Stinky Chickens!

[jody78]

Why do my chickens stink? I pick them up pretty often, so even my hands get stinky. The worst offender is my Gold laced Wyandotte cockerel, oh my lord he reeks..

…. Is it ok to give them a bath?

 

[Habibs Hens]

i think its the amonia in the poo

they smell like a fish tank and i know that is duw to amonia

sometimes chicken tend to roll around and get covered in it as they dont look where they are rolling

it should be ok to bath them and then dry them off before you let em outside


also check the mouth if its that then get a mouth freshner supliment to add to the water

this is a good one


Quote:

 

[Beekissed]

I've been raising chickens a pretty long time but never had one that was stinky when picked up....you might want to look into how well you are keeping their environment clean.

My birds always smell like chickens...sort of a warm, chicken feather smell...not unpleasant, just chickeny...sort of like ground corn. I'd never describe it as "stinky".

 

[gg706]

My chicks stink right when they poop and then that's it. I agree with beekissed they have a feather chickeny smell but it is not in any way offensive to me....now if you ask my husband HE has a different opinion. You may be nose sensitive to it. I clean the chicken tractor everyday ...removing the old straw and composting it and put in fresh straw. I have not had mine long enough to warrant a full fledged cleaning yet but I will when necessary. How often are you cleaning the coop?

 

[jak2002003]

Your chickens should not smell bad. They naturally have a kind of musty dust smell and also smell a bit like the pellet food they eat.

After handling them you should not really be able to smell much on your hands!

Perhaps their coop or nest box bedding is dirty and they are dust bathing in it? Check their environment is clean.

Also they should be able to naturally clean themselves by dust bathing. Supply some dry sand or fine dry dirty for them on the ground, or in a large shallow container.

It will no them no harm to bath them with a mild pet shampoo, but you should not have to be doing this at all and its just making work for yourself........and the chickens don't love a bath like we do!

 

[amenfarm]

I found thespoiledchickens post on her poop deck and roost, and copied that last week with the stall freshener PDZ load into the tray. It has changed the smell from their 1st day last week (from Oh, my god) to my husband installing everything by day 3 ( well, I can live with this), it did not even smelled as though they were chickens in the coop much less 4. Scooping 3 minutes every day, I rake over the shaving, sprinkle with a little PDZ and do a weekly deeper cleaning that lasts about 15-20 minutes, make sure they have a clean spot to dust in as mentioned before--mine has sand, topsoil, and ashes ( no chemical logs or treated wood, I will be adding diamactous (sp?) earth when i pick some up from TSC.

 

[Aeropennchick]

I use the PDZ as well, and the coop and run don't smell badly at all...plus we have plenty of room for the little guys. I only think their ceacal poops stink. I sniff their feathers all the time, haha, I think my chickens smell great!!

 

[bj taylor]

i have five chicks between 4 & 5 wks old. sometimes i get a whiff of foul smell coming from them. my older girls have never smelled bad - just chickeny. these babies are outside in a, what for them, is a large run. no overcrowding. their poop looks pretty normal. their bedding is clean, so is their water & so is their feed.
it's an offensive smell & i can't pin it down to one bird. everyone acts good. they're verbal, active, eating/drinking well. it's got me a little worried.
is there an illness associated with this?

 

[BackyardCoop]

The only chickens we had that stunk were Cross X's. Nasty things... but they are in the freezer now!

Our others don't stink at all!

 

[twisted troy]

Do you still have a heat lamp on them? I think that kind of amplifies their odor. If they have enough space and ventilation they shouldn't stink.

I can also attest to the ashes, my older chickens are free range with a coop at nite and I often catch them dust bathing in my firepit. But be careful because I have seen one of mine try to dust bath in warm ashes and probably some coals to. She came out of there pretty quick....and no worse for wear.