Again pigeons !

[emmamakeup]

Hi there everyone

 

After having my Eglu (and I really miss my Eglu right now!) the wooden house I've found is a tad more difficult to clean, especially at this time of year. Luckily I have a pull out shelf for the droppings and I line that with newspaper for an easy clean. The nesting boxes I also line with newspaper and then add the bedding on top. Trying to dry a wooden house after spraying down with poultry shield in winter is proving quite difficult. I've been removing debris then spraying with poultry shield, waiting the hour and then wiping it away. As the wood's now damp drying it in winter is quite difficult. Any ideas? What do you do?

[Eggasperated]

There has been the odd occasion when I couldn't get my Solway dry and resorted to a hair dryer on a long extension lead .

[Chortle Chook]

Perhaps you don't need to be making it quite so wet (especially as things like mite love a damp interior) .

 

In my wooden house (the Granary from Flyte so Fancy) I use aubiose on the floor and poo pick every morning. I also leave the main door open on dry days to make sure light and air get in.

 

Then every other week I do a complete clean out and replacement of the aubiose, using a vacuum cleaner to get into the corners, and then squirt DE from Omlet into all the nooks and cranies and generally all over the place (it gets in my hair too ). I have a sort of heavy duty plastic cover on the floor and that gets washed with Poultry Sheild every other week too and then dried with a towel and left in the sun while I do a spot of gardening.

[abwsco]

When I had my wooden house I didn't use newspaper in the nest boxes as it seems to attract moisture. I never used to clean it with poultry shield either in winter. Just used to chuck DE everywhere.

[Lewis]

By the sounds of it I think my chickens are neglected, pressure washer is my usual on sunny days, not a vacuum or hairdryer!

 

Tbh if the Poultry Shield hasn't dried I'd spray less of it and leave it to soak into the wood rather than wiping it away. It shouldn't be too damp and as long as there is enough ventilation it will dry.

 

Newspaper does wick moisture, maybe you could get a plastic sheet/tray to line the base with?

I use a flexible chopping board from IKEA in the bottom of my Cube nesting box

[smartrus]

I use the red mite powder in my wooden shed. It doesn't wet the wood and you can be quite liberal with it. I also poo pick on a regular basis and cover the floor in a thick layer of saw dust which is easy to pick poop off!

[The Dogmother]

By the sounds of it I think my chickens are neglected, pressure washer is my usual on sunny days, not a vacuum or hairdryer!

 

Tbh if the Poultry Shield hasn't dried I'd spray less of it and leave it to soak into the wood rather than wiping it away. It shouldn't be too damp and as long as there is enough ventilation it will dry.

 

Newspaper does wick moisture, maybe you could get a plastic sheet/tray to line the base with?

 

Ditto

 

I wash the cube down or jetwash it, then spray with Total Mite Kill Concentrate and leave that to dry as it leaves a residue which kills any mites. Powder with Buz Busters and I find it dries pretty quickly; the cube is hardly ever damp inside. I never use newspaper though and put Aubiose in the poo trays and nest box.

[Lavenders_Blue]

I don't venture into this forum very often so only just seen this post.

Personally, I don't bother Poultry Shield-ing my wooden coops in winter as they just don't dry out. I line everything with newspaper so it can just be all whisked out quickly a couple of times a week and prevents the poo getting smeared/welded onto the wood I then sprinkle Stalosan round once/twice a month to keep it clean.

By the end of winter, the interior of the coop does tend to be rather pink but it all comes clean again once the weather is good enough to give it a thorough wash down with Poultry Shield.

My main problem this year has been finding horrid green algae growing all over the outside of my coops - the result of a damp summer. I'll be giving the coops a thorough scrub both inside and out once the spring arrives.