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Should I line my chicken coop with a plastic sheet to make cleaning easier?

Im building a coop and have just finished varnishing the floor and putting sealant on all the gaps to keep drafts out. However im still trying to think of ways to make my life easier when taking care of keeping the coop clean and mite free. Would a ground sheet that extends up the sides of the inside of the coop help with this? Also what do you guys use for bedding and how often do you clean your coops? Thanks

Public Comments

1. We use hay for bedding and clean our coop once a week with a deep cleaning once a month. We did not make them a coop out of wood we bought a metal shed building which I think is so much easier to clean.
2. The chickens will peck at the plastic destroying it. I designed a coop with no floor and on a pair of 4x4's as skids. I use the ground as the floor and once a week hook my tractor to it and pull it to a new patch of grass. Spread lime on the floor and mix some with water and paint the walls, nest boxes and perches. it will help keep the mites and others away.
3. I use wood-shavings (not sawdust) the dust extracted type used for horses and clean the shed out every 2 weeks in the winter, probably every 3-4 weeks in the summer when they are barely inside except for roosting at night. You can do a deep litter system in the winter where you sprinkle dry woodshavings on top of the old ones then clean out every twice rather than every time. You could put a plastic sheet down just underneath the perches with shavings on top, this is where most of the cr@p will build up. There is no need to cover the whole floor, in fact it could encourage dampness which is not good. Straw & hay are not ideal "bedding" as mould spores can build up. Chickens must have dust baths to keep mites & feather lice at bay. Feather lice can kill a chicken qutie easily. If the weather is bad & the ground is muddy put them a large tray of dry play sand or commercial garden compost in their coop/shed & they will dust bathe in that. In the dry weather they make their own dust baths & sort themselves out. You can add products such as Mitex based on ground fossil shells which draws moisture out of the mites on contact & they die. Wood ash has a similar function but it must be pure wood not coal.
4. I have a plastic Green Frog coop and the floor is very easy to keep clean. The floor is made of smooth plastic and I first sprinkle it with redmite powder and then just cover it with several layers of newspaper. Every morning i just remove the top layer or two of newspaper, parcel up the droppings and paper and put it on the compost heap. this only takes a couple of minutes and the birds never have to go to bed in a dirty coop or breathe ammonia fumes from the previous night's droppings (well, you wouldn't like it, would you?) The newspaper is absorbent, free, and recyclable. Since the chickens spend the night on their perches there's no need to make a cosy bed on the floor. If I didn't have a plastic coop, I would probably get a sheet of vinyl flooring, cut to size, and just slide this out for a good wash and cleanup when needed. I'm a bit concerned that you may be overdoing the sealing-up of your coop. Yes, it's good to seal the places where one piece of wood meets another and there is a tiny crack where redmite could lurk, but you must give the chickens really good ventilation, even in winter, or you'll get condensation inside the coop and the birds will be damp, cold, and prone to respiratory diseases. Have a look at this link http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5388 which is a long thread on Poultrykeeper Forum about designing coops to avoid condensation. If you join this forum you'll get access to a lot of experienced poultry keepers who will be very friendly and helpful when discussing your questions.