Advice for Chicken Run Smell

[Barney Farm Chick]

Hello! First time chicken owner, and I need some advice on the chicken run, particularly the smell. We have a small coop with four chickens, and a 10x10 chicken run for them. They've dug it all down to dirt, and I rake it every Saturday, as well as completely clean their coop and put fresh bedding.

I live in town, and I have neighbors right next door, so I want to keep the coop and run as smell-free as possible, so as to not upset them, and so that our own backyard doesn't smell horrible. I did plant some lavender and coneflowers around the run, but they're still small this year. Next year they'll be larger and hopefully off-set the smell. I plan on having the run completely surrounded by chicken-friendly flowers, as well as the backyard in general.

Our run is just a dirt floor. We tried straw and wood shavings, but it just smelled worse, and the fly population has grown very large, which I know isn't great for the chickens.

What can I do to keep on top of this, and reduce both the smell and the flies? Thank you!

I too have aroma issues with my coop and run. I clean ours every Sunday, I rake out all poop and replace with new pine and sprinkle DE, but the smell is still there after a few days. I read that adding fans to the coop helps, I will be building a new coop and adding the solar fans to it. I hear people say they only clean it every few months, and don't understand how they don't smell it.

 

[Bawkbok]

We have an open air run - I don't know if that makes a difference or not, I would think just with better air flow (with fans running 24x7) it would have some impact. It is fully covered under a heavy tarp for shade control. We have a dirt floor - natural sand - and we add to it mulched leaves, bamboo leaves, mulch and clean pine shavings from the roost and layer. Mix it all together and let rain and the environment do it's natural thing. We "till" it over with a hand troll once a day and pick up any poops that we see whenever we go in to change water, feed, etc. The pine shavings take the longest to break down. We do not use hay or straw so as not to attract fleas and mites and it tends to stay wet forever after a rain. Otherwise, the chicken waste composts nicely with the natural medium and it gives the chickens something to scratch through and look for bugs. It does not smell. Nor do we have a fly problem. We have never used Lime or DE in their open space nor has it become necessary. DE would deter bugs, which I would think you would want to invite so they have a natural source of food. We also have neighbors breathing on us in close proximity, but they all have dogs, as so we. Dog poop smells worse than chicken poop in my opinion. I invest more time picking up dog poo than I do chicken poo for that reason. Hope this helps.

 

[BecksNesting]

Hello! First time chicken owner, and I need some advice on the chicken run, particularly the smell. We have a small coop with four chickens, and a 10x10 chicken run for them. They've dug it all down to dirt, and I rake it every Saturday, as well as completely clean their coop and put fresh bedding.

I live in town, and I have neighbors right next door, so I want to keep the coop and run as smell-free as possible, so as to not upset them, and so that our own backyard doesn't smell horrible. I did plant some lavender and coneflowers around the run, but they're still small this year. Next year they'll be larger and hopefully off-set the smell. I plan on having the run completely surrounded by chicken-friendly flowers, as well as the backyard in general.

Our run is just a dirt floor. We tried straw and wood shavings, but it just smelled worse, and the fly population has grown very large, which I know isn't great for the chickens.

What can I do to keep on top of this, and reduce both the smell and the flies? Thank you!

Agriculture Lime is something I always keep on hand and close to my chicken runs.

You can give a good dusting before it rains, and more afterwards.

 

[BecksNesting]

We are replacing blue tarps with plastic. Tarps don’t last long, UV plastic is what greenhouses use.

As you can tell we’ve made a modification covered runs similar to greenhouses, where we took the sides up for ventilation and sunshine, then roll them down to keep them dry during rainy weather. That alone greatly reduces smells.

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

Hello! First time chicken owner, and I need some advice on the chicken run, particularly the smell. We have a small coop with four chickens, and a 10x10 chicken run for them. They've dug it all down to dirt, and I rake it every Saturday, as well as completely clean their coop and put fresh bedding.

