Chook Me!

Best way to clean a chicken coop?

My chicken coop is a mess. It is full of mice, nasty dirt/dust/crap and old hay. I want to completely clean it, what is the best way to do this. What products can I use that won't affect the health of my chickens? HELP!! Thanks!

Public Comments

1. My dad used to use a shovel for the big mess and then use a big scraper (the kind they used for plaster) to scrape the stuck on stuff
2. Every spring I take a pressure washer to the inside of my chicken coop. If you don't have one you could probably use a hose with a powerful nozzle. I use a small amount of antibacterial soap and then rinse it well after. Just make sure it is completely dry before you add new bedding, you don't want it to get moldy! Hope this helps!
3. Shovel everything out by hand- use a mister to keep the dust compacted or you will breathe in too much muck (terribly unhealthy and linked to certain diseases). If you feel the need to wash down the walls and floors (highly recommended if your coops are dusty!) it's best to just use water- you could add a few drops of tea tree oil to it which has an antibacterial effect and also gives a "fresh" smell (commercial operations use a lot of tea tree products) . If you are really concerned about germs etc, use a veterinary quality disinfectant such as Virkon S- if you follow the instructions carefully it's completely safe. Virkon S is not only anti-bacterial but is also anti-viral, so it's a great idea to try to keep some on hand in case you have to clean out a coop, waterer of feeding dish after any chicken illness. While you are cleaning, it's best to remove the birds from the coop completely if possible- let them free range for a while, or enclose them in a temporary "run" outside. They will only want to scratch up all the stuff you are trying to shovel out (it's frustrating having them under your feet the whole time... they always move stuff where you exactly don't want it.) , the dust is not healthy for them either and if you decide to use the Virkon S I don't like having chickens directly around when I use any sort of disinfecting or cleaning product- you really should wait until the product has done it's job and then evaporated before exposing the birds- so pick a warm day where the moisture will evaporate quickly and start early in the morning so the birds can go back inside as usual in the evening. Bare in mind that just cleaning isn't going to get rid of the mice- the mice are attracted to the food, not to the mess. If mice are a big problem you may want to change the feeder to one with a better shape to prevent "billing" out (deliberate spillage) by the birds and suspend the feeder so it's still easy access for the birds but not so convenient to the mice. Live traps used properly are quite effective within the coop itself, do be careful if you decide to use poison as the chickens will often kill any slow moving mice they see and you don't want to risk secondary poisoning (although I find mine are quite good at working out which ones have been poisoned and they simply kill it and leave it alone, any healthy mice are fair game though and get hunted... there are reasons why the mice usually only come out at night!)