It's the weekend, so it's time to poo pick/clean out the allotment coops.
I started by filling the feeders, and checking over the birds. Then I snapped on my latex gloves, and started.
Coop 1 - The Breeding Group (Roo, Mrs Roo, Rose and Ruby) didn't take very long. Someone is sleeping in the nestbox though.
Coop 3 - The Laydees (Mrs Flint, Norman, NotNorman, Pogo and Siouxie Sioux) - quick and easy, although I discovered some water ingress in the back left hand corner. I cleaned out the whole thing, and left the front off so it could dry out while I did Everything Else.
Coop 2 - The Dinner Chickens (Boys: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, Oddbod; Girls: Orange and LimeGreen). What a mess! They are obviously filling out the large coop now, and I can see from the poo that some of them are facing the back of the coop. I had to give their coop a really thorough clean, and I tried to think of options for sorting it out a bit. Then I remembered that we had had another set of roosting bars and a poo tray, ages ago. I eventually found it in the shed, in the sort of "cupboard" which has a pop hole to make an emergency small-ish coop. It was covered in dry poo.
Nothing for it. I set to work with a scraper, then a packet of Virkon, some water and a brush. One whole packet of Virkon later, and the bars were clean. I put them in the sun to dry, and went round sorting out everyone else.
A bit of Stalosan in the Laydees coop, then fresh Aubiose, and everything back. DH will need to find and fix the source of the ingress when he gets back.
Tidied up the shed.
Scrubbed the drinkers.
Found some Grit for the Dinner Chicks.
And eventually the roosting bars were dry enough to be coated first with Stalosan, to help dry them out, and secondly with Diatom. Then we had new Aubiose, and the roosting bars fitted perfectly. (DH designed them to fit over garden centre trays, so all our roosting bars are the same width. More or less.)
The whole thing took forever today. Normally on clean out day there are two of us. I do the poo, and DH does the feeders and drinkers.
I started by filling the feeders, and checking over the birds. Then I snapped on my latex gloves, and started.
Coop 1 - The Breeding Group (Roo, Mrs Roo, Rose and Ruby) didn't take very long. Someone is sleeping in the nestbox though.
Coop 3 - The Laydees (Mrs Flint, Norman, NotNorman, Pogo and Siouxie Sioux) - quick and easy, although I discovered some water ingress in the back left hand corner. I cleaned out the whole thing, and left the front off so it could dry out while I did Everything Else.
Coop 2 - The Dinner Chickens (Boys: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, Oddbod; Girls: Orange and LimeGreen). What a mess! They are obviously filling out the large coop now, and I can see from the poo that some of them are facing the back of the coop. I had to give their coop a really thorough clean, and I tried to think of options for sorting it out a bit. Then I remembered that we had had another set of roosting bars and a poo tray, ages ago. I eventually found it in the shed, in the sort of "cupboard" which has a pop hole to make an emergency small-ish coop. It was covered in dry poo.
Nothing for it. I set to work with a scraper, then a packet of Virkon, some water and a brush. One whole packet of Virkon later, and the bars were clean. I put them in the sun to dry, and went round sorting out everyone else.
A bit of Stalosan in the Laydees coop, then fresh Aubiose, and everything back. DH will need to find and fix the source of the ingress when he gets back.
Tidied up the shed.
Scrubbed the drinkers.
Found some Grit for the Dinner Chicks.
And eventually the roosting bars were dry enough to be coated first with Stalosan, to help dry them out, and secondly with Diatom. Then we had new Aubiose, and the roosting bars fitted perfectly. (DH designed them to fit over garden centre trays, so all our roosting bars are the same width. More or less.)
The whole thing took forever today. Normally on clean out day there are two of us. I do the poo, and DH does the feeders and drinkers.
Never mind, all done and tidy. Next time, weather permitting, I'll need to empty them out and spray them with Poultry Shield. Just in Case.