I live in town, and I have neighbors right next door, so I want to keep the coop and run as smell-free as possible, so as to not upset them, and so that our own backyard doesn't smell horrible. I did plant some lavender and coneflowers around the run, but they're still small this year. Next year they'll be larger and hopefully off-set the smell. I plan on having the run completely surrounded by chicken-friendly flowers, as well as the backyard in general.

Our run is just a dirt floor. We tried straw and wood shavings, but it just smelled worse, and the fly population has grown very large, which I know isn't great for the chickens.

What can I do to keep on top of this, and reduce both the smell and the flies? Thank you!

Horse pine pellets for the floor keeps it fresh for weeks! Or after raking essential oils in and water in a spray bottle lavender is great of lemon balm then spray a couple of times during the week

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hi! First year my run was very stinky, esp after it rained. I cleaned up all the smelly stuff, and put lime on the dirt to cut the smell. Once it dried I added only organic materials, wood chips, leaves, pine bedding. I clean up after them every day and add pine bedding cube every couple of months, and leaves in the fall. My run is no longer stinky and the chickens love to dig in it when they're locked in. Also I don't use straw anymore, one it didn't work, just became gross and also one of my chickens gorged herself on it and had a compacted crop.

 

[paintedChix]

Hmm, so many things!

Where are you located? What is your weather like? This whole week we are colder in sandhills of NC, than our daughter is in MT 35 miles from CN border. We also have humidity.

How is your "small" chicken coop built? Does it have enough ventilation for your 4 birds?

If you plan on using your coop bedding or run litter for composting, don't use DE. That will kill good bacteria as well as bugs. Chip drop was already mentioned. Since you don't your own trees, see who in your area does. Ask if you can pick up leaves. You may need to rake or provide bags. Saved feed bags work. Same w/ garden trimmings - a lot of gardeners are prepping beds for winter/coming spring(depending on where you are. Check to see if they used pesticides, if so, avoid that one.

Your local landfill may have & allow you to pick up wood chips. Some free, some nominal fee.

DLM in the run will usually do better w/ mixed natural materials. This provides different sizes - allowing pockets for water flowing through & aeration - causing the litter to "swallow" & digest the chicken poop leading to no flies or smell. If it starts to smell, you add more materials. You don't have to spread it, leave piled. Your chickens do the rest.

If you use hay & straw, spread out a bit in lawn & mow over it. Chops to different sizes - allowing above & it breaks down faster - no mold or slimeyness. If you use paper shreds, you may want to put 1/4" HWC on bottom of run to keep shred from blowing out. I've never had problems w/ this, but others have.

1 more thing - check drainage under your run. If water isn't actually going anywhere, it can contribute to smell & flies.

Include Rosemary & Sage in your plantings around coops.

Here is my post that I did in Gtaus's thread on paper shreds...

Post in thread 'Using Shredded Paper for Coop Litter - As Good As Wood Chips?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...r-as-good-as-wood-chips.1503415/post-28208912

 

[linguini]

Wood chips! wood chip! or leaves in the fall, grass cuttings, garden waste such as weeds in summer.

We never clean the covered run, simply use deep litter. In summer, when it gets humid, I would sprinkle a thin layer of PDZ, or add more wood chips.

 

[Bawkbok]

Linguini, (I love the pasta name) we also use deep litter and find it has been the best option for us after trying sand and pellets. The deep litter does not smell (other than earthy), there are no flies and poop disappears. The chickens like to scratch in it. Just today I put a fine sprinkle of water from the hose all around and lightly tilled it as it's been so dry here that just walking around in it was kicking up dust. It's warm today at 71 so it should dry without issue before dark. The run stays covered at all times.

 

[Appenzeller friend]

A good coating of barn lime can help cut smell and flies in the short term. Is it covered, or open to the sky? A wet run is managed differently than a dry run.

We do deep litter here. I've also done sand, and gravel. It all depends on the situation. It may help to share some photos so others can see what you have.

about once a month I also dust lime in the coop and run. The coop is very close to the house. We have never experienced any smell or an increase of flies.