Cleaning the coop is the worst job I have
Both answers turn a weekly chore into an annual one. Both also fail the same way if you stop paying attention, and the failure hurts the birds before you notice it.
What actually works
Let the floor compost in place all winter, clean out once a year. Fails toward ammonia — more carbon, more stirring, real ventilation.
A few bales of beddingNo bedding to clean at all; the manure gets spread as thin as the pasture can use it. The cost is moving it every single day.
$80–300One structure doing three jobs — and the fastest way to give a flock respiratory disease if the ventilation isn't deliberate.
Free, if you already have bothRising overnight humidity through December is the early warning that deep litter is going anaerobic. It shows up weeks before your nose finds it.
Also searched as
deep litter method · coop cleaning · chicken manure management · stop cleaning coop weekly · coop bedding · smelly coop