# Regular Chicken/Coop maintenance please



## Shamrockmommy (Jun 24, 2015)

So what is your typical chicken/coop care routine? Such as cleaning, treating coop/birds for pests (when, which product, how much), and cleaning routine (respirator to clean?)

Side note: I am a very anxious person. I tried to have chickens once before but I had 27, a huge rolling chicken coop, and 4 sets of electric chicken fence. It very quickly became overwhemling. I had some get lice and mites (I guess the wild birds brought them, since they could freely fly in and eat the food). Not a fun chore to dust all the birds with permethrin. Eventually with the work of moving the huge operation around the yard (5 acres) and the parasite issue, I sold the whole thing, swearing never to return to chicken ownership again! 

BUT LOL I love chickens! They are funny things and I love their fluffy bottoms and fun colors. 

SO now I have 2 banty baby hens, and 4 LF coming in July to try again on a much smaller scale. My 2 biggest worries are parasites (this scares the crap out of me! I do not want them on me at ALL- this comes from years of Lyme disease, from ticks, which robbed me of quality of life for a long time, (PTSD, if you will). Of course they don't transmit Lyme, and prefer avian hosts, but the idea of them getting on me, and red mites biting me is pretty nerve wracking. How would I prevent them getting on me if I have to treat my birds? 

Also worry about breathing in dust/mold that comes along with litter that's breaking down. Recently last week got a bulk pile of mulch delivered, didn't know that it was LOADED with mold spores and the first few pitch fork full I took put me in a giant cloud of spores (PANIC!!). I have been to the doctor for a wheezy cough, which is thankfully not pneumonia, but then if you spend any time with Dr. Google, then it seems like I could get all kinds of scary infections from that. My doctor said it is rare that healthy people get it, and it's a specific type which is also rare. 

Anyway, pardon my anxiety- it's recently had a bit of an upswing for other reasons not related to hens, which makes EVERYTHING seem so much worse. I was pretty ok with having hens prior to some other issues starting. 

Pardon my unloading! 

Anyway, give me your general routine please, for cleaning, and most of all parasite treatment (internal/external). I'd want to do it sometime when egg production drops so I don't feel so bad about withdrawal time and wasting eggs. 

Do I need to calm down? (LOL you don't have to answer that!) I'm used to caring for dogs (we have 4) a cat, a bunny (raised them as a teen myself), 2 gerbils, that's my current crew but also have had guinea pigs, hamsters and parrots! 

Their coop is a tractor, completely predator proof and even small birds can't get in it. (We will start building it this weekend) 

Thanks!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Everybody's setup and requirements can and are different. I had about a 12X20 building with individual pens with attached runs for breeding show chickens. My coop was cleaned each month, thoroughly sprayed before putting new bedding down. I also had a more open air coop with attached runs, same treatment as the big building. And yes, I wore a NIOSH rated mask.

Some areas of the country mites and lice are more of an issue. When I had my birds on sand, I never saw mites. Once they were on a hard floor then it became a problem. I used various methods for treatment to prevent resistance. 

I don't know why you'd need a respirator if you're using a tractor. An idea I've never embraced. Didn't care for the idea that my birds were not secured behind solid walls. Or that they had a solid building during bad storms. 

Can you get respiratory illness from the bedding? Yes, you can. Yes, if your respiratory system is compromised already it is easier but I also know of two people who did not have respiratory problems and contracted aspergillosis. Can mites get on you? Yes. Can they bite you? Yes. But they are species specific and will die. There is nothing I know of to keep them off you without it possibly being a danger to the birds. I know of no diseases that they can transmit to humans. 

You're going to have to work hard to get over your squeamishness or this is not going to go any better than the first attempt. Yep, you most definitely jumped in with both feet that first time around. You're not alone, many have done the same thing. The worrying about what might be is going to bleed the pleasure of having them right out of the whole thing.

I don't treat my birds for internal parasites. It was an experiment I decided to try like six years ago after reading a study about horses. They found horses with strong immune systems never had an issue with an over load of internal parasites so I wanted to see if the same was true for chickens. It appears to be so. My oldest will be ten in August. My youngest is five or six years old. (can't remember any more) 

Good luck, take a deep breath and take time to smell the roses. Worrying about what might be is a waste of time and makes us miss the things that make us happy.


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## Shamrockmommy (Jun 24, 2015)

Thanks for the reply. The tractor is very secure and has a coop on one end made from 3/4" plywood with a galvanized metal roof. It is secure even in high winds. That is one of the things I like about the design. It will have a little coop on one end and debating on pine shavings or sand/PDZ as substrate in there. 
I definitely have a problem with thinking far too advance of any issues even before there's a problem. 

Working on that. It's easier sometimes and sometimes not. 

Thanks for the help!


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

With all those worries I wouldn't have chickens either, or any animal, really. I take things as the come. Worst thing I eve got from my chickens is strep throat and that's my own fault. I'm allergic to mold and have asthma, dust really bothers me - never had an issue with the chickens. When I'm brooding babies in the house or putting down new shavings things get dusty but as for the actual day-to-day caring, nothing has really bothered me

I do a big muck out once a month and add bedding once a week. I keep my feeders and waterers outside to keep down on mess, although in bad weather I feed indoors so the feed doesn't go to waste by getting rained on. This keeps the mess down in the coop as I don't have old feed getting into the bedding to mold and there's no water being splashed around to make the bedding wet.

I dust my birds for lice/mites twice a year; right before winter after a couple good hard frosts and once again in the spring. Since the pests occur naturally there's no getting rid of them completely, so I just counteract infestations by being proactive. After a few hard frosts there won't be any in the environment so it's the perfect time to dust. Over winter as well where the birds are in such tight quarters it's very easy to have a population explosion of parasites, so I dust again in the spring to rid myself of anything additional. I have a lot of birds, so when dusting time comes I wait till the birds are roosting and then I sprinkle across the lot of them.


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