# How often do you clean pens?



## JessaLynn (Aug 30, 2009)

I wanted to see if it's just me or do others clean out pens as often as I do.I do once a week sometimes twice in the summer to keep fly population down.We have dirt floors and I put down lime,saw dust,wood shavings and straw.In the winter I may let it go a wee bit longer depending on how deep our snow is. I rather clean my barn then my house :laugh:


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Once I use pens in my barn I am sure I will want to clean them daily but it will be done at least weekly. 
Currently they are in pastures where the area closest to the house is dirt and the hay racks are. That area gets cleaned kinda as needed. Sometimes every other week sometimes once a month. In the Winter way less often. 
Their shelters are cleaned weekly when they are actually using them.


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## cdtrum (Aug 25, 2008)

I tidy up every day (I have a poop bucket that I scoop poop piles into and dispose of) and fluff bedding, do minor cleanout weekly (rake back top dry straw and rake out the underneath wet and poop,then lime wet areas) add some fresh bedding if needed, major cleanout (all bedding) when it starts smelling which depends on weather and how much they are inside......last 2 winters I have done the deep bedding method, but what a pain come spring! This winter I don't think I will let it go as long.

Also, I have dirt floors....in the warm months if the floor gets to wet and stinky, I will clean all bedding out and but fans on it to dry out all day and they rebed at night before bringing the boys in.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

yards get raked weekly in dry weather, barn swept out daily...wet weather, yards get done once a month and barn floors every other day....winter..yards aren't raked and barns done totally every 2-3 weeks.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

My doe pens aren't really cleanable cause they're pretty large and luckily as they poop...the pen is big enough to wear it gets worn down and doesn't become piled or anything. I do clean up my buck and weaning/holding pens about once a week. For my doe pens...they stay pretty clean, but to get rid of most of the poop scattered around every year we just take a rototiller on a tractor and work the ground. Good for the ground too. However, things have to stay neat and tidy or I go nuts. So any fencing issues have to be fixed, baling twine, buckets, etc. has to be cleared and put away. Hoses usually are coiled after use too. I just like everything really tidy. :laugh: You'll very rarely see anything out of place here unless I get swamped with other things. 

Shelters are cleared and refilled with fresh straw every couple weeks...usually every week in the winter months.


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## JessaLynn (Aug 30, 2009)

Kylee I'm the same way..things have to be in place or it drives me nuts.I like things nice and tidy and if 5 kids and homeschooling didn't consume most of my day I would be out there with a pooper scooper and holding it underneath them to catch berries :laugh:


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

:ROFL:


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## Breezy-Trail (Sep 16, 2011)

I clean them daily and weekly. Maybe more often than I clean my room (I do make my bed daily lol).

Every morning from April to November I sweep it out and shovel it into a pit that is 1ftX4ft and 1ft deep (old cow barn features). Once this pit gets filled I take it out. Which usually is once a week, but I still take it out every Saturday anyway. As long as there isn't puddles of urine when it gets colder (like now) I let them waste hay and all the stalky stuff they don't like makes a dry bed. I use saw dust (from table saw)to take care of the puddles when there are any and then scoop it out. I have cement floors so it can puddle at times...I also have wooden sleeping platforms to ensure that they have a dry space.


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## Jessaba (May 13, 2010)

I clean them out totally weekly but do maintenance cleaning daily..scooping most of the berries up while I'm out scooping dog poo. During the winter I clean less often


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## RMADairyGoats (Jun 20, 2011)

JessaLynn said:


> Kylee I'm the same way..things have to be in place or it drives me nuts.I like things nice and tidy and if 5 kids and homeschooling didn't consume most of my day I would be out there with a pooper scooper and holding it underneath them to catch berries :laugh:


Sometimes I do that! I would take a dust pan and follow them around catching the never ending goat berries!  I clean ours once a week but when I feel like it I will work for hours and get the pen totally clean meaning not one goat pebble in sight. :laugh: A lot of times after I have worked so long and hard they will walk their berries all over the pebble free pen rather than staying there and keeping them in a pile!!!!! :doh: So rude! :laugh:


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## jaycee (Aug 3, 2011)

My experience is more like that of Kylee. Perhaps its because the pens are good sized for a relatively few amount of goats... almost 50 square feet per goat... but I rarely have anything to clean up. My four does have a pen 12 x 16 that they eat and sleep in and the manure never collects... not sure where it goes, and the dirt floor is never wet or messy other than with wasted hay that I just let them use for bedding. 

