Spring Cleaning in the Chicken Coop

Country Boy and I used to have over 40 chickens up to the end of last year.  At that time, we thought we would be moving or traveling so we sold them. The move/traveling fell through and ever since then, I have missed my chickens terribly!  For one, I despise buying eggs in the grocery store.  I got spoiled with fresh eggs!  I also enjoyed watching the chickens devour the kitchen scraps and watching all their chicken antics!  With all that being said, we've ordered 9 Rhode Island reds and 9 Americauna chicks from our local feed store that we'll pick up the first week of April.  I'm really excited!

Since the weather has been so beautiful here, we decided it was the perfect time to thoroughly clean and disinfect the coop.  Here are some before pictures....

The above photo is the feeding trough and part of their roosts.  There's also a fan in in the upper back wall under the sky light because it gets really hot in the summer time.

This is a vew of their nest boxes and part of the storage box.

These are their roosts.

And this view is of the storage box for feed and scratch.

We started at the ceiling and swept all the cobwebs down, then did the same for the walls.  We scraped the dried poop and old hay from the nest boxes then shoveled the floor of all the old hay, dirt and dried up poop out the trap door.  I think half the chicken run dirt was in the coop!

Once the floors were swept clean, I disinfected the coop by using a mixture of equal parts distilled vinegar and water rather than using bleach.

Here are the after pics....

When we built the coop, we layed peel & stick tiles on the floor thinking it would be easier to clean.  While it is easier to clean, it makes the floor too slick when the chickens jump off the roost.  I was afraid one of them would get hurt.  No one did, but as the corners of the tiles pop up, we get the shovel and pull it free.

Just look at those clean roosts!  You can also see our trap door on the right where we shovel and sweep everything out into the wheelbarrow which then goes on the compost pile.

Nest boxes all clean and ready for some yummy eggs in about six months *sigh*!  At least I'll have my chickens though!

Another view of the nest boxes and our storage box.  You can also see their front porch in the center of the photo that goes into the chicken run.

We just have to add some hay and voila the coop is ready for the new batch of chicks in a couple of weeks!  Did I already say how excited I am! *laugh*

Here's their porch before it got scraped and swept...

They love the swing!  And since we haven't had chickens the last couple of months, the weeds are flourishing in the chicken run.  They're going to love snacking on them.  Country Boy rescued about half a dozen tomato plants that were growing in there and replanted them in our garden!

Here's the outside of the coop.  We made it to look like a cabin in the woods!

It's Barn Hop Monday so I'll be linking this post to The Homestead Revival blog.  If you enjoyed this post about Homesteading, click on the above link and you can read posts from other Homesteaders.

Till next time,