What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Salop Chuck]

Last winter I had a 'light bulb' moment . I ordered a spare pair of Eglucube dropping trays over the phone for under £18 and since I already had a spare set of bars it meant that everyday I just spent no more than a couple of minutes in the morning swapping the clean bars and trays for the soiled ones which I then washed later at a more convenient time. This means I have a ' wash and a wear' so to speak and the girls always have clean night quarters. Psychologically, it feels as though cleaning has become a bit of a doddle and less of a chore.

 

I still clean the entire coop once every 4-6 weeks with poultry shield but anything which eases the regular daily cleaning jobs has my vote.

[Chickybaby]

I change the sawdust in the tray and change the roosting bars once a week, twice a week in winter because they spend more time in their eglu. I also only change the straw in their nest box if it's dirty, so that could be once, twice or three times a week depending what they've been up to. The whole eglu gets completely dismantled and scrubbed out every 8 weeks. I have 4 ex-bats but they are remarkably clean.

[beach chick]

I'm very lazy... once a week (or 10 days if weather not right) I empty poo trays, scrub roosting bars, clean out nesting box, generally hose down entire inside of cube, then apply poultry shield, diatom etc. they seem ok!

 

I take the roof (ours is not on the sliders) and other easily removable bits off, but apart from that I have never dismantled the whole thing, I cant see the point tbh

[Olly]

I don't clean daily! Once a week - or less frequently - is as much as I can manage. They seem happy and healthy - I clean the nest box out if they're sleeping in it regularly but they seem to have stopped doing that lately.

[chickat]

Last winter I had a 'light bulb' moment . I ordered a spare pair of Eglucube dropping trays over the phone for under £18 and since I already had a spare set of bars it meant that everyday I just spent no more than a couple of minutes in the morning swapping the clean bars and trays for the soiled ones which I then washed later at a more convenient time. This means I have a ' wash and a wear' so to speak and the girls always have clean night quarters. Psychologically, it feels as though cleaning has become a bit of a doddle and less of a chore.

 

I still clean the entire coop once every 4-6 weeks with poultry shield but anything which eases the regular daily cleaning jobs has my vote.

 

This sounds like a brilliant idea to me. Thanks for that. I wonder if the Eglu Go has a roosting and floor section available to follow the same approach for the Go-

[Salop Chuck]

Hi Chickat - thanks for your response.

 

Because some spare parts are not in the Omlet catalogue I just phoned the Omlet Customer Service number and spoke to an advisor explaining what I wanted. She was very positive and helpful and after making enquiries from the manufacturers came back with a price for the eglucube dropping trays.

 

I notice you live the USA so I'm assuming you will have a Customer Service number there or perhaps you could send Omlet an email explaining what you want.

 

I found the spare pair of clean, dry dropping trays and bars especially useful in the winter period when it is more difficult not only to wash soiled ones but to dry them properly before putting them back in the coop.

 

Good luck with your quest.

[chickat]

Hi Salop Chuck,

 

Thanks so much for posting that. When I talked to someone connected with Eglu, they told me that there were no available trays and roosts for the GO. Perhaps things have changed. It would speed things up to be able to swap out the parts.

 

I have certainly gotten more 'lax' in my cleaning. I used to scrub the bars and tray daily---in April, now in October...I dump the tray daily and that is about it. Put the wood shavings from the nest box into the tray and put fresh wood shavings in the nest box. --- Don't get around to scrubbing as often.

 

I will check into availabilty of spare parts to us in the USA. Once again---thanks so much for alerting me to this.

[The Dogmother]

Might be worth you emailing Omlet in the UK to see what the situation is; over here we can get more or less any spare part that we need, often when it doesn't feature in the Omlet online shop.

 

Another weekly cleaner out here

[clucker1]

Am I missing something here? I just pull out the poo trays daily and roll up the newspaper and chuck in the compost. Then replace with more newspaper and wood chips. Then wash out cube once 1-2 weeks. I used to get away with emptying the poo trays every other day, but now with 6 girls, too much poo and wet to do that especially now they are in the cube for longer due to the daylight.

[chick wiggle]

Another weekly cleaner here too. But i do use easibed in the poo trays which is way more absorbant. Although now, with the longer nights, it is getting to twice a week as i have 9 girls in one cube! Its their choice by the way, there is another one in the WIR but do they use it? oh no, much rather all squish up together in the one

[The Dogmother]

I think that a lot of it depends on the bedding that you use - I use Aubiose which is very absorbent

[clucker1]

Mmmmm, I thought I'd give aubiose a go, but found it got stuck to the girls eggs in the nesting box..so now using it up in the poo trays. I think easibed was better from the absorbency point of view, so perhaps when I have used my HUGE mound of aubiose up and go back to easibed in the trays I will be able to get away with cleaning out the poo trays every 2-3 days again

[doctors girls]

i strip down my eglu every week and scrub and hose it down am i going ott with this i also wash the roosting bars but replace them with a spare pair and let them dry all week to use next time the only time i do not do weekly clean is when i go away for a fortnights holiday in fact i am going to do a big clean out of the wir next month which means clearing all the bedding out out washing and scrubbing the slabs down and was wondering what disinfectant to use would a solution of jayes fluid be okay i will be hosing it all down after i have scrubbed all the flooring and the surpless water will drain through the slabs or is there any other i could use off the supermarket shelf then it just of case of letting it dry before putting the new bedding down at the moment i use rapport but going to try easibed

[The Dogmother]

I scrub the housing down every week too, using total mite concentrate then powder with buz busters. I don't use Jeyes as it's harmful to a lot of wildlife, if you want to use a disinfectant in the run then use a powdered one such as Stalosan, BioDri or Ground sanitising powder. All of those are safe for wildlife and have the added bonus of keeping the litter in the run dry.

[doctors girls]

i do spray the coop with poultry shield then a dusting off diatom as well and i will be sprinkling down some stalosan before putting the bedding down and i also use stalosan on a weekly basis to keep it clean it is just that i am doing a big clean out and thought why not go the whole hogg

[Sammiboo]

i clean mine out every week too, depending on what the weather is doing, i take all perching bars, trays etc out and scrub them and take the roof off also. I clean mine out with antibac fairy and very hot water.

I have bought a set of bars for when the weather turns and i dont want to scrub them in the pouring rain.