CHORES & UPKEEP
Keeping a flock means regular upkeep. Here’s how to do it in style.
How to do your upkeep in style.
Call me crazy, but I love spring cleaning. There’s nothing like the deep cleaning we perform in our household once a year.
Our chicken coop gets a similar scrub-down annually. But routine care is a necessity, and no matter your coop’s size or setup, you’ll need to do regular cleaning and maintenance, too.
We do our daily chores, such as collecting eggs, freshening up the bedding and checking for holes in the fencing. We do the real thorough cleaning and any needed repairs in the spring.
Regular Chores
So what exactly are the chores you’ll need to do? They’re not much. Really! And you can do many of them while you’re caring for and hanging out with your hens. We’ll discuss the necessary coop-maintenance tasks, guidelines for when they should be done, the tools you’ll need and how to go about each task. Your schedule will, of course, depend on your individual flock and coop.
Yard Checks: What’s happening in your henhouse? Have any holes appeared in the fence? Are leaves collecting in the back corner of the yard? Have the ladies turned over their feed trough again? It’s a good idea to check the chicken coop regularly and make sure all’s well with its structure and function. It’s something I don’t even think about any more; I just automatically do it.
• When: Daily, when tending the chickens.
• What: A flashlight and any supplies you
might need.
• How: Simple — just walk around the henhouse and chicken yard, making sure the structures are sound, the fences are solid and there are no signs of predators.
Scapers can make cleaning go
a lot faster.
Nest-Box Checks: You’ll need to “freshen” your hens’ nest boxes by putting new substrate in them. You can use pine shavings, shredded newspaper, chopped straw or hay — anything that’s soft and absorbent. The purpose is to keep the boxes clean and provide a cozy spot for your ladies to lay their eggs.
• When: Daily, when collecting eggs; add or
freshen as needed.
• What: Rubber gloves, a trowel or small hand-held shovel, a bucket, and fresh bedding.
• How: Open the nesting box and remove any soiled or wet bedding, placing it in your bucket for the compost bin. Add plenty of fresh material, stirring up the new with the existing.
Spot Checks: Periodically, you’ll need to spot-check your henhouse’s general bedding to make sure it’s not too wet in certain areas, particularly near the water station and around the doors and windows, where rain or moisture tends to accumulate. Moist, soiled bedding is an ideal environment for bacteria to grow — and bacteria create ammonia and other smelly, potentially harmful gasses that aren’t pleasant for birds or humans.
• When: As needed — either daily, when watering your birds, or weekly, depending on the time of year and the weather patterns.
• What: Flashlight, rubber gloves, a trowel or
hand-held shovel, a bucket and fresh bedding.
• How: Reach or climb into the henhouse, and shovel the wet substrate into your bucket, then lay down a thick layer of fresh bedding, making sure the area is well covered.
Clean Bowls and Troughs: Birds don’t have the best table manners — they’ll soil a water trough and turn over a feed dish in no time at all. Your chickens’ feed and water dishes will require regular cleaning and sanitizing to remove droppings, mud, old food, mold and any other debris that could cause the birds to get sick.
• When: Clean weekly; sanitize annually.
• What: Soap, bleach, water, a bucket, a
cleaning rag and a clean towel.
• How: If possible, wash the bowls and water troughs weekly using a mild dish soap and water; at the bare minimum, hose out the vessels using a high-pressure hose. Once a
Coop chores are a great way for kids to learn responsibility.
year, sanitize the dishes using a bleach-water mixture (1 tablespoon chlorine bleach to 1 gallon of water): wash the dishes with soap and water, rinse them well, dip them in the sanitizing solution, and dry them with a clean towel.
Manage Your Manure: In an enclosed chicken coop or a henhouse where chickens roost at night, the manure will collect — and fast. When cleaning and maintaining your coop, you’ll have to decide how you’ll manage the ladies’ manure. Backyard chicken keepers have two options: an annual massive manure cleanup or smaller, more frequent cleanings as your schedule allows.
If you choose to host a once-a-year coopcleaning party and compost the droppings, you are essentially letting the manure and litter build up and begin its decomposing process. To manage the pile and prevent it from becoming too wet and reeking of ammonia, you simply add a layer of bedding (an inch or so to absorb any moisture) as needed. As the litter and manure decompose, their volume will naturally shrink.
If you choose frequent coop cleanouts — which could be a weekly or monthly chore, depending on the flock size, the henhouse and your climate — you scoop the poop as it builds up, thus reducing the humidity and smell — and the yuck factor, if that’s something that bothers you. The downside: Besides being somewhat laborintensive and requiring more bedding, you also remove fly predators when you remove the manure. That could lead to a fly problem during the summer months, which you will have to manage.
• When: Either once a year in the spring or
more frequently throughout the year.
• What: Plastic gloves, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, cleaning tools, and fresh bedding.
• How: For both annual and periodic cleaning methods, shovel all of the manure and bedding from the chicken coop into your wheelbarrow—making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies—and deposit it in your compost pile. Wash and sanitize the structure, allowing it to dry completely, and then lay down 4 to 6 inches of fresh bedding.
