Friday, August 1, 2014

How to Clean Your Chicken Coop

If you have been raring some chickens at your home, then you probably know too well that chickens can be very notorious when it comes to making their castles a nasty mess. A dirty coop must be cleaned as it increases the risks of not just the chickens getting ill but also the people around them as well. Cleaning your chicken coop shouldn’t be a hard thing as such especially if you know exactly what needs to be done. Most people view their chickens as their family pets and as such, high cleaning standards are expected from them.

Cleaning your chicken coop helps in ensuring that the eggs that your birds are laying are clean, the chickens are healthy and most importantly, it will help ensure that your chickens lead very happy lives free from diseases. It is advisable that you clean your chicken coop at least once in every 1 to 2 weeks. However, how frequent you do the cleaning will mainly depend on the need as well as the prevailing weather. The whole process of cleaning your chicken coop should take you about 20 minutes at most right from the start to finish. Here is a guideline on how to go about cleaning your chicken coop.

Remove the bedding materials

The first step in cleaning your chicken coop is to remove all the bedding materials. When doing this, ensure that you put on latex gloves, a mask and then scoop the materials up into the garbage bag with your bags. The bedding contains moisture which can lead to an infestation of the mold or parasites which can be very dangerous to your lovely chickens as well as your family as well. Once you have completed placing the materials in your garbage bag, make sure that you replace with fresh, new beddings. The same should also be done on the nesting boxes too in order to ensure that the whole of your chicken house is completely clean. It is advisable that you replace the beddings regularly as they can be a hub of bacterial and a cause of infections to your chickens. However, avoid using cedar shavings as chicken beddings as these are known to be a common cause for respiratory problems.

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Clean the waterers and feeders

The feeders and waterers where your chickens help themselves from are usually very dirty and should also be cleaned thoroughly as well. Before coming here, make sure that you thoroughly clean your hands faster and start by bleaching and then rinsing the waterers and feeders. In fact, you should let them to soak for some time and then rinse them for a couple of times to ensure that they are well off. This will go a long way in ensuring that bacterial from the feces or bedding doesn’t infect the food or water supply. This is essential to ensure that your chicken don’t become sick easily. Where necessary, it is advisable that you use a towel and/ or nozzle for removing the feces and for scrubbing off the bleach. By doing this, you can be sure that your chicken will be getting their food and water supply from clean places where the likelihood of infection is at its lowest.

Spray hornet or wasp nests with a wasp killer

Nests are known to be one of the big nuisances and it is essential that you direct your cleaning efforts to them as well. Make sure that you use an effective wasp killer to completely spray the hornet or wasp nests. You can use the water that you used for rinsing off the feces which you spray the nests. After you have succeeded in killing the bees, you can now knock down the nest and provide your chicken with a safe living environment. You will also need to use the nozzle and water for spraying the perches, nesting boxes and even the coop itself and ensure that it is perfectly clean. Ensure that the nozzle has been turned to a high pressure when spraying for the best results. This will make the feces to fall off completely and then spray the coop out as well.

To ensure that your chicken coop stays at its cleanest state possible, make sure that you check your lovely birds for any signs of mites. Most importantly, check their feathers to see if you will find some little black like spots moving on them. In case you spot any of them, quarantine them right away and thoroughly wash them as well.

Useful tips

When you are cleaning your chicken coop, it makes sense that you remove all the chickens out from the coop. lock them in a safe place to ensure that they don’t bother you while you are in the course of the cleaning. It is also advisable that you wear protective gear just to shield yourself from any risks involved. Rubberized gardening gloves and masks will help you a lot considering that the job can get messy at times. Sometimes, the floor could be having some poop which might require scrubbing to remove them. It is important you ensure that your flooring is a good one and industrial grade linoleum floor will make cleaning much easier for you. However, just remember that you will be paying a little more for this type of floor but it is certainly worthy the investment.

When wiping your floor, make sure that you mix your cleaning water with white vinegar for you to achieve the best results. There are some coop cleaners available on the market that you can try out and you will be thrilled to see that they perform an incredibly great job. Make sure that you opt for a coop cleaner that is made from natural ingredients and it should also be having a delightful smell as well. Once you are done cleaning your chicken coop, make sure that you spray the roosts, the walls, ceiling, flooring and nesting boxes and allow them to dry completely before bringing back your chicken in to the coop.

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