How to clean a chicken coop?

Cleaning a chicken coop can seem a simple and straight forward task however it’s easy to miss certain aspects when cleaning that can lead to a world of problems. In this article, we’ll be sharing with you the quickest and most effective method to clean your chicken coop. The principles we’ll be discussing should help you keep your cleaning time to a minimum as well as give you a better understanding of how and why maintaining a good level of hygiene within your chicken coop is so important.

In this article, we’ll be covering why and how you should clean your chicken coop along with when and what you should clean it with. If any of that sounds useful then stick around for a few more minutes and continue reading.

Why cleaning your chicken coop is so important

Aside from the fact that keeping your chicken coop clean will minimize any bad odor within your garden, it’s actually essential if you want to decrease the likelihood of illness, keep out predictors and provide a better quality of life for your chickens.

To put things simply when a coop is left to collect filth for longer periods the environment that the birds are living in is significantly compromised. A few examples of what you should expect if you’re coop is not being maintained properly are rodents, cats, and foxes. Creatures such as rats and mice are instantly attracted to leftovers and chicken feed, this makes a dirty chicken coop an absolute hot spot for them to thrive in, this is the opposite of what we want when trying to maintain a hygienic chicken coop.

We’ve got an article where we go into more detail on how to keep your chicken coop Rodent free which you can check out here, How to keep your chicken coop rat-free

The fact is that the chickens will be made to feel very uneasy due to the presence of rats, this will, in turn, have a negative impact on their health as well as decrease egg production. You may notice your hens start to become more aggressive with each other and tend to lose feathers. A simple and easy way to prevent rodents such as rats from entering your coop is keeping it clean and hygienic, that way there won’t be anything tempting them towards your chicken coop.

A second reason why you should aim to keep your chicken coop clean is that it’ll make your life a lot easier when it comes to collecting eggs and interacting with your birds in general. In a messy coop, it’s more likely that your precious eggs could be damaged which isn’t what anybody wants.

How to go about cleaning your chicken coop

In all honesty there’s many different ways of cleaning your chicken coop, some work better than other but the general principle is all the same. Heres a list of tasks you’ll need to do when cleaning your chicken coop:

Replacing water source

Refilling food

Cleaning spilled or excess feed

Replacing bedding in nesting boxes

Cleaning chicken dropping and replacing wood clippings

Step 1: When it comes to replacing your water, its a fairly simple and straight forward process to carry out, depending on what type of drinker is in your coop the main things you’ll need to do is check for any signs of algae and remove if visible and then replace the water content every couple of days. This can vary depending on where you live, just remember the chickens need a fresh, clean supply of water every day. If algae does start to accumulate rinsing the drinker with water and a sponge should do the trick,

Step 2: Cleaning spilled or excess food within the chicken coop is another essential that should be carried out on a daily basis if possible. Leftover chicken feed or treats significantly increase your chances of developing a rat-infested coop. It may be something as simple as picking up a few leftovers that your hens hadn’t quite finished. This small practice will definitely help your coop to remain as hygienic as possible.

Step 3: Replacing the bedding in nesting boxes is something we recommend doing when required. If your hens remove or damage the bedding then once that’s happened you know it’s time for a replacement. We recommend using hay as bedding for your chickens to lay on but anything soft and protective will do the job perfectly. Believe it or not, your hen’s eggs may sometimes break which will again cause a mess where they’re laying. This is fairly normal so don’t be surprised if you’re replacing the bedding frequently.

Step 4: Another essential component when cleaning out your chicken coop is to ensure that all droppings are removed. This process can be kind of nasty however it’s better to do it regularly than let it get out of hand. We found that a course brush does the trick perfectly for scrapping droppings off the interior of the coop. We usually did this once or twice a week but it really does depend on how many chickens you have. A great way to figure out how often you should clean the droppings is simply by checking every couple of days and making a calculated decision.

Replacing the wood chipping or general bedding within your chicken coop is another task with needs to be taken care of on a weekly basis. As the hens sleep at night they will end up contaminating the protective layer whatever it may be. Hence why we found removing it all and replacing it every week or so really helps to keep your chicken coop looking and smelling clean.

Conclusion

All in all, there’s no two ways about it, cleaning your chicken coop is one of the most important things to consider before collecting your first batch of hens. Yes, it can sometimes be time-consuming, but essential when looking to keep your hens in tip-top shape. Once the level of hygiene in your coop drops your hens are at a significantly higher risk of contracting illnesses as well as attracting rodents and other predictors. We’d always advise keeping your coop clean to minimize your chances of these issues taking place within your flock.

So there you have it, a quick insight into how to clean your chicken coop. If you found this article useful in any way feel free to check out some or our others. Here at easy hen we’ve got lots of useful info you may find useful if your a fellow hen keep!