How To Clean Your Chicken Coop

“A place for everything and everything in its place,” is a familiar quote that farmers must keep in mind. It is a quote that says that everything should have a place to be stored and when not in use it should be returned to that place. 

Are you a believer in this type of cleanliness? Well, if so, then this is going to be a good read for you. If you have chickens, then you’ll be curious to know how to clean their coop I’m sure. 

Now, if this seems like common sense to you, great! But keeping your birds’ coop clean is of great importance if you want a healthy flock and lots of eggs. 

Here is how you clean your chickens’ coop: 

1. 1. A Clean Place to Roost

Chickens like to roost just like most other chickens. But the thing to remember is that a sleeping chicken is a pooping chicken. 

So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone that roosting bars get really nasty. Here is where you can apply a garden hoe. 

Yes, a garden hoe. It works wonders. You are able to scrape everything clean and not have to get nasty in the process. You can do this by simply running the garden hoe over the roosting bars repeatedly until all of the poop knocked loose and off of the roosting bar. 

If necessary, you can spray the roosting bars down with a water hose. Depending upon how nasty they are, oftenly take a sponge soaked in white vinegar and run them over the bars as well. This does help to sanitize and deter bugs. 

2. A Clean Place to Lay

Do you recall how great it feels to get into bed when you’ve put clean sheets on it? It is a lovely feeling. Well, so do your chickens. In fact, if their nesting boxes aren’t clean it can actually deter them from laying. 

So if you want to up your egg production then be sure to clean your hens nesting boxes regularly. When doing this, again, please  make use of the trusty garden hoe. Pull out all of the bedding and scoop it onto the ground. 

The great thing about this is it doesn’t take very long at all. Then, place fresh material back inside their nesting boxes. 

Now, you can use many different materials. Usually well dried hay, straw, mulch or even shredded paper! A lot of people use wood shavings from carpenter hoses and that is fine. A recommendation would be to use what one has on hand. 

After this, you’re ready to move on to the next area of the coop. 

3. A Clean Place to Walk

How gross it is when the inside of your home has a dirty floor? Well, it is kind of the same with your chicken coop. The difference is chickens poop everywhere. Literally! So how you clean their floor will depend upon your method. The commonly used is the deep litter method. This basically adds more material to the coop floor so the waste can compost inside the coop. 

Then a few times a year a farmer can scoop it all out as great compost for the garden. If you use this method, then you’ll need to let all of the waste you’ve scooped from the roosting bars and nesting boxes remain in the floor of the coop. 

Next, you’ll go over the coop floor and level everything out. If there are bare spaces or particularly gross spaces, then add some more litter to the floor of the coop. 

Recommend to use wood chips for this. My chickens love it because they can scratch around, and I’m happy because it makes my coop look and smell fresh. 

However, if you have a concrete floor or any other type of floor in your coop then you’ll need to clean it. So begin by gathering all old material or waste that is on the floor and scoop it out. You can still use the material in your compost bin so you don’t waste anything. 

Then you’ll need to either add more material back to the coop floor, or if you have a concrete (or other washable floor) then you’ll need to hose the floor down. 

Once your floors are clean, you’re ready to move on to the final stages of coop maintenance. 

4. Sprinkle Some Diatomaceous earth. 
5. Diatomaceous earth is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. The stuff works wonders on a lot of different things. It can be used to keep fleas off of your dog. A lot of people in my area sprinkle it on their yard to kill ticks and other unwanted critters. 

But you can also use it to help keep mites out of your chicken coop and it is totally natural to boot. Which is why sprinkle it in the nesting boxes and on the coop floor. This way when chickens dust themselves, they are putting DE all over them and deterring pests from climbing on them. 

Also, worm the chickens with DE a few times a year. Basically, when you begin to see poop on your eggs a lot, then you know it is time to worm them. 

So a lot of times when I am cleaning out their coop, I will sprinkle DE inside their food as well. Then they eat it and naturally worm themselves. 

As you can tell, sprinkling DE is something that has a ton of benefits, is very natural, and should be included when cleaning out your coop because it helps keep everything and everyone maintained and healthy. 

5. A Clean Buffet

Have I mentioned that chickens poop everywhere? I thought so. 

