Often the coop owners complain about their coop’s dirt floor. The dirt on the floor becomes compacted from the chicken walking on it. So, scraping up the poop’s top layer from the floor is not enough to clean it.
You need to maintain a thorough cleaning process. But unfortunately, many new chicken coop owners don’t know how to clean a chicken coop with a dirt floor. So for them, we have arranged a complete guide.
You can follow two methods to clean your coop’s dirty floor. In the first method, you must shovel and scrape the coops and all the dirt, manure, feathers, and cobwebs. Then take a hose to it and scrape and shovel again. After that, use elbow grease and rinse your coop.
After rinsing, open your coop’s door and window to air dry it. Finally, before welcoming your chicken add some fresh bedding to it. And the second method is the deep litter method. It is also an easy option to keep your coop floor clean.
Throughout this article, we will explain the coop floor cleaning process in detail. So keep reading.
Can Your Chicken Coop Have Dirty Floors?
Yes! It’s possible that in some climates, the floor of your chicken becomes dirty. Almost every season, the floor gets dirty. But in some climates, it becomes dirtier. The dirt floors bring safety and health risk for your birds. Moreover, predators and rodents can dig their way into the coop through the dirty floor.
The coops not on the high ground end up with mud instead of floor dirt, which can cause disease to your chicken. The dirt floor of the coop, without any insulating material, remains cold in winter. It causes illness and frostbite suffering to chickens.
Unless you clean the dirt floor every day, cleaning it after a long time is hard. If your coop floor remains dirty often, you should follow several precautions to keep your chicken safe.
How To Clean A Chicken Coop With A Dirt Floor?
Chicken coop dirt floor can cause various diseases and discomfort to your chicken. Over time the dirt gets compacted on the floor if you don’t clean it properly. Without cleaning your coop floor, your chicken can’t go too long.
However, you can follow two methods to keep your coop floor clean. Those methods are dry or wet cleaning and deep litter method.
Method 1: Dry/Wet Cleaning
To properly clean your coop in this method, follow the cleaning instructions below:
1. Shovel and Scrape All The Dirt From the Floor
First, spread the vinegar mixed with water on the dirt floor in your coop. But the vinegar won’t vaporize the manure’s exact particles. Therefore, shoveling and scraping all the dirt, manure, cobwebs, shavings, and feathers is necessary.
The square shovel is convenient for scraping the floor’s dirt. Dried and old chicken manure becomes very concrete, like cement. Therefore to clean it, you need to use a substantial shovel.
2. Take A Hose To The Dirt
To remove the fine dust, you must spray your coop’s floor, walls, nesting boxes, and roost. The spray softens it down if there is any stuck-on manure on dirt. Therefore to remove the fine dust, you must have to do it.
3. Again Scrape And Shovel
Once the dirt and manure become softened, we recommend scraping or sweeping the remaining dirt. Sweep the water out of the door. Or allow the water to run through the drain.
4. Use Elbow Grease
Take a bucket and mix up equal amounts of water and white vinegar. Or, on the wet floor, slosh the vinegar straight. Many coop owners personally prefer the sloshing method as it works best. Now take your brush or broom. Afterward, vigorously scrub on the coop floor, run, wall, etc.
To clean out all the dirt, you must distribute the vinegar solution as thoroughly as possible. After cleaning out all the dirt from your chicken coop floor, you must rinse it again. Perform a final rinse. Then sweep the water out of the door.
5. Air dry
Once you clean all the parts of your coop, including the floor, you have to air dry it. Open up your coop’s windows and doors and let air enter and dry out.
Sunlight also works significantly as a disinfectant. Moreover, the fresh air is always beneficial to keep your coop clean and dry. Anyway, you should ensure plenty of ventilation in your coop.
However, after doing all these, don’t forget about the extras. While cleaning your coop floor is complete, then scrub the Waterer and feeders. After that, set the Waterer and feeders in the sun to make them dry.
6. Add Fresh Bedding
Finally, to welcome your chicken add fresh bedding to the coop. Add some fresh herbs to the nest box of your chicken. And welcome your birds in a sweet-smelling coop.
