Thinking Outside of the Box Coop
I dreaded cleaning out the old chicken coop. And the duck house. I built the first chicken coop I had on tall legs, so the entire coop, nesting boxes and all, were up high enough so that I didn’t have to bend over and put any extra strain on my back. This made it easy to clean out and to retrieve eggs.
The duck house is an old dog house that we picked up for free, and it is huge. Problem is, it’s a dog house, albeit a huge one, but it sits just above the ground, and it’s not tall enough for me to stand in. Meaning lots of bending and stooping over when it was time to gather eggs and clean it out.
Now that I’ve build the new coop, I only have to bend over a few times when coop cleaning day gets here, because I’ve found THE best tool to help me.
I have my stand by tool that I used to clean out the old waist-high coop. If you promise not to laugh, I’ll tell you what it is.
Promise? Pinky swear? It’s a little blue child’s snow shovel. It was perfect for the old coop. It took a lot of scoops to empty the 3′ x 3′ floor, but it was light and it fit perfectly into each nesting box, and didn’t hurt my back.
The New Coop
I got the new coop finished enough to move the girls into it in January of this year. It’s an 8′ x 12′ walk in coop. Or shed. Or barn. Anyway, the shavings are on the floor, and their part of the coop is 8′ x 6′. Waaaay too big to use my cute little blue shovel. It just wasn’t going to cut it.
I needed to come up with something else.
I had purchased a stall picking fork for the duck house a couple of years ago, but the angle of the fork and the flimsy tines made it almost impossible to use. I could use it in the new coop, only on dry shavings and dry poo, not when the shavings had gotten wet or heavy.
Being a master problem solver/engineering type thinker, was putting off cleaning out the coop this spring, when it hit me.
The Right Tool for the Job
The aluminum snow shovel.
We bought it probably 16 years ago, and it’s still our go to when we need snow removal or debris removal of any kind. It’s a very large aluminum snow shovel, or at least that’s how it was marketed. It’s very light, the handle won’t break, and I’m pretty sure this thing will outlive me. And, I’m not sure if it’s the aluminum itself, or if there’s a coating on the scoop part, but everything just slides right out.
All of a sudden I was on a mission to find it and give it a whirl.
It only took me about 8 or 9 scoops total to clean all of the shavings out of the coop!
Even though this shovel is enormous, it’s very light and holds a lot of shavings, so I had the floor cleaned out super fast, and it didn’t hurt my back.
I use the big shovel to scoop the dirty shavings into the large bucket (I actually found at Target for $7.99) and then I slid the bucket out the front door of the coop and dumped it into my dumping wagon. Another one of my hard working sidekicks. I think we found it at our local farm supply store, and I’ve only had to replace the tires on it in the years we’ve owned it. It’s at least 15 years old.
When you’re faced with what you feel is an enormous task, and you’re dreading it, think outside the box. You just might find a tool or a way to make it easier or more efficient, opening up a whole new world of possibilities.
Work smarter, not harder!