Sometimes I find it a little amazing considering I have another stall the exact same size with just one cow and I shovel 4 or 5 pitchforks of manure out each day and have to spread fresh bedding to soak up the urine that puddles up. Goats are SOO much cleaner than cows...


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

I forgot...I also did something a little different this year in one of my doe pens (the dry lot). I took a bucket tractor and scraped about an inch off the top of most of the pen and made a big mountain of dirt and a little poop and turned it into a little goat mountain. :laugh: Scraping the excess manure up and piling it helps prevent internal parasites too. :thumb:


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## mommaB (Oct 1, 2009)

I clean deep once a week. Meaning down to the dirt. After it is clean, then I put a dusting of lime down, and on top of that goes a dusting of DE. then the hay they waste goes for bedding. I also rake once in between cleanings.
In the winter it's the same as above, except I put down absorbant pellets, and straw for warmth.  the absorbant pellets help ALOT with the urine smell, and shovels out very easily. :thumb:


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## Calico Patch Farm (Mar 8, 2011)

Kylee, we have a poop pile/goat mountain too and the goats love it! There is even weeds and grass growing on it now so its even better.


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## logansmommy7 (Nov 11, 2009)

My run in shed which is where the does sleep, in general, usually is cleaned once a month or so, but lately, my two llamas have decided that is a good place to poop and it has to be done more often. Anyone have ideas on how to relocate llama's pooping spots??? You know, they poop in one spot! ARRRGGGHHH....


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## AlaskaBoers (May 7, 2008)

I scrape the floors in the barn every other week, they turn the shavings and straw to dust. so I just use a square tipped shovel to clean


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## simplynewt (Sep 5, 2011)

I have 3 girls and they go to a house I have built them inside their pen. I use wheat straw inside the house for bedding. I am finding that if I do not change this bedding every other day, it starts to smell. I could probably add DE to this to cut back on odor but havent gotten any yet.

Im just starting out in the goat raising so I may need to try something different if the mojority here is only cleaning at most once a week.


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## Randi (Apr 22, 2011)

I rake the doe cave daily and put down Stall Dry and Wood Chips. I don't clean the goat and chicken paddocks unless the horses are in there. I clean the house occasionally too. :laugh:


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## ettasmama (Jun 27, 2010)

Wow I am really suprised at some of this. I have 2 goats in 1/2 of a 1 1/2 car garage plus a similar amount of outdoor area that they have access too all the time and then I let them out to exercise in the yard most days for a few hours if I am home. I cleaned out our pen 2-3x this summer but have just been letting bedding build for a few monthes now. It doesn't smell and our fly issue is from our chickens and dog not our goats. The chickens get let into the goat pen area every few days and seem to turn it all over pretty well. We lime and then lay down straw and it has just been super easy. Also easy on the pocketbook thankfully.


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## Ducklady (Apr 7, 2010)

I only have 2 goats and I do a quick clean 2x a day. After I feed them I rake their pen then scoop it up in a rolling bucket. It gives me time to check on them, and when they're busy eating they don't feel the need to help (by that I mean eating the rake, knocking over the bucket, standing in front of me supervising...).


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

Interesting replies. We really do not have a schedule but rather muck it out when it seems too gross. Our barn is divided into three sections and I keep them out of the two pens if the weather is nice. That gives them the small area where the manger is and that gets cleaned pretty often. If I find a pile of poo I shovel it out to the compost heap.
When the weather gets cold and wet and I have to let them have access to the whole barn; it, of course, has to be done much more often.
I pretty much never clean my house but my milking parlor is imaculate.