Annual Cleaning Chores
You’re going to have to get dirty at least once a year. Like it or not, even a properly designed and maintained henhouse will need a deep clean, which involves moving furniture, scrubbing down walls and floors, and sanitizing everything. The amount of time the process takes will depend on the size of your coop, but here I’ve listed some guidelines for your annual thorough coop cleaning.
Sanitize the Furniture: Before you dive into bedding cleanup, first remove all of your coop’s movable furniture and accessories and stow them where you can scrub them later. These pieces include your birds’ feeding and watering bowls, supplement station, roosts, nesting boxes, and dust-bath box. They’ll likely be soiled, stained and in need of some good elbow grease.
A clean coop helps maintain
hen health.
• What: A bucket, a hose, water, a scraper, a pot scrubber or piece of steel wool, and cleaning solution.
• How: Hose down surfaces and use a sharpedged scraper to remove stuck-on droppings. Then, using steel wool or a plastic pot scrubber and some commercial or homemade cleaner (like a 50:50 vinegar-water solution), clean the accessories and inspect them to be sure they’re in good working order. Rinse well, leave them in the sun to dry, and return them to the coop when your other chores are complete.
Remove the Bedding: Next comes the fun part: hoveling and removing the bedding. Whether you clean bedding out frequently or once a year, you’ll need to remove it completely so that you can sanitize the structure’s walls and floors.
• What: Plastic gloves, a shovel or trowel, a broom and dustpan, and a wheelbarrow.
• How: Using your shovel or trowel, scoop all the bedding and manure from the chicken coop into the wheelbarrow, and dispose of it appropriately (for example, in a compost pile). Make sure to get into all the nooks and crannies with your broom and dustpan.
Scrape the Walls: As part of your annual deep-cleaning chores, you should scrape down and wipe off any dried-on manure from window ledges, the floor, nest boxes, and other flat surfaces where it’s collected. When those droppings dry, they’re like cement, so be prepared to use some muscle! Spraying them down with a high-pressure stream of water can help loosen stubborn spots.
• What: Plastic gloves, a flashlight, scraping tools, steel wool, and a high-pressure hose or
pressure washer (if needed).
• How: Scrape off dried manure as best you can. If necessary, use steel wool to rub out stuck-on droppings. In really stubborn cases, use water to dilute the manure and continue scraping with your flat edge or steel wool.
Sanitize the Coop: Finally, after you’ve scraped all of the coop’s surfaces clean, it’s time to sanitize. This annual routine, which involves cleaning with a bleach-water (1 tablespoon bleach per 1 gallon water) or vinegar-water solution (50:50), removes 95 percent of harmful pathogens, bacteria and other disease-causing contamination that could threaten your birds. It also prevents pests such as mites from moving in.
• What: Plastic gloves, a bucket, a hose, water, bleach- or vinegar-based cleaning solution, brushes, and sponges.
• How: Starting from the top and working your way down, wash each wall using your cleaning solution. Use your brushes and sponges to loosen any soiled spots you missed when scraping. Don’t forget to thoroughly wipe the nest boxes clean. Rinse the surfaces well after sanitizing and allow the coop to dry completely.
Annual Maintenance Chores
It’s a good idea to also do a thorough structural inspection of your chicken coop once a year, and a great time to do this is when you’re doing your annual deep cleaning. While you’re scrubbing away, take a look at the building features and make any necessary repairs. As always, use care and common sense when using power tools and sharp objects.
To make sure your coop will weather whatever storm is on the horizon, visually inspect the structure for overall integrity. This is similar to your daily yard check, just more thorough. Look at the coop’s base, legs and ramps. Are they solid and secure? Check the building’s interior and exterior for loose boards, protruding nails and large draft holes, repairing them as necessary. Examine the coop’s doors, including nest-box doors and hatches. Are the hinges screwed in tightly? Do your hooks and locks work properly?
You should also look for signs of predators and shore up any varmint protection you have. If you see rat or mole holes around your henhouse, put some hardware cloth across the opening and cover it with dirt.
If you’re getting frequent fly-bys from area raptors, consider deterring them with some high-strung wire adorned with reflective tape or old compact discs.
Another important chore to check off once a year: Make certain your coop’s roof is sound and watertight. If your roof has shingles, check for missing tiles and replace them. If you have a plywood or metal roof, check that it’s securely nailed down. Clean out gutters if need be. And if you have a tarp covering your coop or run, inspect it for holes and lay down a new one if necessary.
If you have plumbing or electricity running to your chicken coop, inspect that annually as well. Make sure you repair leaks in your pipes or fittings as needed. Look at your wires and electrical connections and make sure everything is safe and working properly.
• What: A flashlight, along with any tools
and hardware you might need.
• How: Walk around the henhouse and chicken yard, making sure the structures are sound, the fences are solid, the roof is secure, the yard is predator-proof and the buildings are in good working order.
Refeather the Nest
Coop maintenance isn’t difficult, but it’s something that needs to be done. With a little dedicated time, you can keep the henhouse clean and orderly. This benefits the birds — who wants to live in a dirty house, right? — as well as you and your family.
“Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to
build a cathedral.”
— Frank Lloyd Wright