Well, they do! That is why it’s important to keep their food and water away from nesting bars or nesting boxes because (you guessed it!) they’ll poop right in or on them. 

So our feeder is hanging right in the middle of the coop for this reason so they can’t possibly poop anywhere close to on it. 

Plus, their water system is right next to it. I’m going to share a frugal tip about watering chickens. When we first got chickens we invested in this fancy watering system because we thought it would be the best for them. 

Ummm…no. Chickens actually like to gulp water instead of having to peck to get it out. 

So after realizing this, we tossed the fancy watering system and put a bucket in its place. It is a smaller bucket so the chickens can drink from it, but they are so happy because they can easily stick their head in it and guzzle water. 

Now, if you have a smaller number of chickens you can probably get away with one of the smaller poultry waterers. We have enough chickens that we’d have to have multiple of those and to be honest, I’m frugal and don’t really want to make that investment when a bucket works just as well. 

So whatever you use to feed and water your chickens, you’ll need to clean them. Take them out of the coop and hose them down. That way any dirt can be hosed off and then allow them to air dry. This keeps everything clean and that way nothing gross can begin to grow inside of them. 

And ultimately, it is just one more step to keep everyone healthy which is the ultimate goal. 

Now, I will offer an added tip. When I put the food and water containers back inside the coop and refill them, I will some times add some ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) and garlic to their water. It supports their immune system.

6. A Clean Place to Run

If your chickens aren’t free range then they most likely have a run or a chicken yard of some sort. My chickens are allowed to free range in our fenced backyard during the fall because they help clean up our garden beds. 

However, the rest of the year they have to be put up because we grow a lot of items in garden beds inside our fenced backyard. This means that they have a fenced off chicken yard so they can still get out and peck in their own area. 

Well, you can’t forget about these areas when cleaning. So you’ll need to use a rake (or hoe) to level out the litter material that covers these spaces. Add some more material if needed as well. 

Basically, you just want to clean up any mess that might be lying around. It isn’t a hard job. It just needs to be maintained so not to become unsanitary. 

Honestly, I don’t have to scoop this area out but a few times a year when I need compost. However, if you don’t practice the deep litter method, then you’ll need to empty it when cleaning for sanitation purposes. 

7. Give Your Chickens A Health Check

When cleaning your chicken, it is also a good time to check on the health of your birds. Illnesses occur in chickens from time to time. Being proactive can be the difference between life and death for your flock. This way if one of them is breathing funny or has any other abnormality, it shouldn’t go for very long without you noticing it. 

As you can tell, this step is pretty easy. It shouldn’t take you very long, but it could be the difference between having a healthy productive flock or a sickly flock. 

8. Mend the Broken Places

Coops need repair every now and then. It is important to keep them well maintained for the safety of your flock. 

So when you are cleaning, pay attention if there are any damaged areas. If so, then fix it. Most repairs to a chicken coop don’t take more than a few minutes (unless it is something major). 

One of the most common repairs I see in our coop is that the chicken wire is becoming loose and beginning to sag. A few whacks with a slap stapler and we are back in business. 

So just keep an eye out for any repairs that need to be made and try to make them as you are cleaning the coop so you don’t forget about them. 

9. How Often To Clean

Well, all of this advice is great and all but how often should you actually do these steps? For me, I clean my birds coop once a week and do in between cleanings every other day. 

The reason is because my birds are super picky. I guess I’ve spoiled them. We have plenty of roosting space but for whatever reason, certain birds want to sleep in nesting boxes. 

And do you remember how I mentioned that a sleeping bird is a pooping bird? Well, you can imagine that my nesting boxes get pretty gross. 

So I clean them out almost daily. Then I do my big over all clean every Monday morning. If I do it on a weekly basis (and move quickly) it doesn’t take more than 15 minutes or so from start to finish. Staying on top of things really saves you time in the long run. 

Well, there are my 9 tips on keeping a clean chicken coop. I hope that you find them helpful and that it will help you to maintain a healthy flock. 

But I’d love to hear your thoughts. How often do you clean your chicken coop? Do you use anything particular to clean it? Do you have any additional steps to maintaining a clean and healthy coop?