How do I keep my chickens clean?
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chickens | 200 comments
Chickens are not naturally clean creatures, unlike the story book ones. Do you remember them? Clean living hens, wearing spotted scarves and venturing out to the market with a basket hooked over a wing and a clutch of chicks close by.
Real life chickens will foul their chicken house and quite often foul the nesting box. The only chicken that I have known to actively ‘clean’ her house was Mrs Boss. When the guinea fowl keets hatched she pulled all the hay from her nest out of their house in the ark. The more clean hay and woodchips I added the more she pushed them into their run. After a couple of weeks, I admitted defeat. The keets slept under Mrs Boss’ wings, on bare boards. I could never understand why she did this.
If chickens are not cleaned out regularly their droppings can harbour and spread disease. Droppings in the nesting box can foul the eggs. Remove any droppings immediately from the nesting box when you see them.
There is also the question of chicken mites. In warmer weather, mites can breed like wildfire in a house that is not treated regularly. They lay their eggs in dark nooks and crannies in the house and are at their most active at night. They bite the chickens and these bites can become infected.
An imaginative Estate Agent might describe our hen house as,
“A Canadian style two storey lodge. Lower floor family room with traditional wooden slatted staircase leading to spacious communal bedroom for 8 plus with half mansard ceiling and door to cosy penthouse nesting box.”
It gets a good cleanout once a week. And a top to toe super valet and repair in the Spring and Autumn.
If you are canny, the weekly cleanout for an average sized house (ours is designed to accommodate 6-8 Maran hens) takes about twenty minutes, often it is completed in ten.
The trick to quick and easy cleaning is to store everything that you might need within a few feet of the chicken house. We keep our chicken consumables in two large barrels in the run. One holds the bedding the other contains sprays, powders, oyster shells, grit and everything that a chicken keeper might need. These storage bins are also popular with the flock as they have another vantage point on which to stand and observe the world.
Our chicken feed is stored in the boot of Danny’s car and in a large aluminium grain store in the garden. Along with the wild bird and Min Pin food.
Generally I pull on my chicken cleaning gloves at midday when the flock are out an about in the run. Initially I spray the inside of the house with a decent anti mite spray. I close the door to the house as I am not sure how safe the spray is for the flock (although it is marked suitable for an aviary with residents). While the spray wafts through the house I collect all the stuff that I need from the barrels. woodchips, fresh hay and mite powder.
The old woodchips, hay and droppings are swept into the chicken run dustpan and go into their bucket (this was sold to me as a nappy bucket and has a lid). This lid is handy as the bucket can sit happily inside the run until it is full.
Once all debris has been removed, I spread wood chips on the floor of the house. These are great as they absorb moisture and make the chicken cleaning process much easier. They are available in enormous chunky packs. and a pack lasts for months. I lay a layer of woodchips in the nesting box topped with a thickish layer of hay. My mum recommended hay for the nests as mites can breed easily in the hollow strands of straw. The hens fashion the hay into nests very quickly, even if they are off lay.
Once fresh chips and hay have been spread, I return to the barrels for oyster shells and grit. I used to put these in a nifty container in the run, now I cast them just before I open the gates to get out. The flock dives for these and before they have discovered that they are not deluxe grain mix I am the other side of the wire. Poultry need grit. Ours find this in the back wall of the run. If yours don’t have access to a wall don’t forget to provide them with grit, if you are feeding them seeds and corn as it essential for breaking down the husks in their gullets.
Chickens are fine on woodchips alone and I have seen many happy hen houses that just have newspaper spread on the floor. Once you find an effective way to keep your chickens clean that suits you, use it on a weekly basis. You and your chickens will bloom.
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some advice please if poss, for 2 months we have had 3 girls, we got themjust turned ready laying birds, from the start we got 2 eggs a day quite happy with that, then last week went down to one a day, now for the last two days we have had nothing!! cant see what were doing wrong, we built a 9ft x 9ft caged run to extend there home, the other day i hung a cabbage to keep them occupied, i think last week we did have the start of possible mites so i cleaned the coop dissanfected it and powedered the birds. a few weeks back i was told to try dicing up a green chillie and adding it to mushy bread as it kick starts them into laying, we were trying to ghet the third bird to lay, all this done was change there laying time till the afternoon which was strange. any advice
Hi, brilliant site. I am picking up my 3 point of lays girls in a couple of weeks so have been reading all the postings to gain advice. I have an Eglu so can anyone tell me what is the best disinfectant for me to buy?Do I need to use rede mite powder in the Eglu as well as on the girls?
