Chicken Coop Cleanup!

That's not smoke!
It's dust!

  The small & cramped feel in the coop, not to mention the dust! Has been driving me crazy since we moved in. Removing the "ceiling" was a huge job and I've been putting it off for months. If I had to do it again I would have done it before we brought in any more chickens, so that I could have done it over 2 days.

Just some of the garbage.
I filled 5 large garbage bags.

Over the years previous owners have shoved feed bags and chicken boxes and garbage up onto the ceiling. A great way to avoid paying for bag tags, but a HUGE mess for me to clean up!

Really surprised I didn't find any
live mice up here!

Not only were all the feed bags holding tons of dust and dander from the chickens, but they were also making a very nice home for mice!! Because they carry disease, soil feed, and eat chicken eggs/chicks you don't want to keep mice & rats in your coop!!

Muscovy ducks are known for their
taste for rodent meat.
I'd still rather keep the mice out altogether.

Wore my respirator to do the clean up but I'm still coughing up dust. It was a terrible nasty job, but at least it's done and not bothering me any more!

Took the time to clean out the whole coop
for the winter too, so I laid down new straw.

We may have some heat problems in the coop this winter now, I'm not sure yet what we're going to do. We are planning on building a solar pop-can heater as well as the brooder lamps. Perhaps we'll find an innovative way to insulate the coop too!