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Regardless of the number of livestock kept, the chicken coop must be disinfected periodically. This measure is necessary to destroy and prevent the proliferation of bacteria that cause disease in poultry. Neglect of sanitation threatens the outbreak of an epidemic. In sick chickens, egg production decreases and weight is lost. Salmonella is a very serious disease. The bird carries contaminated eggs that are dangerous for humans to eat. Treatment the poultry house with special preparations helps to avoid such a problem. Disinfecting a chicken coop at home is very simple, and we will talk about this now.
When and how many times should you disinfect your chicken coop?
Let's immediately define what is meant by the word disinfection. This measure includes a certain number of measures aimed at destroying pathogenic bacteria. During the life of chickens, food debris, old litter, droppings and feathers accumulate inside the poultry house. Over time, they begin to rot, creating optimal conditions for the development of microorganisms.Mechanical cleaning is unable to ensure the ideal cleanliness of the chicken coop, so special means are needed to treat the premises, the use of which is meant by the word disinfection.
The poultry house is disinfected once every two months. Additionally, the premises are thoroughly cleaned every year. There is a misconception that to disinfect a chicken coop, it is enough to sanitize the premises once a year. In fact, such efforts will be in vain and will not bring positive results. No matter what you treat the poultry house with once a year, there is still a threat of an outbreak of dangerous diseases.
Three important steps when renovating a chicken coop
Regardless of what drugs and actions are used during sanitation, there is a strict sequence of actions. They must be followed if you want to 100% clean the chicken coop from harmful microorganisms. Poultry house disinfection includes three important stages:
- Cleaning and washing the chicken coop involves mechanical actions aimed at removing dirt. During this procedure, the chickens are removed from the premises.
- The third stage is the disinfection itself. It is usually performed in the presence of poultry, if drugs are used that are not capable of harming the health of chickens.
So, let's look at each stage of disinfecting a chicken coop separately, and also figure out how to disinfect a chicken coop at home.
Stage 1 – cleaning the poultry house
This is the simplest, but at the same time very important stage in disinfecting the chicken coop. Cleaning means the mechanical removal of old bedding, droppings and other waste from chickens. There is no need for great intelligence here; just take scrapers, a shovel, a broom, and clean the room from dirt.
The entire chicken coop needs to be cleaned, especially the perches, nests and floor. The perches where the chickens sit can be brushed over the metal. If chickens were fed from wooden feeders, they must be thoroughly cleaned of food debris. It is important to take into account that disinfectants are powerless on an area that has not been cleared of dirt. They will not cope with bacteria, and all the work will be pointless.
Stage 2 – cleaning the poultry house
After mechanical cleaning of the chicken coop, a lot of dirt still remains. The droppings are strongly absorbed into the wooden elements of the chicken coop and should be washed out. The entire interior of the poultry house falls under this stage of processing. Particular care must be taken to wash the walls, floor, and also the most frequent places where the chicken stays, that is, the perch and nest.
The chicken coop is washed with warm water with the addition of disinfectants specifically designed for this purpose.
It should be taken into account that preparations specially designed for cleaning chicken coops contain disinfectants. They often complement the products used in the third stage of disinfection – disinfection. From folk remedies, it is allowed to add apple cider vinegar to the water during washing, while maintaining a 3:2 ratio.
Stage 3 – disinfection
The third stage is the main one when disinfecting the chicken coop. Many poultry farmers believe that it is enough to disinfect the chicken coop with apple cider vinegar. In fact, this folk remedy is more suitable for washing, and vinegar is unable to kill pathogens. The chicken coop will be completely clean, but not protected from further development of parasites.
The most common, effective, but dangerous disinfectant for treating chicken coops is formaldehyde. Improper use of the solution can harm chickens. However, formaldehyde is considered the most powerful agent that can destroy all bacteria. The disinfectant solution is sprayed throughout the poultry house without the presence of chickens. You only need to work in a protective suit and gas mask. Contact of formaldehyde with human skin is harmful, and even more dangerous is its penetration into the respiratory tract. The substance has a bad, pronounced odor. In many countries, the use of formaldehyde is prohibited.
