3 Secrets To A Clean Chicken Coop

3 Secrets To A Clean Chicken Coop

December 26, 2021

 

(Our cleaned-out coop on a rainy day, probably about to get dirty again! :)

We all know that chickens, like all animals (and children!), tend to be...well, dirty. Which is why I have three awesome secrets to a clean chicken coop:

1. Vinyl

Vinyl on the floor of the coop is the best for poopy messes! And it's very easy to change out every so often.

      2. Feed & Water Outside

The second important way to keep your coop clean is to never put feed or water inside the coop. Never. For any reason. All it does is attract flies in the summer, rodents in the winter, and make a huge wet mess year round. 

      3. Outdoor Activities

That leads me to my third tip for keeping your coop clean - outdoor activities. The easiest way to keep your coop clean is to keep your chickens out in the run as much as possible year round. In reality, they should only be inside the coop while they're sleeping or laying eggs.The rest of the time, sunup to sundown, they should be outside in the run (probably dust bathing!). So the more things you can do to lure them out, the better. (Mealworms, for example, are a great option!)

Other than these, I only do a full coop cleaning a couple of times a year. That means raking out all the bedding, scrubbing down the walls and roosts, and cleaning the floor. The rest of the year I just rake out the dirty straw bedding and replace it as needed and refresh the nesting material in the boxes from time to time. I promise you, keeping your coop clean isn't hard nor is it time-consuming!