Chicken run smelly and moldy when wet...HELP keep food off the ground!

[stux2c]

So here is my dillema...if anyone has any pointers, suggestions, or comments, please leave them.

I have a run attached to my coop. see pic.

it is a sand bottom (sand and earth). my problem is that i do have some drainage probs and normal rain storms make it somewhat damp to wet inside the run even though it is covered.

because of all the food the chickens flick out as they eat thorughout the day, the food then gets damp and wet, and starts to smell pretty quickly...its a sour, almost vinegar smell. I even get a small mold growing on top almost immediately.

I have grown from 4 chickens to 16 now, and I am thinning back to 8-12. How can I manage this smell problem.

Is there something I can do to help with the current problem I have?

Is there something I can do or apply to prevent this from happening in the future?

Are there other alternatives to feeders other than the typical red and white hanging ones. the food gets flicked out easily and ends up all over hte ground in the run.

Thanks for the help. I am afraid if it continues, I am going to have a garbage put to deal with.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Can you move it into the coop?

 

[nelgkel]

when my chickens flick a lot of food and my run gets wet I take out the feeder so they HAVE to eat all the dropped food THEN I put the feeder back in...NO smell or wet food for long! HOpe it helps...

 

[crazyhen]

Sprinlke dolomitic lime stone on the wet areas and some part cedar mulch. If this is outside the part cedar will not hurt anything but will help with the smell. The limestone helps to make the ph of the soil more alkaline and the mold does not grow as quickly. Also put something over your feeders to prevent the area from getting wet. Hope this helps Gloria Jean

 

[mrbstephens]

I keep the food in the hen house and the water in the run. Keeps it simple and clean.

 

[UrbanChick101]

I have almost the same setup as you, differs very little. I clean the food up regularly that is left over, I also bought a "hog pan" at the farm store that has deeper sides and that has helped a little bit, they still are food flingers!! I have sprinkled Stall Dri out after it rains, I also clean up after the rain, to avoid the yucky food mess. This is the food as in scraps and treats, the only food that is in the coop is thier feed. I don't want to have anything that can be wet/messy in the coop with them - yuck!!

My suggestions that work for me:

After it rains, clean up the scraps that are big enough to pick up, I use a kitty litter scoop, as the sand falls through this easily.
I also clean the poo out at the same time, as wet poo stinks more!
I then rake it, and sprinkle Stall Dri, I then give it one last rake and call it good to go!! It tremendously helps with odor.

A change I may make in the future for drainage is add some pebble/rock under the sand... I think it may help some.

Good luck a little work and it helps keep the odor a little more pleasant!

 

[Chikndinner]

Quote:
I thought this very same thing until I read this thread

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=400699

 

[elmo]

I use a big plastic plant saucer under the feeder to collect what gets billed out. Very little if any feed ends up on the ground.

Be careful with mouldy feed. I've read about chickens dying from eating that.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I also have one of the plastic feeders that has the spokes/dividers in the tray, which prevents billing out the feed. That's where they are spilling it with a sweeping motion through the tray, with their beak.

 

[stux2c]

Quote:
i have one of those also, but when I feed them, it flows over those spokes, so tey are useless....