Time to Clean the Hen House

We love our chickens.  They give us eggs, not to mention the enjoyment we get out of watching their antics.  However, there are some drawbacks, not many, but some.  One of those is having to clean their living quarters.  This should be done every week or so, but with gardening season in full swing, we've kind of let it slip this time.

The last time it was cleaned, I suggested we use some of the leaves that Tom collected last fall and winter for mulch to put under the roost bar.  This is where most of the chicken "poop" accumulates.  We had been using wood shavings under the roost.  These come in large bags  you can buy at any farm store and are used for animal bedding.  But, the leaves were free and seemed like a good idea.  They worked okay, but the wind and chickens scattered them all over the coop and they were a nightmare to clean up.

Feeling somewhat energetic, I decided to tackle the job.  First,  I assembled my tools.

The snow shovel worked well initially to scoop up large bunches of leaves.  These were deposited into a wheel barrow.  Once the worst of the leaves were removed, I used the broom and dust pan to sweep up the rest.   There were a lot of leaves in there!

This is what the inside looked like after I had finished.  I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it before I started cleaning.  There were leaves all over the floor and piled up in the corners.

Notice the wet spots on the floor.  The one in front happened when I moved the chickens' water shown in the lower left corner.  However, the one in back was caused by a leak in the roof.  The leak was not apparent until I removed the leaves over in that corner.  The leaves were hiding the wet spot.  So, the next chore will be to fix the leak.

There was one casualty from the chicken house cleaning.  My broom broke.  Bummer.