozen of them on Facebook Marketplace. They are heavy-duty, rodent-proof, have wheels and a locking top – perfect for chicken feed, but I also use them for holding kindling, tools and returnable beverage containers.

My coop is divided into two parts: the area where my flock sleeps and another used to store supplies, or that can house sick birds or broody hens. The sections are separated by a wire wall and door and as you can imagine, everything gets covered in thick dust. I used to store dog crates and brooder supplies there and discovered that if I kept them in a shed it cut my cleaning time considerably. The storage side now just holds the bare essentials. I put everything back in after cleaning it thoroughly.

I put shavings on the floor and in all seven nest boxes (they rotate their favourite two or three on a weekly basis) as well as sawdust on the droppings board.

My feeders are made of PVC which I picked up for free. They sit on a raised platform (also free) and are bungeed to the wired wall. After many years with no issues rats have discovered a way into my coop. I’ve used snap traps with some success (in the section my birds can’t access), but more recently they have avoided that area of the coop. Worse, they are voraciously chewing the black roofing paper between the metal roof and the trusses. I know that I’m to blame because I have conveniently provided a food source.

I discovered these handy inserts that I use to cover the feed at the end of the day. I’ve been doing it in late afternoon, which forces the flock to eat any spilled food before bedtime. I’m hoping that reducing their opportunities to find chicken food will motivate the rats to explore the area with the traps or, better yet, leave. Within four days of using that system I caught two. I always feel badly killing creatures that are just trying to survive but the consolation is I offer them to the resident raven family who has their own food bowl, which they check out daily.

That took all of about four hours. By then I was wet and dirty, so I called it a day.

Day Two was dedicated to cleaning the glass barn-style door, three windows and an opening porthole. I don’t know about you, but no matter the technique or the materials I can never get totally streak-free glass. No matter, they still looked good or as my mother used to say, “A blind man would be happy to see”. Good thing chickens aren’t too critical of their surroundings either or I’d be miffed.

One of the things I inadvertently discovered was that my metal framed sliding window actually pops out for cleaning. For eight years, I’ve struggled to clean it, not being about to get to the area between the two overlapping sides. I was scraping out some poop in the frame (left by someone who liked sleeping on the window ledge) and out it came. Lucky me, I was then able to remove a pile of old poop. I cleaned up the piece of stained glass that hangs in front of that window and it looked a whole lot better once the light could shine through.

I picked up the glass-fronted cabinet at a garage sale around the time my coop was being built. It holds basic supplies; all of which were cleaned as well as the windows. I got the mosaic above it for $8 at a garage sale. A little spray of the hose made it look a whole lot better too.

I scraped poop that was on the concrete landing in front of the door, disinfected the waterers (also a free score), put up some fly strips (garage sale giveaway) and did a general tidy-up.

The downfall of cleaning is it never lasts for long, so it’s important to savour the short time when the coop looks renewed, smells great and I don’t get distracted by cobwebs that rival a haunted house movie set or discouraged by the future mess I will eventually have to deal with.

Even though they haven’t said so in as many words I think my flock appreciated my efforts, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. And I got to feel virtuous at completing a necessary, but not-so-favourite task, and best of all I spent hours enjoying my flock and was happy to provide them with a boredom buster day by being my helpers.