Hi Chris
I use Citrox disenfectant as it is harmless to nature (you can usually find it at a good garden centre). Sprinkle the mite powder on the bedding an in the nesting box and it will naturally transfer to the hens! Good luck with your flock.
Hi. I’ve only been keeping chickens for about 18 months but I think they start laying at about 20 – 24 weeks. Chickens need around 14 hours of daylight for them to lay so yes I think they need extra light in the winter. I think its nice for them to have a rest though.
Hi All.
Just got 4 light sussex 2 weeks ago. They’re like little garden shredders! Could anyone tell me what age they start laying (they are about 19/20 weeks old now) and do you need to put lighting in their coop and pen to get them to lay in Winter?
Regards Paul.
I have just got my 4 ex-batt chooks (sunday 27th June 2010:D )after planning and getting ready for them for about a year .. and have read with much interest the comments on here and i feel much more able to cope with the red mite when they appear as it seems they will do 🙁 just reading the comments made me feel a little itchy .. we as a family are enjoying watching them and are enjoying the eggs they have laid .. to watch how their charectaristics are developing is interesting and there was a definate pecking order from day one .. so would just like to say thanks for the tips etc and will come back again to see other comments or to look for tips or to ask for advice if needed
hello, just wanted to say what a great thread this is.
I’m currently waging war on red mites this year, after having found the mite powder to be thoroughly useless I was very pleased to find so many useful tips here on dealing with them. I’ve found that neem oil mixed in with vaseline (equal parts) seems to be effective when spread beneath the perches and pasted into any gaps that the mites tend to collect. Also spraying neem oil with cedar oil and citronella helps. I mix it all in with eco washing up liquid and hot water, sprayed into all the places that the mites are has reduced their numbers. But its an ongoing battle, however so far its neem 1 mites 0.
I wanted to add that the reason that most people use straw is that hay (which is basically a ‘food’) tends to mold if it gets wet. Straw, by contrast won’t mold as easily or go ‘bad’.
Hi Ed
Thanks for that! Good tip.
Hello everyone!
For anybody with redmite issues, please use diatomaceus earth. It works great (provided it stays dry) and is 100% free of chemicals. There is a good explanation and tips at: http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp
Use a mouth cover when applying. It is not safe to breath (due to its physical characteristics)
To keep the chicken coop clean and fresh, you can use the following recipe I read in AcresUSA (www.acresusa.com). It uses lactic acid bacteria to eat away all the not-so-nice stuff. Here it goes: Wash (organic) rice and save the water. Take this water and fill a jar to the 20-centimeter line (8 inches). Cover is with paper to keep bugs out and let it sit in a dark spot for a week, preferably in an opaque container. It will start to give off a sour smell when it’s done. Next, add this rice water to milk, ideally raw milk, at a 10:1 ratio. The lactic acid bacteria will grow vigorously in the milk. In five to seven days the milk will have separated into solids and whey. Starch, protein and fat will float on the top of the liquid that remains. Remove the floating substance and save the liquid; this is the lactic acid bacteria preparation. It can be stored in a fridge or mixed with equal parts brown sugar and stored at room temperature. No diluted the prepartation with water to 3 % and spray over chicken coop floor cover. In dry spells, do this weekly. The bacteria break down the feces and there will be virtually no smell and if you use straw as a cover material it will even degrade faster when turned to the compost heap!
Enjoy!
Pascal
We have not had any problem with red mite. Like Chris we keep hens on wood shavings intended for livestock. However, we also keep horses and when the hay is in it is not uncommon to feel ‘hay mites’ crawling on ones skin when moving bales.
Are hay mites and red mites one and the same? We do put hay in the nest boxes, but still have not suffered an infestation.
Incidentally, I think that ‘Jeyes’ fluid is toxic to poultry (please refer to ‘smallholding’ magazine).
Lin
I’ve had chickens for over a year now. I have never had red mite. I only use dust extracted saw dust in their hen house. I read somewhere that red mite came from hay/straw. Have I just been lucky or is it because I use saw dust/shavings?