Building my first coop...

[chiclet]

and i hear there is some kind of plastic grate you can put in the coop so the poop falls down into a pan below.
How can the chickens walk on this grate, and where can i get some?
Also, what is this Stall-Dri stuff i'm hearing about? Right now my chicks are in a samll coop in my basement, and the smell is getting worse all the time. Can this stall-dri help with the ammonia smell?

 

[Marie1234]

Stall-dry is used mostly for horses to reduce the urine smell in the bedding. Some people use FOOD GRADE DE. I hear it works about the same with chickens. But the best thing is to get them out of the basement as soon as you can. I don't know anything about the plastic grates but have seen the same thing done with heavy wire. Wire is kind of hard on the feet though so you might just want to do this right under the roost area and give them bedding in the rest.

If you post a pic of your brooder set up someone might be able to give you suggestions as to some simple modifications that will make it easier to keep clean to reduce the smell.

 

[chiclet]

thanks.
Here's my indoor brooder. The open part is about 2'x4', and the floor is sand. They like bathing in the sand, and spend time sleeping either on the roost, or piled up on the floor. They never use the roost in the little hen house at the end. Maybe b/c it's too dark? They do run in there whenever my husband sneezes, or i sing my good morning song to wake them up...!
I scoop out the poop every morning. But it's not enough...
i hope to get the outside coop done in 2 weeks. We feel it's necessary to make it look good, or the neighbors will complain (we live IN the city, and hens aren't allowed yet anyways)
Their FAVORITE place is the arm of chair, while i clean the coop....
i have 6 bantams, but 3 will be leaving soon....
Any ideas on how to keep the odor down?

 

[Marie1234]

That looks like a nice brooder set up. My guess is that even though you are getting the chunks out daily it's the wet stuff that just won't go away. Can you dig out the sand and go with shavings? They will absorb the moisture so it can be removed every few days. The dust factor will go up a bit, but the smell should go down.

 

[teach1rusl]

Yeah...I do prefer the shavings too. They smell nice and it's easy to just clean out the soiled bedding spots...it doesn't bog down. You can try sprinkling (like applying talcolm powder) DE (make sure it's food grade!!!) in with the shavings, but removed the chicks before you do that. I think it does help w/drying out poos and keeping moisture down.
Now in your grown up coop, you can do a dropping board below the roost. Scraping it daily for three birds would take 20 seconds. Good ventilation will also be important. You'll want to do everything you can to make sure there is no smell associated with your coop when they go outside if you're not supposed to have chickens. Give neighbors NO reason to complain.