Cleaning out the Chookmobile

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My blogpost of 25 December last showed the Chookmobile we had built from an old trailer bought at a clearing sale.

Since then we've acquired 11 Isa Brown chooks that have started laying.  The Chookmobile is working well.  I move it every two weeks and the grazing and scratching the hens do close to their housing gets moved around a 1.5 acre area.  After a week or so, you can't see where they have been.

After a few weeks the inside of the Chookmobile looks like the first photo.  That is when I attach it to my Polaris Ranger and tow it up to the Compost Yard.

Then, after 15 minutes work from Kristina and me, it looks like the second photo.  Under the mess is a layer of cardboard and newspaper over the old wooden floor - and that makes it quite easy to clean out. 
The chickenshit, straw and cardboard / newspaper goes straight into the compost heap.  Then we sweep it out and clean up any stray cobwebs etc.

At this stage we don't sprinkle around supher or any of the other disinfectants we could use.I guess I could also look at using the pressure washer, but so far it hasn't seemed necessary

Next we put down new layers of paper and use a staple gun to stop it sliding around.  Photo 3 shows me doing this - with creaking knees!

Photo 4 shows the finished floor - with the perches reinstalled.  They get a scrape down as well.

The last thing we do is add part of a bale of hay over the top to give them something nicer to scratch around in - rather than tear up the paper.

From dawn to dusk though the chooks are mainly outside in our trufferie.  So far we've remembered to lock them up every night ... well almost.  And the 2 nights we forgot Mr Fox either wasn't around or couldn't work out how to get into the trufferie.

The girls are giving us nearly one egg each a day at this stage.  Which they should be doing at their age.  The eggs are absolutely beautiful - especially freshly poached.