I was spraying my coop down every Saturday for a year before I figured out why my hens kept getting sick

Vera Ross · 2026-09-14T16:05:04.949631+00:00

For about 14 months I did the same thing every single weekend, hose down the whole coop, soak the roosts, spray the walls, felt like I was being such a good chicken owner. Then my barred rock, Nugget, got a respiratory thing twice in one spring and my neighbor Deb stopped by and asked why the coop smelled like a wet basement. She said the litter never actually dried out because I was adding moisture to a wooden coop that already holds it, and all that damp bedding was just brewing the bad stuff I was trying to wash away. I pulled up the shavings the next day and the bottom two inches were straight up matted and warm in a bad way. Switched to scooping the poop every morning and adding dry shavings on top, and I have not had a sick bird in 8 months. Now I only do a deep clean twice a year with a full dry out in between. Anyone else learn the hard way that wet is worse than dirty?

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I was spraying my coop down every Saturday for a year before I figured out why my hens kept getting sick | Backyard Chicken Keepers - Librear