Cleaning the Chicken Coop/Does it smell?

When it comes up in conversation that my husband and I keep chickens in our basement, one of the first few questions asked is, "Doesn't that smell?"

I will be honest, if we let changing their bedding go too long it does start to smell. Right before our wedding we were both too busy to change it and you could start to pick up an odor when you were about half way down the basement steps. Since the wedding, we have gotten back on track, and we change their pen about ever three weeks. It takes us about a half an hour. When it does smell, it only smells in the basement. We have never let it go so long that our entire home smells! Changing their bedding is just like when you changed your childhood pet hamster's bedding but on a bigger scale!

How we clean the coop...

What the chickens are doing while we clean out the basement pen....must be nice : )

1. First we put the chickens outside in their makeshift pen.
2. Remove all their "accessories" - the water, food, nesting box, etc. 

The pen with the bedding swept out. Didn't Jeff pick a nice pattern of linoleum for the girls?

3. We sweep up the aspen bedding which we buy at the pet store and carry it outside to our garden or compost pile.

Washing the bottom of the waterer.

4. We wash out their water and food containers with disinfectant, soap and hot water.

This is the bedding we buy for the girls.

5. Lay down new aspen bedding and put back their accessories.

A note about bedding: Using wood shavings over linoleum has worked out really well for us. The wood shavings absorb moisture and the manure quickly dries out as it gets buried in the shavings. This really keeps any smells to an almost unnoticeable minimum. The chickens also like to scratch and root around in it. It is also a cinch to clean. We just sweep it up and either put it in trash bags out by the curb, or put it out in the composter in the back yard. We usually go with aspen bedding which is a more expensive than regular pine shavings, but really keeps the pen smelling fresh and clean. Beware of cedar, though. Supposedly the strong smell given off by cedar can be harmful to chickens respiratory systems.

Clean to their majesties' satisfaction!

The Coop!

There seems to be some interest in the pen Jeff built for the chickens so I thought I would post a few pictures and a movie to clarify how we keep chickens in our basement in suburbia. They way I describe it to my friends is, "Think of the world's biggest hamster cage and then you have a chicken pen."

Change is Not Our Friend

7/2/10 While the chickens may not be the brightest they do notice change. They seem so confused by their new pen. They totally went beserk when we put them in for the first time, and immediately tried to fly out! Now they sit in one corner and just make this strange almost humming sound. I feel so bad for Jeff who spent so much time putting this together and I feel bad for the chickens who seem stressed by the much bigger and nicer pen. Hopefully with time they will get used to this set up. I wish we had known what a problem change would be and then we would have worked harder and getting the pen right the first time.

Coop Change

7/1/10 It is time to figure out something new for the chicken coop. Both Jeff and I have had it with washing the “poopy blanket” (which I am amazed how clean it comes out every time.) My mom and I hung out outside and watched the chickens while Jeff started building the new coop. What we came up with is a 6 x 8 piece of linoleum from the scrap bin at Lowe’s, as the floor, and 8 inch wide boards fashioned together into some thing like a sand box sitting on top of it. Then a wood post in each corner to support chicken wire around the whole thing, and finally a sack of aspen pine shavings over the linoleum (not cedar –it can cause respiratory problems for the birds). Easy to build, and much cleaner and nicer for the birds to live in. I am so impressed with his design. With the pine shavings in the bottom we can change it every few weeks by sweeping the shavings up into a big garbage bag. The shavings should absorb moisture and hopefully control the odor.

Toys

5/15/10Jeff starts building toys for the chickens. A cardboard ramp goes in along with a cardboard roost. They seem to mostly just poop on their toys. I went out and bought them bird toys from the pet shop. Again, no interests in toys. Oh well.

First Home

5/10/10 It is time for a new home for the chickens. Sadly they have outgrown their box and we have to move them into a bigger home. Like any mom I am sad to see them grow up. I can’t believe how attached we have grown to “livestock.” Some place in heaven my grandpa (an Iowa farmer) is laughing. While they were still in the cardboard box, we started researching like crazy how to keep indoor chickens but there is almost no help out there for this (another reason to start this blog). Almost everything out there in books and on the internet is geared towards raising chickens in a coop of some sort outside. Apparently to raise chickens in our basement, we are going to have to “wing” it. For now we’ve improvised a “coop” made of some scrap wood, cheap plywood lattice, and an old blanket. The bathroom and the walls of the basement and three side of the “coop”. We duct tapped the lattice to the wall and laid down an old blanket my mom brought over. Funny to think that my chickens are now pooping on the blanket I slept under as a child. This coop looks like something the Beverly Hillbillies would come up with, seems to work.