Best Coop Cleaner?

[NancyNurseCxMama]

Seriously now. Going on two years with my girls.

For everyday (and I DO clean poop every day) I use a white vinegar spray, full strength. Spray and scrub with paper towels. It melts the poop away.

For seasonal cleaning (Spring and Fall) I scrub out with a weak detergent solution and rinse with a clear water spray. My coop walls and roosts are painted with a glossy paint and don't absorb poop splats or odors. I have had no issues with mites, fleas, etc---if I did, I would use a Permethrin spray.

There was an episode where I believed one of my (tiny chick) girls died of Marek's so I disinfected the entire coop and everything with which she had come in contact with a Virkon-S solution. Two tabs per quart of water, sprayed liberally, let sit for at least ten minutes, and wiped with clear water. No further issues with possible Marek's.

The girls also have dust baths---busboy bins full of sand, fireplace ashes, and a sprinkling of permethrin dust. I have diatomaceous earth too, food grade, and sprinkle a bit of that in there too. Yes yes I know it is controversial but so many old-timey chicken people have told me to use it and oh what the hell.

As far as vodka is concerned? Mix an ounce or two with some Sprite, a bit of Cointreau, a squeeze of lime, and lots of ice. Go out to your chicken run, sit on one of their logs (after scraping off the poop they so generously left for you) and enjoy some time with your girls. Sing to them, like I do. Mine especially love my rendition of the Good Morning song from Singing in the Rain but YMMV.

 

[cmom]

I only sweep and deep clean my Coop twice a year. I don't use any cleaning products. I sprinkle dusting powder along edges and on Roost. Viola, my Coop is clean enough for Chickens.

I do the same thing sort of. I do a deep clean in my coops twice a year, in the fall and in the spring. I use my pressure washer and give it a good cleaning. After the coop has dried out I spray inside the coop everywhere with permethrin spray. I had mites for the first time earlier in the year. Luckily they were only in one coop but I sprayed all of the coops to be cautious. No more mites. When I do my spring cleaning, I'll resume a monthly spray program. I have a poop pit under my roosts which I can rake out from outside the coop. I have wire over the poop pit and the poop drops through the wire.

 

[ldrchickens]

Seriously now. Going on two years with my girls.

For everyday (and I DO clean poop every day) I use a white vinegar spray, full strength. Spray and scrub with paper towels. It melts the poop away.

For seasonal cleaning (Spring and Fall) I scrub out with a weak detergent solution and rinse with a clear water spray. My coop walls and roosts are painted with a glossy paint and don't absorb poop splats or odors. I have had no issues with mites, fleas, etc---if I did, I would use a Permethrin spray.

There was an episode where I believed one of my (tiny chick) girls died of Marek's so I disinfected the entire coop and everything with which she had come in contact with a Virkon-S solution. Two tabs per quart of water, sprayed liberally, let sit for at least ten minutes, and wiped with clear water. No further issues with possible Marek's.

The girls also have dust baths---busboy bins full of sand, fireplace ashes, and a sprinkling of permethrin dust. I have diatomaceous earth too, food grade, and sprinkle a bit of that in there too. Yes yes I know it is controversial but so many old-timey chicken people have told me to use it and oh what the hell.

As far as vodka is concerned? Mix an ounce or two with some Sprite, a bit of Cointreau, a squeeze of lime, and lots of ice. Go out to your chicken run, sit on one of their logs (after scraping off the poop they so generously left for you) and enjoy some time with your girls. Sing to them, like I do. Mine especially love my rendition of the Good Morning song from Singing in the Rain but YMMV.

I do a weekly semi deep clean. I soak orange peels, vanilla, and oregano in vinegar and use full strength. I love how it melts away the poop for easy cleaning! Also it leaves a nice orange vanilla scent in the coop for a couple days which i like. That drink idea sounds so good!! lol Thanks!

 

[jreardon1918]

I took advantage of 55F temp yesterday to clean the coop. That amounted to opening the back doors and raking the very dry dusty pine shavings into a tarp. I also pulled the shavings out in the next boxes. And sprayed down the poop boards. All the shavings went into the auxiliary run. Used two thirds of a bale of shavings to fill the 4x8 coop. The whole process 30 minutes. Last time I did this was early April. So, no cleaning products used.

 

[Erikor]

Hey guys bored at work and researching ways to clean and sanitize a chicken coop naturally and safely. I currently use orange peel infused vinegar but im wondering if it really does disinfect? I came a cross a site where the author uses vodka. What do you guys use to get the most bang for your buck? Thanks!

Hey I don't really have and answer for this, but I saw a lot of people mentioning chlorine and wanted to inform people to NEVER use chlorine in the chicken coop. Chlorine + a chemical in chicken poop makes a form of mustard gass.

 

[FrostRanger]

Hey I don't really have and answer for this, but I saw a lot of people mentioning chlorine and wanted to inform people to NEVER use chlorine in the chicken coop. Chlorine + a chemical in chicken poop makes a form of mustard gass.

It's the amonia in their poop. Unless there's something really nasty going around in the flock plain soap and water is plenty good enough to clean a coop if you need to scrub something. If there was something really noxious going around and I needed to sanitize I'd absolutely still use bleach. As long as ventilation is good you're not going to have enough amonia to be problematic. You're going to need to air out the coop before putting the birds back anyways as the bleach fumes are bad for them regardless. Again, I would definitely not use bleach around the coop for just plain cleaning, only if there was a serious disease outbreak or something along those lines