All poultry houses and livestock farms in the post-Soviet space were treated with bleach. The white powder is no less dangerous than formalin and also mercilessly kills all bacteria. The substance has an unpleasant odor. May cause burns if inhaled. During disinfection, the entire chicken coop is treated with bleach, and some of the powder is also left on the floor. The fact is that the substance is unable to destroy all bacteria in one day, and the chickens will have to live for some time inside a barn with chlorine.
There are many folk recipes used to disinfect a chicken coop. One of them is to mix five parts hydrochloric acid with one part manganese. The container with the solution is left for 30 minutes inside the empty chicken coop.When the two substances react, vapors are released that kill harmful microorganisms. After disinfection is completed, the poultry house is ventilated, after which the chickens can be released.
Folk recipes often use iodine to disinfect poultry houses. To prepare the solution, take 10 g of the substance, add 1.5 ml of water, plus 1 g of aluminum dust. This proportion is calculated for 2 m3 chicken coop. The bacteria die from the resulting reaction. During disinfection, chickens do not need to be kicked out of the house, but after treatment is completed, the room is well ventilated.
The most reliable and safest are store-bought preparations for disinfecting chicken coops. They contain a complex of components that have a wide range of effects on various microorganisms. Store-bought drugs are certified. After their use, epidemics are guaranteed not to break out inside the poultry house for 2–3 months. One of these drugs is Virocide. The solution is sprayed throughout the poultry house in the presence of chickens. There is no need to wash it off afterwards, as the substance is completely harmless.
The video shows an example of processing a poultry house:
Air purification - as an effective means of disinfecting a chicken coop
Microbes live not only on the surface of objects, but also in the air. To get rid of them, the chicken coop is disinfected with smoke bombs or irrigation. To be effective, each procedure lasts 3 days and is carried out once a month.
We offer for your information several methods of air purification, in which chickens do not need to be kicked out of the house:
- Containers are placed inside the chicken coop. Their number depends on the size of the poultry house. Twenty parts of iodine monochloride and one part of aluminum wire are placed in each container.The reaction that occurs produces smoke that cleanses the air of parasites. For 1 m3 poultry house requires 15 ml of iodine.
- A similar reaction occurs when mixing 20 g of bleach with 0.2 ml of turpentine. This ratio is calculated for 1 m3 poultry house
- The iodine-containing drug “Monclavit” does an excellent job of disinfecting the air inside the chicken coop. Requires 3 ml of substance per 1 m3 premises.
- The drug "Ecocide" at a concentration of 0.5% is used for irrigation, which creates fog inside the poultry house. For disinfection, use 30 ml of solution per 1 m23 chicken coop.
- The drug Dixam, produced in tablet form, works well against fungus. After igniting it, iodine-containing steam is released, which additionally heals pulmonary chicken diseases. One tablet is designed to disinfect 200 m3 poultry house
- Iodine checkers called “Cliodesiv” have proven themselves to be excellent. They emit disinfectant smoke that is harmless to chickens.
All of the air disinfection preparations discussed are used in the presence of chickens, after which the poultry house is thoroughly ventilated.
Sulfur smoke bombs for disinfection
Now many stores have sulfur smoke bombs designed to disinfect premises. The principle of their use is simple: remove the packaging from the smoke bomb, insert the wick and set it on fire. The acrid smoke released kills all microbes, and even small rodents. An important requirement is that the room is 100% airtight, after which it must be thoroughly ventilated. The sulfur smell disappears completely after a week.
Although poultry farmers are happy to use cheap sulfur bombs, they are not effective for the chicken coop. The drug is intended for disinfection of basements and cellars.Smoke destroys fungus and harmful insects, but not pathogens of infectious diseases.
The video talks about disinfecting a chicken coop:
You can disinfect your home chicken coop yourself or call the appropriate services. What is best to do is up to the owner to decide. Calling specialists will cost at least 2 thousand rubles. If you want to save money and do everything yourself, it is better to use store-bought products for disinfecting poultry houses. Many of them are sold in large packages and are inexpensive, so they will last for multiple uses.
