cleaning chicken houses

[hawthorns]

whats the best thing to clean out chicken houses. what do fellow chicken keepers use. i have an eglu and cleaned them out for the first time this weekend and just used warm soapy water.

[vicky]

I've used Virkon (supposed to even kill bird flu!), Dettol (makes it smell like public lavs!) and Poultryshield (against red mite). Not sure which is the best though!

[Bephlam]

lol @ dettol making it smell like public lavs! Clearly your lavs have attendants...ours tend to smell like stale pee pee! Yuk!

[roitelet]

I use ***** Fluid and hot vinegar. Fries the red mites and smells like chip butties with a hint of ***** 'cos the ***** doesn't smell strong any more

[lainey lou]

I just use hot soapy water, think that is sufficient for an eglu.

[Bramblehen]

I have a converted wood shed and alternate Poultryshield and dettol

[Snadger]

I use Armillatox.........purely because I have some that I clean the greenhouses out with!

[Hilary B]

It's years since I kept chickens, and even longer since they were in a 'chicken house', but I don't remember ever washing anything apart from the space beneath the persch, where they pooed at night (not every time, just if the poo didn't scrape off readily), or the nestbox if it got really 'mucky' (broody sleeping in there, or a broken egg). Mostly there was removable stuff (shavings/straw or similar) and I simply changed that. If it looks and smells clean, it don't need any 'cleaning stuff' added. Plastic housing (such as the Eglu) may need a different approach, or may not....