3 Easy Tips for Keeping Your Chicken Coop Clean

sustainablelivingreport | May 31, 2018 | Homesteading & Off-Grid Living

Keep your chicken coop clean and healthy and reduce coop cleaning chores with these 3 simple tips…

Chickens are a great addition to the homestead, but they can be messy and cleaning the coop is no fun! It’s dusty, dirty, and smelly work – especially during hot weather.

However, there are steps you can take to keep your chicken coop cleaner for longer, and minimize the time you spend cleaning it out. Not only will you enjoy the reduced chores, but your chickens will also enjoy better health due to reduced exposure to dust, dirt, and bacteria in their home environment. With the tips below, you should only have to clean out your coop a couple of times per year.

Here are 3 tips from FreshEggsDaily.com for keeping your chicken coop clean and fresh, while keeping your chickens safe, happy, and healthy:

1.) Use Straw

Over the years, I’ve tried several different types of bedding for my coop and just keep coming back to straw. It’s nice and warm in the winter, soft for the ducks to sleep on and smells so nice. It’s also not dusty like shavings are…

2.) Feed and Water Outside

The second important way to keep your coop clean is to never put feed or water inside the coop. Never. For any reason. All it does is attract flies in the summer, rodents in the winter, and make a huge wet mess year round. We live in Maine. It gets cold, really cold. And it stays cold for a very long time. And my chickens have to go outside every day in order to eat. And they do. I have a covered area in the run that I wrap in tarps in the winter to block the wind and snow which is where I put the feed and water. I set it up on a pallet to keep it out of the mud. And that keeps all the water and food mess outside where it belongs.

3.) Outdoor Activities

That leads me to my third tip for keeping your coop clean – outdoor activities. The easiest way to keep your coop clean is to keep your chickens out if it as much as possible. In reality, they should only be inside while they’re sleeping or laying eggs. Period. The rest of the time, sunup to sundown, they should be outside. So the more things you can do to lure them out the better. Things like a swing, outdoor perches, logs, stumps, treats, piles of leaves or pine needles to go through, a dust bath … anything to make them want to spend their time outside. And to poop outside…