I cleaned the chicken coop this morning. Now, there may be some of you thinking – yuck, I don’t want to do that any time soon.
Well, let me say I might have had that opinion in the past as well. But, in the last several years, I have enjoyed fresh eggs provided by these lovely ladies.
The cruel fact of the matter is that chickens have to live in a house that doesn’t have separate bathroom facilities.
Cleaning the chicken coop is one of those jobs that has a beginning, a middle and an end.
When I’m done, I can look around and appreciate a job well done plus I have wonderful deposits that can go in the compost bins to make fertilizer for our perennials.
Life is good. 🙂
Grandkids checking out the chickens under the coop
NewEnglandGardenAndThread 
Been there, done that. 🙂
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we had chickens for 18 years before moving- we NEED to build a coop
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I’ve heard chicken manure is actually better than cow manure for gardens. I’ve met a lot of gardeners that swear by it.
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It’s higher in nitrogen so plants get more out of it but it needs to be composted first or it’ll burn plants.
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That brought back memories! It was always my job to clean out the chicken coop when I was a kid – and I hated it. I can still smell it just reading your post. It has stopped me from ever keeping chickens (I don`t like eggs by the way) although I love painting them – chickens that is – not eggs!
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Thank you for the chuckle. I picked up the eggs when I spent summers at my grandparents’ farm and always got pecked by the hens and hated having to do the chore. I have to say these girls have been fun except that is when they are molting and stop laying. 🙂
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Whooooooohooooooo – I`ve just remembered coming back with the china eggs in the basket when I was a kid!
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That’s a cute little chicken coop! : )
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The chicken coop isn’t as bad as everyone says to me either. I have a poop board under the roost that gets scrapped regularly. As a result of that the rest of the coop stays pretty darn manageable in terms of cleaning and smells. I know for myself I worry much more if people can smell my cat box when they walk in.
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I’ve seen the slings that go under a roost and I’ve seen a screened in box that you can clean from outside, but can you tell me how the poop board works and is constructed? Sounds interesting.
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darling little chicken coop! my grandparents had hens and I loved going inside the toasty warm coop in winter to find eggs…those were warm, too!
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I will let you keep the chicken coup but I sure wish you lived next door so that we could have an egg or two now and then! I would trade baked goods?
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You would have a deal – eggs for baked goods.
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For us a clean coop= happy chickens= more of the good eggs 😉
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What a beautiful coop. I too enjoy cleaning out my chickens and they enjoy me doing it. They think it is playtime. They climb on my shoulders and jump on my back generally being a nuisance and enjoying it. I often laugh all the time I am doing this job.
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