How To Clean A Chicken House

 When I romantically think of farms with barns and chicken houses I think of Julien Dupre paintings and how beautiful they are.

When it comes to cleaning out these barns and chicken houses, it's a fine idea to keep with the romance, helps make the job go easier.

 The first thing to consider when you plan for this event is to be properly attired. A head covering helps keep the dust out of your hair, apron and old work clothes completes the costume.

Next would be to gather the proper tools to work quickly and efficiently. I would suggest that you gather these things throughout the week as you stumble over them doing chores, nothing like being all dressed up and can't find your tools. And it looks like I'm missing my pitchfork.

 Peek into the chicken house and see what you are really getting into.

 

Quickly close the door and set out looking for some urchins roaming the forest in need of a meal. Promise them a bowl of beans later and hand them the tools.

If you have running water lay a hose down and flood the room. If you can, let this set for an hour and dampen the dust and loosen all the stuck on stuff. After a while everything comes up very easily. Have your helpers prove this. My favorite floor scraping tools are a flat edge shovel and a hoe. then scooped up with the shovel and pitchfork.

Chicken manure is considered hot and it is advisable to allow this to compost for several months other wise it would burn the plants it came in contact with. I would never put this straight on my garden. It really needs to breakdown and stop smelling like chicken poo.

Once the floor is scraped down (and this is when I got rid of all those waifs, put the camera down, and got to work myself),nest boxes cleaned out, let it dry out real well.

While it is drying is when I paint all the wood roosts with burnt motor oil. If you have starlings and sparrows nesting in the barns you more than likely have mites. The burnt motor oil smothers the mites who spend the day in all the little crevices and come out at night to feast on the roosting hens. I haven't eliminated them but I can keep them under control. I didn't have mites in the first place until those birds moved in.

Once dry I then dust the whole floor and nest boxes very well with diatomaceous earth. This also helps with bugs and fly larvae. Lime is also helpful.

When all is done apply a clean layer of straw or grass clippings, or, like what we have in abundance right now, wood shavings. Fill the nest boxes with clean litter also.

I wish I had a good picture to prove how nice it looked in the end, but I didn't want to touch anything! I don't think the chickens cared one way or another, but were just glad to have the place to their selves again, they were waiting in line to get into the nests.