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This is our third chicken coop, and biggest yet! We’ve had chickens for over 11 years now and in that time I’ve learned a thing or two. From converting a dog house to a small, four hen coop at our first house, to then upgrading and building a medium-size, 12 gal coop. And now our latest, a walk-in building that will hold 13 ladies, (to begin with) three ducks, and 25 guineas! This coop is basically the brainchild of years of dreaming, and I’m so excited to see it come to fruition. What’s the first thing I did to it? Painted the inside white! “What?” You may be thinking? Painting the inside of a chicken coop? Why yes! And for a few, very valid reasons!

Painting the inside of a chicken coop serves many purposes, I’ll break them down here.

5 reasons you should consider painting the inside of a chicken coop:

1. Protect the wood

Let’s face it, chickens are cute, but dirty. They poop where they please, whenever they please. And if you have a lot of them, it adds up. Leave exposed, untreated wood within their space can result in the wood cracking, warping, and rotting over time. Getting treated wood definitely helps, but adding a sealer and/or paint is the best way to prevent issues long term.

Before painting:

After:

2. Prevent parasites

Painting the interior wood surfaces of a coop before adding chickens helps protect the wood, making it harder for chicken parasites to hide out.

Common external parasites are:

• Red Mite (Dermanyssus gallinae)
• Northern Fowl Mite (Ornithonyssus sylvarum)
• Common chicken louse (Menopon gallinae)
• Scaly leg mite (Cnemidocoptes mutans)
• Depluming mite (Cnemidocoptes gallinae)
• Helminths (worms)
• Gapeworm
• Capillaria

It’s much easier to spot parasites and issues when the coop is painted white, because bugs are easier to see. A wood color and textured backdrop is like camouflage to bugs and they blend, making an issue much harder to notice.

3. Easier to clean

Paint gets in and fills cracks and crevices in the wood. This helps provide a much smoother, easier surface to clean. I painted about three, thick coats on the walls and floors of my coop. Now, when you run your hand along the boards, you don’t get fingers full of splinters. Instead, it’s a smooth, clean surface that lends to washing up well. Not often will I scrub down my whole coop, but every few weeks I always sweep it out, spritzing the areas that need a little extra gunk removal with vinegar water and scrub those. I also have a designated “coop duster” that I use to dust the rafters and ledges. Again, the cleaner you keep the area, the healthier a flock you’ll tend to have.

4. A white coop means a cooler coop

Black tends to attract heat, and white does the opposite. It deflects. I painted the interior and exterior of my coop white, and truthfully, I feel it’s made a difference in how hot the inside of the coop gets. We are in Tennessee and summers here are no joke. Anything that I can do to prevent overheating in my flock, I’m willing to try.

5. Aesthetically, it just looks nice!

And lastly, on a purely aesthetic level, a painted coop is just a prettier coop. It’s calming to walk in and see it a nice crisp white. I did paint the perches and trim black, because those tend to get the poopiest and a white perch won’t stay white for long. As for the floors and walls though, as long as I keep the ground covered evenly with bedding and scrub the walls as needed, I hope to enjoy my white painted coop for years to come.

Have more chicken questions? Check out these posts:

How to keep backyard chickens

Why do Chickens eat their own eggs

And make sure you’re following along in real-time over on Instagram where I share the adventures of our 120 acre homestead as it happens!

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