Spring Cleaning The Chicken Coop

I gave the coop a good spring cleaning Saturday.  We use the “deep litter method” in our chicken coop.  It works best at keeping down odor and debris as well as keeping the hens warm enough through the winter months.  It also means we only need to deep clean the coop about twice a year and do an occasional poop scoop in between. 

Stella came to help.

After completely removing everything from the coop right down to the wood floor I had 3 full buckets of compostable material for our garden.  I replaced the litter with two buckets of fresh new pine shavings.  I decided to leave their lamp up in the coop just in case we get a cold spell but I am hopeful we won’t need it. 

Bessie inspects my work.

I raked out the pen area and cleaned the feeders.  Once refilled I gave the girls some hen scratch mixed with a little ground oyster shell or “candy” as we call it.  They really love the scratch feed.  I also gave them a lot of praise and loves.  They have been such good girls with all their diligent egg laying. 

While I was out there I made some plans for expanding their pen area to give them more room to run around and make it nicer for when we eventually add new chickens to the flock. 

I keep their feed in plastic bins with tight fitting lids in our garage along with the bale of pine shavings.  I usually buy 40 pounds of feed pellets every 10 to 12 weeks and the pine shavings once a year.  Oyster shell lasts a long time and the 20 pounds of hen scratch as well.  I will probably only need to buy three bags of scratch a year, if that. 

We supplement their diets with our kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps and any stale bread, which they love.  We also let them loose in the yard to eat grass and worms plus any bugs they catch while they scratch around.  They definitely got our ant problem in the backyard under control last summer. 

 

Happy ladies!

For the entertainment they provide plus the bug control, not to mention all the eggs, we get a lot of value for the little amount of upkeep needed to care for them.  Feed isn’t all that expensive compared to the price ($4 per dozen) of organic free range eggs sold at the grocery store either.  They definitely earn their keep. 

We sure love our girls.