Clean Coop

I spent some time playing with our chickens and cleaning the hen house today. Because the hen house was designed with quick, simple and thorough cleaning in mind, the job is not really a chore to do. And with all the silly chickens milling about curious about every move I make, it's actually quite fun!


This is what 2 weeks worth of soiled aspen shavings looks like. It's sort of a crumbly, dry powder which is is simple to scoop up with my small dustpan.
With all the feathers that our 13 chickens lose, it's amazing that they aren't bald!
The right side of the hen house is almost scraped clean. Choosing vinyl to line the wood floor was such a great idea. Unlike wood, I am able to easily wipe and scoop anything up, as well as wash everything and santitize every so often to keep the chickens healthier.
The feed bag inside the house, I use for holding all of the soiled chicken manure, because it's some sort of plastic and is sturdy to carry to the compost pile.
The other bag I fill with clean aspen shavings. I think that a small cart with wheels would be really nice to have for this job, though.
Standing back to look at the hen house with the access door and chicken door open. I have to be extra careful while cleaning the house because the chickens are always underfoot. Especially my favorite Speckled Sussex, who follows me around like a little puppy.

Some of the chickens checking out the feed bags.
From far left: Rhode Island Red(RIR), Ameracauna, Silver-Laced Wyandotte(SLW), Speckled Sussex (SS), Barred Rock, RIR, and SS.
The inside of the hen house, the left side, nice and clean.
The right side, smelling good and clean. Something I just remembered was a nosey woman who e-mailed me after I posted on a Freecycle site looking for unwanted vinyl. She chastised me for putting my chickens in a house with a floor made of anything other than dirt. "Chickens love to scratch!" she said, "You can clean up the floor with a rake" she said. "Well poo!" I say, "Keep your nose to yourself." A dirt floor makes it easy for vermin to dig their way in and cause disease, damage and food loss. It's impossible to sanitize dirt. And dirt gets wet and stays wet, as well as being cold and freezing solid during the winter. Our chickens are cozier, cleaner and very happy with their above the ground, vinyl-covered wood floored house, thank you!
I moved the lightbulb and water fountain to the other side of the house to give them some more room. They are only about 14 weeks old, but are growing bigger every day. When the chickens go back inside their house, they are so funny with how they scratch, peck and toss the clean shavings all around. They also love to nestle down into the soft shavings and go to sleep.