How to clean out your chooks ?

Zoflora! (Read other thread!)

depemds upon your set up. here we have a mixture of grass pens with housing and paved runs with housing and some straw yards. For growers pens or birds destined for slaughter, you may go for the deep litter system.

Straw yards

Shut the birds into the house, or let free range, wherever they arent likely to get a shovel to the back of the head whilst working. then rake / fork / shovel the straw litter into a wheelbarrow and take down to the compost bin. scatter a good handful per square metre of wood ash from the fire over the bare earth (helps neutralise the acidic droppings on the soil and lowers the parasite count). reapply the straw. clean out the drinkers and feeders and refill.

Slabbed Runs

remove birds, shovel out waste into wheel barrow and take down to compost bin. use jet wash to hose down slabs to get clean. as above, restock feeders and drinkers. if using a litter like straw or shavings top that back up again

grass pens

if possible, move run to fresh ground every couple of weeks to reduce wear on the grass, where you cant move the run, you will eventually end up with a bare earth run so you will be best to then go down the straw yard route after that

deep litter

For birds destined for slaughter, they will be around 12-16 weeks old at slaughter (if using commercial strains) therefore by the time they are off heat and in the runs they will be around 6 weeks old already. for a deep litter system you must make sure that the run is waterproof and the litter in the run will stay dry permanently. if the litter can get damp do not use the deep litter system as you will encounter mould spores.

put a depp layer of straw around 12" deep on the ground. stock with birds. each week top up the litter with another 4-6" worth of straw and keep it turning with a fork. when the birds go to slaughter, engage the all in all out system, where once the birds have gone, completly remove all litter, scrub down with discinfectant (***** fluid is rated against avian flu) and re-apply litter again for the next "harvet" of birds. by completly removing all the litter you remove any build up of parasites

Housing

when cleaning housing, we remove all the shavings / bedding and remove to either the compost or burner for incineration. then the perches and floors and walls are scrubbed with ***** fluid or similar discinfectant (could use virkon s - very good commercial fluid)then allow to dry. spray the coop all around for mites using "smite" spray or similar and then allow that to dry. reapply the bedding etc and allow the birds back in.

remember when cleaning perches and walls etc to get right into the very tight cracks as this is where the bacteria and mites lurk

coops and housing should be cleaned weekly, maybe less if understocked but during the mite season (march to september) i would spray for mite weekly regardless.

in summary

discinfectants - ***** fluid / virkon s
mite sprays - smite
neautraliser for floor (bare earth system only) - wood ash. must not contain any coal at all.

Everyone has different methods and products they prefer. If your birds perch and the droppings fall underneath then a thin layer of shavings underneath the perch is sufficient. You can then scoop these out a couple of times a week and re sprinkle more shavings. That is what I do. If you have hens that insist on sleeping on the floor then you may prefer to put a thicker bed of shavings down but you will then find it fills up your compost bin very quickly and takes ages to rot down. Every so often I give the houses a thorough sweeping out with a stiff brush to really get into all the corners. I check for red mite every week, particularly in the warmer weather. However I don't use disinfectant or cleaners of any sort but a lot of people do. My houses remain very dry and if the poo is taken out regularly it doesn't soak or stain the wood very much.

It's all down to personal choice. Other Grapes on here use Hemcore, Aubiose or other types of bedding and love it. I use shavings because I get them free from a local carpenter.

Our hen houses are home made and designed specifically to make mucking out (and access to birds) as easy as possible with hinged lids so I can just pop them up, lean in and quickly clean round.

I'm sure you will find a method that suits you.

Thanks guys I knew I could count on you !

The floor of the run is mostly stones and wood chips on top of paving, can i just hose this down or do i have to remove and replace every time to get rid of the poop ?

I dont have a wood fire, or any fire for that matter is there an alternative ?

