chickens in town and flies

[elmo]

Since a colony of black soldier flies started up in our composter, I haven't seen any other kind of fly in our yard! BSF do a great job breaking down the compost fast, and the grubs are great to feed to my flock.

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Black+Soldier+Fly.html

 

[Lilacfeather]

I had one of those bag/fly trap thingys, and hated it! It smelled like a dead body, and yes, it caught a lot of flies, but I think it actually attracted more than the coop did. It also was attracting much larger, meaner looking ones! So I had to dump that nasty thing.

At night, when the chickens go in the coop, I sprinkle DE, till everything under, and add a fresh batch of leaves on top. Sometimes I would do this process in the middle of the day. I also scoop any obvious, easy to see poo from the coop and run. I only have 6 birds, so it's really not a big deal to do.

There's a whole thread on here about using those Vanilla air freshener trees that you hang in your car. They are inexpensive, and I figured it would smell a lot better than dead body smell, so I hung a couple of those out there, too. Here's the thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=368487

I've also been sprinkling the dog poo with DE.

Another tip I've heard, but never tried is a Ziploc bag about 1/3 filled with water, and a few pennies in the bottom. I don't know why they don't like it, but it's supposed to repel them. Again, I haven't tried this one, so I don't know, but I suppose it's worth trying.

Good luck!

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I had lots of flies this Spring/Summer before my chickens ever made it outside.

As per the grass clippings keeping the smell in the compost pile...the grass clippings often smell worse than anything else in the compost.

My neighbor gives me her grass clippings (we have no lawn...just flower & veggie beds) and LORDY, when I break open those trash bags they are already really stinky

...usually not slimy yet but for quite some time smell like dirty, wet socks from the boy's gym!

I never noticed flies in my chicken run; just in the garden and our house. I tried the Christmas trees with vanilla scent from Auto Zone as per thread here but they did nothing. I filled those jars from TSC up 3 and 4 times and buried the flies in the garden...it was gross. My husband said they had flies terrible at work and let me assure you...there are no chickens there.