Weird thing about my 2 boys. They have a nice yard with a small storage shed for shelter. If we put straw (or anything) down on the floor; they dig it all out the door.


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## Jdyson (Jul 20, 2011)

I rake mine every day and my husband gets the leaf blower out once a week to blow all of the poo into a pile for me. It makes it a whole lot easier than raking it up. I clean the little house out when it starts to smell. I have a rubber mat underneath everything so the floor doesn't get wet. I decided to try pine straw out as bedding to see how they like it because it is a whole lot cheaper than the hay that they prefer and I throw some of that on top as well, lol. They love a little snack! :dance:


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

I have a small pen and a small barn stall (4'x8') for 2 does and (temporarily) 2 kids. So in the warm weather I clean daily. I just started using lime on the dirt floor. The goats go in and out of the stall all day, so the ammonia smell can get quite strong. I also rake the pen weekly.

But I haven't dusted my living room in WEEKS...


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## Mandara Farm (Sep 12, 2010)

In the summer I do spot checks every day with a child's rake and plastic shovel (both really lightweight so it's easy). Then once a week a deep cleaning. Then I put down DE and then clean grass hay for bedding.

Last winter was my first with goats. I let the sod and old hay mat down and pile up and it seemed to work just fine, and they stayed warm and dry all winter. THis year they have a new barn (just finished -- it only needs a little paint and then we'll move it to the new, permanent spot). Anyway, I think I'll be cleaning more often this winter so it's not so hard next spring to clean out. Maybe once a month or so? I have 5 does and their new barn is about 12x12. :leap:


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Mandara Farm....I have 5 does in a 8x12 with a wood planked floor....I will never do the deep bedding pile up over the winter again, way too hard to get cleaned out come spring. I do once a month once the weather turns cold, even then theres ALOT of forking into a wheelbarrow but it doesn't take me long and theres only 4-5 trips with the WB as opposed to a 2 day job and 10-12 trips. My boy however get a total clean out in November and again in March, their part of the barn is 4x8 for 2 and 4x6 for Teddy, they don't waste as much hay as the does and the only time they're inside is if it's very cold/windy or wet and snowy.


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## Mandara Farm (Sep 12, 2010)

Hi Liz, 
Yeah the deep bedding thing is HARD to clean come spring isn't it! Yoiks! Last year my girls were in a covered chain link pen that had a low ceiling. Very hard on the back! The new barn is so warm on its own that I dont feel the need to do the deep bedding thing. My husband got this old metal shed for free on a construction job -- it had insulated walls too. Then he put up metal sheets inside so the goaties can't chew on the insulation, and there are windows high up for ventilation. Still, it's warm in there and it stays very dry so I may just continue the weekly cleaning.


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## CluckyJay (Aug 3, 2011)

I am trying the deep litter method. I am using that with the chickens and figured why not with the goats. Seems to be working. They have really deep litter though. Next year I am gonna rake it all out and toss it on the red wigglers, buhaha.

That is, if it keeps working as well as it has been.


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## packhillboers (Feb 2, 2011)

In the summer time, our area is all so dry. The goats run freely on our acres and do not poop up one area too much except where they sleep at night. I sweep that into a huge pile and try to haul it out of pen. We close off the winter time pens and sheds so they can not poop them up. I had swept/scraped to the dirt and raked this whole area up when it was dry. Now the grass is green and growing again and will be good and clean for kidding season in spring time. The mammas and their babies will have this area in the spring time to run around in. Each mamma has her own little kid hut for 3 weeks to sleep in.
In the winter & spring wet season, I have to clean out their sleeping areas almost everyday depending on how bad it is(how much they have pooped inside their pens). At kidding season, with the small newborns, it is everyday, especially during rainy times. They get new clean straw every 3 days. If it is badly soiled, I will change it sooner. Summer is easy because it is dry and they poop down the hill more.


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