Had done already thanks Snadger

would anyone know what would be a french equivalent to 'smite' ??

v. frapper adj. frapp�

we have a wood fire in the lounge so getting access to wood ash is easy for us, however, we incinerate scrap wood etc in one of those galvanised metal dustbin style incinerators.

if you cant get access to one of those, all yo uare looking for is an alkaline source to neutralise the acid, so you could use limestone flour or similar, however, now you are getting into stronger chemicals and really if you need to go down that route, i would suggest that you just dig out and replace with fresh soil. its safer for you as limestone flour can be dangerous if the winds in the wrong direction etc when applying.

with wood chip, i assume you mean bark chip? this can be hosed for a while but it eventually rots and can lead to mould spores. i think that as long as there is sufficient depth and the birds can turn it over a keep it friable, then it should last a while.

if the run is mainly gravel i wouldnt worry about the wood ash, as it is mainly used to rebalnce the acidity for grass to regrow. if the run is permanently fixed there then dont worry too much about it!

as richmond says, we all have our own ways. i have a mixture of perm runs with slabs / gravel floors and grass runs, along with a deep litter "pole barn" arrangement used for the turkeys in the run up to christmas. Having said that, the pole barn now has a few breeding pairs of bronze in it and cleaning can be fun when faced with a couple of 30lb stags that dont like you being near their "laydeez" - broomstick and dustbinlid method gets the job done!

this sort thing is entirely unnecessary!!!

omg!! 30LB!! that's scarey, seriously scarey!

Good thread Liza, nice to know how others do it.
I have three pens on concrete, they have wood chip (not bark which is bad for them) fairly deep, they keep it turned over, but every week or 10 days ish before i let them out I give it a good toss up and wash it through to get rid of most of the poo. When it starts to break up I leave it for two weeks or so to fill woth poo then shovel the whole lot onto the 'slower' muck heap. Then scrub and disinfect and leave to dry before refilling and letting the mob back out.
Housing wise, i use shavings thin layer on the floor, but have lino under the roosting bars so I can just pick it up and scrape off the poo every week. And wash it, then stuff Get Rid anti mite stuff under it. Then every couple of weeks I give it a spray/scrub out and renew the shavings.

30lb stags arent really a problem. all mouth and no trousers - unless they decide they want your glasses when your are bent over the feeders. best to let them take them and then retrieve a bit later with a bribe like corn in your hand. they are like big kids, infact like big, kid like magpies. love anything shiny.

i usually take off my glasses before i go in now as it doesnt attract them. they dont hurt when they take them, but imaging a blue and red knobbly naked heard with a hard horn like beak about the size of your fist darting at your eyes....... it just takes one slip.......

Excellent question Liza!

Congratulations on your set up (I saw your photos on the other thread!) Its a FAB feeling isn't it when you get your very own girls? Just wait till they start laying eggs! It was identical to the one I had until last weekend when Mr DDL and I built the "super" run. (I will post photos - honest!). Actually, we still have, I've put the coop inside the main run.

As for cleaning, I empty the whole coop, give it a good sweep out. I then disinfect spray it all, leaving the doors open till it drys.
I know its something most people don't do, but I have a thick piece of rubber to line the main part of the coop, reason being, I don't think the base of the coop is that good a quality and I don't really want it rotting sooner than necessary by getting too wet. I then cover this with newspaper and shavings. I also put a fresh piece of newspaper under the perch and take that out everyday with the poo. I also mix Diatom (I think) its a disinfectant powder that discourages red mite with the shavings.

In fact, Ive just come in from cleaning the girls out.

I know I'm probably going OTT with the disinfectant and powder, but I'd rather keep red mite at bay than give them the slightest chance. BTW I buy all my stuff off ebay. If you want any more details, just PM me and I'll let you know.

Limestone flour should be OK as long as you don't try to spread it in windy conditions. any other form of 'lime' is definitely risky (but is also more powerfully disinfectant)
That's just me being a chemistry student!

If chook carp is alkaline can't see the point in adding lime to an already alkaline soil?