Everyone is discouraging me

[lazy gardener]

Now, that's a nice idea. I hadn't considered getting eggs from a farmer's market!

 

[FLChickidee]

My vote is for getting the chickens. I had two ladies on my back porch because I wanted fresh eggs and they were not legal in my area. I also had two rabbits for the great poop (we had a very large garden). There was no odor and no fly problems. I did have them in a screened porch though. I used pine shaving and cleaned their cage daily. I put a litter pan under their roost which helped to catch a good portion of their poop, at least at night. They had a pan with sand for getting a dust bath and I gave them greens and things from the garden along with their regular food. They were the bottom of the 6' x 3' condo with the rabbits above. I had the chickens in the top, but they did not seem to like it there, they were much calmer at the bottom where they were entertained for hours by the bog. I named one Squawk because she was so noisy the other one was Goldie of course she was a well behaved and quite Buff Orrington. The noisy one was called an "Easter Egger" by the person who sold her to me. If I had to do it again I would have gone with two Buffs because of their quiet disposition.

We have since moved to a place where it is legal to have chickens. I now have a respectable chicken coop with an automatic watering system (thanks to other posters ideas). We have 24 hens a mix of Black Java, Blue Andalusian and Russian Orloffs. I had to give away my other two ladies when we were selling the house. Somehow we did not think that chickens would make a great addition to our staging efforts. Turned out the folks that bought our house would have loved to have chickens... who knew. I love having chickens around, they are quite entertaining. We are working on getting our 2 acres cross fenced so they will have an acre to forage on. They have a fenced area attached to their coop, but we would like them to be able to move around more and get more of their own food and entertain themselves. BTW never let chickens get bored, they can really get into trouble.

For what it is worth that is my two cents on the subject.

 

[cdb1949]

...

I am considering starting a small urban flock.  Everyone that I have talked to about this that has had chickens before immediately gets the same look on their face and the first words out of their mouths are "Don't do it, chickens stink!"  Do they?  This is not going to work out if there a strong odor involved.  My husband is not a fan of this idea and my neighbors will complain and that will be the end of that.   Where I live, you are allowed 4 hens.  No roosters.  

Everyone just keeps telling me how "stinky" chickens are.  I've got no experience with them other than taking a quick stroll through the poultry barn at the fair and it's been a few years since I have done that.

Give it to me straight, chicken lovers, please!
[chickens stink].

The inly part that stinks is where they poop. Our roosting area is over half inch chicken wire and the poop drops through (mostly) onto dried leaves and hay/straw which I rake out and replace when I smell it. Otherwise, no stink! Rewards are eggs, yummy fresh eggs. I have a light for them for night which helped our girls lay all winter

 

[nicolep1986]

Everyone told me the same thing. First off, did these naysayers have little backyard flocks or big flocks on a farm? There is a difference! More chicken means more poo means more stink. Four little hens are not going to smell that bad. Also, four hens are going to be a lot easier to keep clean.

That said, poo stinks regardless of what animal it comes from (lol) but if you clean it up properly you shouldn't have a problem. My coop definitely has a 'farm smell' to it but you can't smell it unless you're inside and honestly, my dogs can stink up the backyard worse than my chickens ever have.

I have 6 hens housed in an old shed. In the summer I don't put anything down. It's a wood floor and every morning I scrap up the poo and toss it in the compost. In the winter I put down straw or wood shavings (pine or hardwood, never cedar!) depending on what's available. About every week or every other week I rake all the bedding out from under their roost and spread it on the garden.

ETA: I should add a poop board under my roost (it's just a board that goes under the roost to catch the poo). Then there would be very little poo in my coop at all even in the winter. But we are planning to move soon and it's almost spring so I'm not too worried but my next coop will definitely have one.

 

[toyler]

I have had six laying hens for nearly 3 years now. They only smell if you do not clean out their pen. Much like if you had a cat and never changed the litter box. In fact I have a cat, and the litter box smells much worse than my hens cage! I have a large coop that is actually an old horse stall converted to a very safe chicken coop. The floor is dirt covered with about an inch of sand. Then I spread some straw on top of that. I rake out the straw about every 10 days to 2 weeks. They poop when they roost, so make I make sure I put straw under the roost stick to help clean up go smooth. Since I have a little land, I like to compost the straw/litter from my coop to use in my garden, but if you needed to, you could bag it.

 

[Dwells]

I currently have four chickens and about to add 2 more. I have had some issues with odor particularly in the summer. I clean the coop every other day but the odor doesn't get too bad. My chickens were in a small coop and small run but have recently built a large run so they have room to move. FYI a coop that advertises 4-6 chicken capacity has to be talking about bantams. The sand in the run is an excellent idea and will help with ease of cleaning. Me personally I would build a decent sized run ( I used an old trampoline as a frame for mine) and get a large medium sized coop. I dont know how the weather is where you are but a medium coop with four chickens allows them to use each other for heat in the winter. I hope you decide to get your chickens. It is a great hobby and the only one that produces food almost daily. Best of luck

 

[mumofsix]

chicks ordered , coop in pile in building , cold outside and I have the flu. but someday the sun will shine and I'll call my brothers and it will come together with them and God.

 

[TNegger]

I can't imagine 4 chickens can smell that bad-I had six in a small-moderate chicken house with 8 foot run at night and free range during the day. Used a few inches of pine shavings in roosting box and hardly ever cleaned it out. Even the built up chicken poo at the roosting box floor opening while looking digusting never struck me as really bad smelling. Coop was in shade mostly during the day. My inital hens (red sex link and barred rock) from baby up when kept in small coop never really tried to fly or jump to high places. I did receive 8 hens from someone who was moving away--those chickens did like to jump up to 8 ft high! Not sure if certain breeds aren't inclined to jump or fly. I am installing a 670 foot long of only 48 inch high fence for larger flock out in the country--hoping most of the chickens stay in? Getting a livestock guardian dog due to canine predators. You could clip their wings(one side vs both) also to keep them in a 6 ft hgh fence. Some threads on diatamecous earth also seemed to help control odor?

 

[Bearing1]

I have had up to 27 chickens and normally 0 smell, occasionally after big rain slight smell if i hadn't cleaned up the day before.
I clean the run every day with a dog pooper scooper and keep the coop clean and well ventilated, every morning I clean out under the roosts
A well designed coop makes all this 20 minutes in the morning (coop and run)and 10 minutes in the afternoon (run). I am being entertained by them for both those times in any case so it is time well spent. My garden grows large vegetables with all the chicken waste. So there not everyone is discouraging you, certainly not here.

 

[Biologrady]

If you are especially concerned about yhe smell, start with just two or so birds (ours lived in a big dog crate in the attached garage until they were big enough yo move outdoors), also look into getting a product called sweet PDZ (or something close to that) which is a stall freshener sold at horse supply places, some people swear by it.