How to Clean Chicken Houses

A clean chicken house helps keep roosters, hens and chicks happy and healthy. If you neglect bedding or allow manure, urine or grime to build up, you’ll court the possibility of disease and stress in your chickens; invite bacteria, rodents and flies into feed; and possibly have dirty or unhealthy eggs on your hands. Keeping a chicken house sanitary can help your flock flourish for years and ensure that your meat chickens and eggs are safe for human consumption.

Things You'll Need

  • Litter
  • Hand shovel
  • Wood shavings
  • Straw or hay
  • Metal tub
  • Wire or horsehair brush
  • Garden hose
  • Liquid dish soap
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Put down fresh litter on the floor every day. During spring and summer, when chickens are outside more, adding new litter isn’t as important, but in colder months you’ll need to keep on top of it.

    • 2

      Remove manure from the boxes under your hen roosting bars every day. Skim it with a hand shovel and place it in your compost bin.

    • 3

      Rotate bedding regularly. Start with fresh bedding in the nesting boxes, rotate it to the chicken coop floor, move it to the manure box and then to the compost bin.

    • 4

      Keep bedding for newborn chicks clean by laying down wood shavings for absorbency and then adding a layer of straw or hay. Check regularly to ensure chicks are able to keep their rear ends up; manure on their tail ends not only can drag them down but also plug them up, which can lead to death. Pull off any fecal matter and add new straw or wood shavings to the bedding each day until the chicks are two weeks old.

    • 5

      Make sure coops are well ventilated throughout the year. Add clean straw or hay to the floor every couple of weeks during winter months to keep your chicken’s feet warm and comfortable.

    • 6

      Remove feces and litter with a pitchfork and shovel every fall before winter sets in, as well as in early spring, or whenever odors worsen.

    • 7

      Clean and sterilize chicken waterers at least once a month by soaking them for 30 minutes in a metal tub filled with hot water, mild liquid dish soap and few tablespoons of environmentally friendly bleach. With a toothbrush, scrub the waterer basin and lip. Rinse waterers well before refilling them and returning them to the coop. When cleaning waterers, provide your chickens with an alternative source from which to drink.

    • 8

      Do a thorough coop and pen cleaning every three months. Move your chickens to another area, then open all coop doors and windows, remove the bedding and check for rodent holes, termites and dry rot. Clean wire screens with a wire or horsehair brush to remove dust and cobwebs. Empty and hose down manure boxes and clean the wire tops, then allow the boxes to dry in the sun before you return them to the coop.