Looking after your chickens is so important for their health and happiness. Unsanitary environments, cramped living spaces, and a lack of food and water all contribute to an unhealthy chicken coop for your flock. One of the biggest tasks for any chicken owner is establishing a chicken coop cleaning routine.
Regular Chicken Coop maintenance will also be crucial to keeping the coop a comfortable place for your feathered friends. Looking after a flock of chickens means there are some tasks you must complete..
How To Maintain Your Chicken Coop?
The most important part of a chicken cleaning routine should be observing your chickens every day. Check they’re healthy and happy. The best signs to look out for are if they’re busy and active, eating and drinking regularly, and have smooth feathers.
There are a variety of tasks that chicken owners need to complete chicken coop maintenance. These can be broken down into daily, monthly, and annual tasks. Planning these tasks will give you the peace of mind that everything has been covered.
Daily Tasks
- Feed The Chickens
Wherever your chicken feeder is, inside or outside the chicken coop, replenish the feed store every day. Keep track of the freshness of the food and ensure it doesn’t go stale. Monitoring your feeder also allows you to give your chickens a set amount of food each day.
- Check The Water Source
Your feathered friends always need clean, fresh water to drink. Without a clean water source, your chickens will become dehydrated very quickly. As well as refilling the water, it’s important to keep it clean.
Throughout the day waterers can be contaminated with pine shavings, coop bedding, and chicken poop. Keep an eye on the water source to check if any debris has filtered into the water source. Clean the container to ensure it’s hygienic and a safe drinking source for your chickens.
- Collect Eggs
Checking if your chickens have laid eggs is a crucial part of your chicken coop cleaning routine. When eggs are left uncollected, they can crack and create a big mess inside the coop. Collecting eggs too late will reduce their freshness and could potentially cause a build up in the coop.
Monthly Tasks
- Lay Fresh Bedding
Depending on how you’re managing the chicken coop’s bedding, you will have to change it regularly. The deep litter method is a way of managing your chicken’s waste by allowing droppings to turn into a compost pile inside the coop. Doing this means the compost pile needs to be cleared out regularly.
If you’re using the deep litter method, lay fresh bedding with a material such as pine shavings on the dropping board. Pine shavings absorb nitrogen which prevents droppings from releasing ammonia. This reduces the risk of your chickens developing respiratory problems and also reduces coop odor.
Keeping your chicken coops from smelling can be a difficult task. While regular cleaning will help, laying fresh bedding inside your chicken house is key to reducing coop odor. Lay fresh wood chips or pine shavings, depending on your litter method, every few months.
- Sanitize Waterers
Every few months, conduct a deep clean of the waterers attached to your chicken coop. This means sanitizing them with a solution, for example, a small mix of bleach with a large amount of water. Scrub the waterer and rinse before refilling with fresh water.
- Keep Nesting Boxes Clean
Soiled bedding inside the nesting boxes can affect how hygienic the inside of the coop is. General waste, droppings, and broken eggs all contaminate nesting boxes. When you’re laying fresh bedding across the coop, clean out the nesting boxes as well.
Annual Tasks
- Deep Clean
Every chicken owner wants to know the best care techniques. To ensure your chicken’s health and happiness, complete an annual deep clean once a year or every six months. Keep an eye on your coop and schedule a deep clean when necessary. When a member of the flock contracts a contagious disease, it’s important to complete a deep clean of the coop.
Place your chickens in a safe space away from the coop, remove everything from the inside of the coop, and prepare all your cleaning tools and materials. Create a solution of bleach and water and use it to scrub down all parts of the coop, nesting boxes, and dropping board.
Another good chicken coop cleaning routine is to sprinkle diatomaceous earth inside the coop. This prevents mites infestation and with food-grade diatomaceous earth, it’s safe for chickens to eat so it gives you peace of mind.
Eggshell Online – Chicken Coop Maintenance
A chicken coop cleaning routine is essential to keep your coop safe and hygienic for your flock. Even with regular maintenance, a chicken coop needs to be durable and comfortable. Discover a wide range of high-quality chicken coops and houses, search the options and choose one that’s perfect for you and your chickens.
