Spring is here and we’re ready for a good cleanout! The changing seasons are the perfect excuse to get your coops and runs looking fresh and ready for warm weather. We’re going to share our best tips for tidying your poultry areas and share our favorite products to help you along the way.
We start by removing the heat panels that we had in some of our coops over the winter. We wipe them down, store them someplace convenient (in case you want them for a chicken hospital, etc,) and checking/cleaning any fans that you’ll need for summer. We also like to take a quick look online to see if there are any new and better fans on the market to use for our poultry.
Back in the coop, we generally clean from top to bottom, the same way we do in our own homes. Clean the vents in your coop, starting with the highest, and work your way down. Lots of dust, dander, feathers, and cobwebs build up over the winter and you’ll want to get rid of them for maximum air flow. Then we give any window screens the same treatment and sweep down any cobwebs that have gathered in the corners. Light buildup can usually be wiped off with a cloth, but heavy buildup may require scrubbing with a brush.
The roosts are our next order of business. Perches can get very messy and harbor bacteria that can lead to bumblefoot so it’s best practice to clean them a few times per year. If there’s a lot of stuff built up you can use a putty knife or other scraper to remove the debris. Once that’s gone, we like to scrub the roosts with a 1:1 mixture of water and vinegar. You can add some aromatics to your cleaner with citrus peel, vanilla, and/or cinnamon sticks. The vinegar spray is pretty effective at removing a lot of microbes but it is still safe for your birds.
In cases where the perches have become rough and splintery, we break out the sandpaper or power sanders and give it a once over to smooth things out. Your chickens will appreciate the smooth, clean roosts. After all, they spend 8 hours or more sleeping there. We like to think of it as the equivalent of clean sheets. If you want to guild the lily and get extra chicken-lady fancy, you can cover the perches in a pretty patterned self-adhesive contact paper. This also helps protect the wood and can be wiped down periodically for spot cleaning.
Our next step is the big one - cleaning out the winter’s deep litter. This is a quick job if you have a smaller coop, but a big coop can take a while, especially if you’re saving the composted litter to use in your garden. And we highly recommend that you do! Your plants will thank you.
Once the coop floor is cleared and we’ve cleaned out the nest boxes, we sprinkle a generous layer of Eaton Pet and Pasture’s Revitalime. This is a very safe-to-use lime that helps keep down odor, absorb moisture, and repel pests in your coop and run. It contains thyme and peppermint which also contribute to pest repellant and odor control while making your coop smell spring fresh.
Revitalime is extremely useful to keep on hand. You can sprinkle it on mud puddles to help keep down mosquitos and to dry up damp and muddy spots. Lime can be added to your garden for a boost of calcium but also to raise the pH if your soil is too acidic. The alkaline properties of lime make it extremely useful in controlling heavy metals in soil as well.
The spring refresh is also a great time to clean and set up your nest boxes for easier maintenance. Just like you did with the coop floor, you can sprinkle Revitalime on the bottom before you layer in bedding or some of Eaton’s aspen nesting pads. Adding some nest box herbs gives your hens a calm, fragrant space to lay their eggs. We don’t know if they enjoy the delicious smells from the dried herbs, but we sure do enjoy them!
Because summers are so warm here in Maryland, we don’t restart our deep litter bedding again until the Fall. Instead, we do weekly cleanouts of our coops with a focus on odor and bug control during the warm months. Using hemp bedding is great for absorbing moisture and keeping your birds comfortable. We’ve found that Eaton Pet and Pasture’s Coop Odor Eliminator Spray and Roost Refresh are the perfect things to add to our coops if things get a little too stinky between cleaning sessions. These products rely on natural enzymes and dried herbs and flowers to combat anomia and other odors while keeping your flock safe and healthy. Happy cleaning!