How Often to Clean Your Chicken Coop

Other than cleaning your chicken coop there aren’t really any downsides to raising chickens. They are by far the easiest of all my farm animals, and probably my favorite! So read below to learn how often to clean the chicken coop.

And for a quick spoiler, the more frequent you do it, the quicker and easier it will be.

I’ve had chickens my entire life and I love them. I was the 3rd grader who took eggs with me to school and sold fresh eggs to my teachers.

So I’ve been known as the go-to girl for eggs or chicken information for as long as I can remember.

Which has been pretty fun because I always love a good conversation about chickens.

I also get super excited when somebody who doesn’t have chickens decides to start raising chickens once they realize how easy it can really be.

They are the perfect low maintenance animal, plus they give you delicious farm-fresh eggs!

So whether or not you’re just getting started with your chickens or have had them for a while, here’s all the information you need to clean the coop.

How Often to Clean Chicken Coop

I know it’s not always fun to clean, but it’s just one of those tasks that have to get done.

But it is really nice when your coop smells fresh and your chickens stay healthy, so there are definitely only plus sides.

As far as how often to clean and exactly how you do it will vary depending on your coop size, layout, and how many chickens you have.

But I have all the tasks laid out below as a general guideline.

Daily Tasks

As you check on your chickens daily or at least every other day there are a few tasks to keep up on.

First: Collect eggs. Even though this is not really part of cleaning the coop, it’s nice because your eggs don’t get so dirty.

Sometimes I even try to collect eggs twice a day because they always end up being so clean that way.

Second: Replace the nesting box material if needed or add to it depending on what you use. It doesn’t always need to be replaced every day, but check on it.

I use nesting box pads and they last quite a while, but daily I will shake them out if needed, or add some shavings on top.

Clean nesting material is key to clean eggs, plus it’s where your hens spend time every day so it’s good for it to stay clean.

Third: Check on the food and water to make sure there isn’t any chicken poop in it.

If there is, just scoop it out.

I have an automatic chicken waterer and so if it’s dirty I will just splash all the water out to make sure it’s fresh.

Or if you have a waterer that needs to be refilled, just refill the entire waterer with clean water.

I also have a large feeder and it seems to stay very clean. But if I see any dirt, feathers, or poop in the feed I just pick it out.

Weekly Tasks

First: Rake out your chicken yard. Sometimes I only end up doing this every other week, but my chicken yard is so large it’s much easier to stay on top of it if I rake it out once a week.

As you are raking it is smart to wear a dust mask, especially if the ground isn’t wet. During the winter when it’s been raising there doesn’t seem to be an issue, but if it’s dry and dusty it’s not great to breathe in.

Then once you rake out all the chicken poop you can add it all to a compost pile if you have one going.

Second: Refill your chicken dust bath with diatomaceous earth or wood ash. Or a combination of both.

You may be able to find diatomaceous earth at your local feed store but I often just order it off Amazon.

Monthly Tasks

First: Clean out the nesting boxes and spray them down with a bleach solution of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water, then wipe down with a rag.

Then replace nesting boxes with fresh nesting box material.

You can check out my favorite nesting box material here.

Second: Scrape chicken poop off of roosting bars and then spray them down with the same diluted bleach solution and then wipe them down with a rag.

Third: Clean out dirty chicken coop bedding and replace the bedding with fresh pine shavings or whatever other material you use.

I have a cement floor in my coop and I use Premium Poultry Bedding made by Mallard Creek, but if the floor of your coop is dirt you may not use any type of bedding.

So in that case just rake it out so that the floor is clean.

Every Other Month Tasks

Every other month is when I do the deep cleaning.

First: I scrape off all the chicken poop from roosts and clean out nesting boxes.

Second: Scoop out all of the dirty chicken bedding.

Third: If your coop floor is cement or wood, use a leaf blower and blow out all the dirt and remaining bedding.

Although, even if your floor is dirt, I like to use a leaf blower to blow out all of the dust and cobwebs.

Fourth: If you don’t have a dirt floor, spray out the chicken coop with a high-pressure hose to remove any remaining poop from the floor.

Then spray down the roosts and walls.

Fifth: Spray down roosts and nesting boxes with a diluted bleach solution of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water, then wipe it all down with a rag.

Then to help the coop dry faster, I use the leaf blower again and blow it out.

Sixth: Once the coop has dried out, add in new chicken bedding material.

How to Clean Your Chicken Coop

For a step-by-step article with pictures, check out my post here, How to Clean Your Chicken Coop.

Benefits of a Clean Coop

Besides smelling and looking clean. Cleaning will lessen the chance of disease and illness. Plus get rid of pests and prevent new pests from infesting your chickens.

A few of the common pests you’ll protect your chickens from include:

• Ticks
• Scaly Face Mites
• Scaly Leg Mites
• Stick fast Flea
• Lice

So as you can see, there are really only benefits to cleaning. As far as how often to clean your chicken coop, it’s easier if you keep up on all the daily and weekly tasks.

But if you only get to one good cleaning a month, anything is better than nothing.

Don’t forget to grab your free cheat sheet below though! It’s a free PDF that you can print off to stay on top of all the tasks!

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