New to Me: Cleaning Out a Chicken Coop

Whew! I don't know about all of you, but I am definitely ready for Spring to come. I love the cold weather, but I don't love the thick ice that sometimes comes. We are in the middle of an ice storm now. It looks beautiful outside, but it can definitely be dangerous, which is not a great situation to be in.

When we first got this property, I didn't really take much of a look at the coop. I wasn't sure if we would be staying long-term, and honestly, I didn't even know a thing about chickens, other than I liked eggs. And baked chicken. :-|

After about two months, I started slowly searching more on the internet about owning and taking care of backyard chickens. I soon realized that I was excited about learning more, and we began planning out the perfect coop. Thankfully, the previous owners had already done most of the heavy lifting for us. The coop is roughly 8.5 feet long x 6 feet wide, and I would say about 7 feet tall. We took out the old roosts so we can construct a droppings board and have new, clean roosting bars. The only other big things we need to do are fix the door which isn't closing properly, add a small window for additional ventilation, and secure the coop's open rafters with hardware cloth.

While I'm so very thankful the previous owners had built the coop, it had definitely not been cleaned out in quite some time. It took me about three full days to get the coop to where it is today, and once this ice lets up I will have a few more hours to finish a few final cleaning touches.

It was full of straw and poop, and that was only the beginning of it. I think the absolute worst part of day one for me was taking down some cardboard that had been used for insulation on the walls. Behind the cardboard was a spider infestation which ranged from little babies to big pregnant momma spiders. It was not fun. I screamed and used needlenose pliers instead of my hands for most of the job. I'm definitely glad that part's over. *shudder*

I wish I had taken photos from Day One of the coop cleanup, but I didn't think about it until Day Two. By this point most of the muck had been taken out, but there was still a lot of ground-in poop covering the floors, and the walls were pretty dirty and poopy as well.

You can see a little bit of the cardboard that I hadn't yet gotten out in the picture above, where the spiders had made their home.

At this point, I busted out some good old white vinegar and our water hose. I basically sloshed some vinegar on the floors and the walls, let it sit for a few minutes, turned the hose to a high power spray, and soaked the entire thing down. It took about six takes of this to get most of the dirt off. From there, I took a scrub brush to the walls and an outdoor broom to the floors with some more vinegar and water. All of the poop went out to the compost, which should be ready to go for spring garden time.

Most people don't know how amazing of a cleaner vinegar is, both in the coop and in the home. Vinegar is an amazing cleansing and deodorizing agent, and can be used for a variety of things, from cleaning mirrors and glass to keeping away bugs in your coop. When used as a cleansing agent, vinegar disinfects and prevents mold and mildew. The smell evaporates quickly, and leaves virtually no scent after 10-15 minutes. It loosens grime and dirt just as good, if not better, than dish soap, and is natural and contains no chemicals.

By the end of the third day, I was dog-tired but feeling extremely satisfied. Here are some photos I took a few days after that. You will see part of our new construction, which will eventually end up being a dropping board underneath the roosts. There is a post about that coming up, so look out for it!

As you can see, just vinegar and elbow grease really can make a difference!

When the weather gets a bit warmer, I am going to go out with a garden spade and really get all the muck out of those nest boxes, and close them up until they're ready to be in used in a few months. I'll do a final sweep of the walls and the floors, and then mix up a deodorizer and bug-repellant chicken coop mix to spray all over. The main ingredient? You guessed it, vinegar! Like I said briefly earlier, another great use for vinegar is as a bug repellant. It discourages mites and lice, two critters that you really don't want to have to deal with in a chicken coop. I am also adding some essential oils to the mix. There are a ton of herbs and oils that are good for repelling bugs, including flies - a few of the most popular ones are basil, citronella, dill, lavender, lemon, mint, orange, peppermint, rosemary, spearmint, thyme, and vanilla.

Chicken Coop Bug & Deodorizing Spray

• Equal parts vinegar & water (white or apple cider)
• 50 drops essential oil blend (I'll be using lavender, lemon, peppermint, and vanilla).
• If you don't have a vanilla essential oil, you can also use 1 to 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract. Make sure you use more extract if you're going to substitute - a tablespoon of an essential oil equals out to around 300 drops because of it's high concentration, which is obviously way too much!
• Using a small spray bottle, combine all of the above ingredients and shake well. If you let the mix sit between uses, make sure to shake again so the water can re-mix with the oil. It will quickly separate if you let it.

Use the above spray all over your coop & let dry well. It should leave you with no vinegar smell, but lots of good bug-repelling scents from your essential oil blend!

I am so excited to keep this coop going forward, and I'd love to hear from you all - let me know your tips, tricks, or questions, or blog posts that you would like to see more of.

Talk soon,

Britt