Cleaning your Chicken Coop with Apple Cider Vinegar!

Cleaning your Coop with A.C.V.

We came across this all natural recipe when we discovered a terrible red mite infestation in our coop last summer. We didn't want to use the harsh chemicals that is known for getting rid of the mites. So after a lot of research we finally found a recipe using Apple Cider Vinegar and a few different types of oils. Although we used this for mites (which worked great!) it can be used for just a regular cleaning. 

Things you need:

1 Gallon of Apple cider vinegar

1 bottle of Eucalyptus oil

1 bottle of Rosemary oil

1 bottle of Tea Tree oil

* You will only need a little bit of each oil but you will need the full gallon of A.C.V

In the full gallon of apple cider vinegar add 1 tablespoon of each oil to the A.C.V. and shake the bottle so that it mixes together. 

The first thing that needs to be done is everything needs to be removed from the coop and nesting boxes. We use sand for the litter and sand and pine chips in the nesting boxes. We used to have straw for the boxes but we found out that straw can be a great home for red mites! So we decided to get rid of the straw as well.  We used a vacuum to be sure we got every thing out of the coop. Once everything was out we soaked the walls, floor, beams, doors, nesting boxes, and perches. We got every inch of the coop with the mixture to be sure to get all the mites out. You could see the bugs dying as the mixture was getting them wet, it was working great! Although for myself I felt pretty itchy after being in the coop for over an hour with those bugs!

Once everything was soaked we let it dry for a few hours before placing everything back into the coop. We took this time to replace the sand with all new sand and pine chips in the nesting boxes. We also put D.E.  in all the little cracks or little openings in the wood since this is where the mites like to hide.

In our case, we did this several times throughout the next couple weeks until we saw that there weren't any more mites inside the coop.  If this is being used for just a regular cleaning then it only needs to be done once.

Apple cider vinegar is a great thing to have around for backyard chickens. We have found many uses for it and love it!


Ashley & Nick