kiwi
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advice needed re chickensHi all
we have inherited a chook house with our new place and are keen to keep some chooks. we attempted to start clearing it out earlier tomight but it doesn't look as if it has been touched in a couple of years and is knee deep in what looks like old grain and a rather large helping of possum poo 
my main question is just how clean does it have to be ? obviously we will clean it out and get rid of all the old stuff - the house part itself has a concrete floor but the run part is on earth. all in all it looks run down and a bit spooky 
what is best to put on the floor and once up and running how often does it have to be cleaned out? in an ideal world I would really like them to be roaming free but am not sure if this is an option or not.
any tips would be greatly appreciated.
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judith
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To clean it out, I would start with a spade and wheelbarrow. Sounds like you have some lovely well-rotted poo for your garden! Take that away, then hose it down and see what it's like underneath. Then hose it all down if you can - or use a stout broom and lots of buckets of water. Then go over it again with bleach or a strong disinfectant. I would imagine it will be fine then.
For the floor, I would use either wood shavings or straw - whichever you can get hold of easily. As for cleaning out, you could go for the deep litter approach - just keep adding dry material every time it looks too pooey and then do a thorough clean a couple of times a year. Or clean out once every couple of weeks - or when your nose tells you it is time! The advantage of the latter approach is that you can keep watch out for red mites when you clean it out - and it is less smelly!
As for the run, again a good layer of straw or other organic material would give them something to scratch in. Clean that as it gets wet / smelly. (If you are going to keep them penned up, then I prefer a movable run myself, but what you have certainly sounds as though it will do fine for the time being).
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kiwi
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Hi Judith
thks for the advice I have spent a very productive afternoon filling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with "stuff" all of which will eventually be going on the new veg patch. 
I have to say I must have made a very fetching sight in my hat and safety goggles (there was a norwester blowing!!) 
will do the hosing and scrubbing down tomorrow and will then hopefully be ready for our own chooks. 
will try to have them roaming around ( as lots of people seem to here) put them away at night and just see how it goes.
will keep you posted on progress.
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kiwi
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well we are going to collect the hens later on this evening, I have been busy scrubbing and hosing and am going to put a lyer of hay down in a minute so everything should be about ready to go.
we've also acquired a miniature pony who is currently resisiding next to the chook house (which he is used to) so they will keep each other company 
right better go and get on - hope the weather is better in UK than here at the moment - very wet and grey 
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Bugs
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Thoroughly miserable here too, so if your new girls look a bit sorry for themselves to begin with I wouldn't panic.
Ours sulk most of the day in the covered part where they sleep and nest when it rains - although one of them has a penchant for standing out, tail to the ground, starting threateningly at the sky.
One thing though, I think it is debated whether hay is a good idea for chickens, it is prone to being dustier than straw and harbouring moulds - I'm sure we've discussed it here before. Not the end of the world but thought I'd mention it in case you can consider another option for the long term - I'll try to find the details for you. We've now settled on mainly dust extracted wood shavings - one bale lasts months for us, and goes well enough in compost, and is less messy to store in our garden than straw bales.
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