Awful Smell

[arwmommy]

How deep are your wood shavings???? I had chicks in my LIVING ROOM for 7 weeks and they were fine (and I have a nose like a bloodhound, everyone says) The key was to add a ton of wood chips and keep it dry! My chips were probably 6" deep at the beginning, and I would add about 2-3" every few days (they get compressed easily, so 6" starting out would end up at 2-3" in a day or so! I changed the whole thing only 3 times in 7 weeks. You MUST put the water high though--- as they grow keep raising it, so it is always the height between their shoulders and eye. I would put scrap wood under until it was the correct height with the little chick waterers. Now that they are in the coop, I just put another brick under the waterer as they grow taller.

Good luck, you will notice an immediate change when more shavings are in--- I promise!!!

 

[bmarshall61]

Not sure where you live but every day or so I put fresh grass clippings in my chicken house and also the brooder, which has 18 two month old guineas, makes it smell wonderful and of course they love it. Been doing that for years, usually start when they are about two weeks old. I do have them on 1/4" wire in the brooder but there is so much compose they never touch the wire.The chicken house has a dirt floor and even with 103 chickens, it never smells. And the wonder compose it makes, i have tomatoes the size of saucers, my cherry tomatoes are the size of peaches and cucumbers that i have to pick daily otherwise they get to big to use. We gave up on the squash, more than we could use or give away and that compose is all that was used on the garden.

 

[Equest94]

Since cardboard is a paper material, it tend to absorbe moisture and therefore lock in smells.... if I were you, I would invest in a big plastic tub/bin and use that instead of a box. Then when you change the litter, you can just hose off the bin as well and that should help with the smell...also, I'd recommend putting them outside during the day weather permitting.... just to "air them out"