Note: We recommend you clean your chicken coop floor at least once weekly. And every day, once or twice, you should scrape up the poop’s top layer.
Method 2: Deep Litter Method On The Dirt Floor
For many chicken owners, the deep litter method on the dirt floor composes droppings and bedding. To imply this method, you need to use organic bedding thick layers in your coop, such as straw and wood shavings.
However, we don’t recommend wood shaving because it is toxic to your chicken. Instead, we suggest you use a straw, aspen, etc. For the deep littering method, straw is the safer choice. But the safest choice is aspen.
Continuously you need to add bedding to your coop floor for the deep litter method to work. Also, daily you need to turn the bedding. If you do it correctly, you can make rich compost to use in your garden.
Over the period, the chicken droppings and bedding become rich and fertile that it’s helpful in the garden. While using the deep litter method in your chicken coop with the floor, the bedding becomes fully composted within the coop.
Outside of your coop, you need to clean the bedding. And finally, on the bare ground, finish the composting.
To learn more about the cleaning process you can go through this video
What Are The Disadvantages Of Dirt Floor In Chicken Coops?
A dirt floor in your chicken coop is not a good thing. It leads to several disadvantages. The drawbacks of the dirty floor are:
- In some seasons, like rain, the dirt floor of your coop becomes a mud floor. If your coop area is even minor flooding prone, your birds will end up in the mud. Your chicken can suffer from pathogens danger from the wet and cold floor, like ammonia-based bacteria, mold, etc.
Moreover, in winter, your chicken suffers more with wet feet on dirty floors compared to the cold temperature.
- Quickly the predators can burrow into your chicken coop with a dirty floor. Predators like dogs, shanks, foxes, and raccoons love to eat chickens and can easily make their way on a dirty floor. The animals usually face an easier time with a dirty floor.
- Like the more prominent animals, rodents like mice and rats will burrow into the coop. Rodents can eat chickens, bite your birds, or even bring deadly diseases.
- Insulated dirty flocks cause cold temperature climates. And ultimately, the dirty flock leads to illness and frostbite for your flock.
How To Keep Your Coop’s Dirty Floor Dry?
To keep the dirty floor of your coop dry, you can follow the easy methods below:
- Always build your chicken coop above the ground to ensure the running of water through the downhill. Keep your chickens above the wet ground.
- To keep your chickens out of the mud, add bedding and litter.
- Continually add bedding material to your coop’s dirty floor to keep it dry following the deep litter method.
- Add the organic bedding layer to the floor. Or add more bedding or a bit of grain. Each week add the layer of grain and layer of bedding. Every few weeks, turn the litter yourself.
- Periodically flip the material on your coop’s floor.
How To Keep The Chicken Coop Clean?
You can follow two approaches to keep your chicken coop clean. Either you can sweep up your coop’s dirt floor daily or use the deep litter method. In the deep litter method, the bedding layers keep the droppings from packing into the ultimate dirt.
Regularly add grain with layers. As a result, the chicken will turn the litter by pecking for grain. However, you can flip the litter yourself every few weeks, cut odor and keep the dirt floor clean.
Whatever cleaning method you follow, once per year, you need to clear out the bedding completely. Usually, in the spring, you should do it.
Also Read: How To Choose The Right Materials For A Long-Lasting And Easy-to-Maintain Chicken Coop
Frequently Asked Questions
Is A Dirt Floor Ok For A Chicken Coop?
Not at all! A dirty floor can’t be ok for your chicken coop. The dirt floor can cause illness and disease to your chicken. Moreover, the predator can attack your chicken if the coop remains dirty.
What Is The Best Cleaning Solution For A Chicken Coop?
Vinegar is the best solution for cleaning your dirty chicken coop. It is a natural cleaning agent that helps disinfect the nesting boxes, floor, and chicken coop. Mix vinegar and water equally to clean the dirt. But avoid using bleach.
End Note
A dirt floor in your chicken coop has disadvantages and a few advantages. But considering the disadvantages, you should know how to clean a chicken coop with a dirt floor.
We have prescribed two methods. Now according to your convenience, you can either clean the coop daily/weekly or use the deep litter method.
Have a further query on this topic? Well, comment in the comment section. Soon we will reply to you.
