Cleaning the chicken coop was really exiting when we started with only six chickens. We have a nice easy to reach coop.
But, as many of us realize, chickens are kind of addicting. If you haven’t started with chickens yet, I warned you. 🙂
Cleaning a chicken coop is pretty simple and if you keep up with it, it won’t take much time at all.
Today I’m going to share with you six tips to clean the chicken coop in 10 minutes or less.
If you are thinking about bringing home chicks for the first time check out or pin some of these:
- The Easy Way for Your Chickens to Love Your New Chicks
- How to Get Your Chickens To Stay in a New Coop
- What to Do With Chickens When on Vacation
- 15 Inspiring Reasons Why Your Kids Should Raise Chickens
- 15 Frugal Household Items You Can Use For Your Chickens
I like to two specific tools for cleaning out our current coop. Our old coop all I needed was one item.
If you haven’t purchased your chicken coop or built one- consider these tips to get started.
I switched our coop over to sand when we started building it last year. Here is how to get started with sand and why we love it.
The first is a garden hoe. I use this to scrap off the roosts and sides of the coop. In our old coop it was the easiest to push out the bedding from the top part.
The second must have item is a muck fork. If you want a little humor you can see how much I love it in my Tiktok video below- wait until the end.
Items Needed:
@thefrugalfarmgirl love my ##minipig got in it! ##savage ##homestead ##goats ##piggy ##momsover30 ##over30 ##homesteadlife ##yougogirl ##momlife
♬ original sound – thefrugalfarmgirl
The first thing you need to do is scrap off all the nasty from the roosts and the sides. Don’t forget to scrap out those nesting boxes. I use the hoe for this too and it works well. We have one nesting box out of the four that a hen likes to sleep in.
If you can get a hose in it, I recommend doing it every season. I don’t bring the hose into our new chicken coop, because we use sand.
Instead I bring out a scrub brush and a bucket. I fill the bucket with Murphy’s oil soap and scrub it down. I like to do this in the spring and fall. This isn’t a get it sparkling clean deal. Its a give it a good quick scrub and be done.
Then let it air dry. If you don’t have Murhpy’s oil soap vinegar with a few lavender and lemon essential oils is a great mix too. ( You can see the cheap but effective oils I use here)
After it’s dried for a few hours clean out all the nasty stuff from the bottom.
After cleaning up the chicken manure, I like to sprinkle in a coop deodorizer.
I got a few bags of this Ware Manufacturing coop control on clearance at our local Tractor supply, but when I’m not getting a deal my go to is the Horse PDZ or the Chicken PDZ.
PIN: How to Vacation When You Have Chickens & No One to Watch Them
The horse PDZ is cheaper but I found in the summertime the Chicken PDZ really helped with smell.
This is all up to you, and your level of cheapness and manure smell in the summertime 🙂
I sprinkle it in the most poopy places. Which in ours ends up being the corners.
This is how you are able to clean out your coop weekly in under 10 minutes.
After you’ve done a major clean out, it should take you TEN minutes each week to clean out your coop by removing soiled bedding and cleaning off the nesting boxes.
After that I add new sand- I only do this once a year. Otherwise with a quick clean out I’ll push the sand around to cover up the coop refresher. Think of it like cleaning out the liter box. I’m a fan of this over all that pine bedding I had to keep buying and even straw.
In the winter time I add a little straw to one side. We pasture raise our chickens. Which means for the newbies, they have access to our entire yard. And yes it comes with ups and downs.
I hope this helps encourage you that chickens are one of the best first livestock choices. To see my other best animals to start with tap here.
RECAP OF HOW TO CLEAN YOU COOP IN 10 MINUTES
- Every other day scrap off your roost with the hoe. In a sand coop scoop the corners where your birds roost.
- Add a little fresh straw to the nesting beds.
- Wipe out waterer and refill- check food dish for any poop.
- Free range your chickens for less time cleaning the coop out.
- Add PDZ or coop refresher weekly
- Compost soiled bedding
Before you go pin these:
Easy Way to Make Hot Dogs in Ninja Foodi
LOVE your site!
We are going to get chicks again, but have never used sand in my coop. What kind of sand do you recommend us using?
Thank you in advance!
Nice! Use construction sand. Not fine play sand.