Chicks in the house... STIIIINKY!! HELP?

[SPRING CREEK FARM]

EWW, the smell!! I can relate somewhat. I have 40 nearly 3 week old chicks in a very large brooder in my basement/garage. I have to change out the bedding and thoroughly clean out the brooder every couple of days. The smell that I am noticing is actually from their feed (chick starter) which has an oddly sweet kind of smell.

I use the large cypress wood shavings, somewhat sparingly, and mix in some DE to help control the dampness that could accumulate as well as the smell. We do not smell chicken poo, but as I said earlier, there is a lingering sweetfeed almost smell that takes some getting used to!!

 

[Minniechickmama]

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and I know my chicks started really stinking up the place at about 2 weeks. Time to move out of the house.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I went to Equine wood pellets in the brooders; dust from the pine shavings was causing allergy problems for me.

I am using pine shavings in the Chick-n-Hutch tray where the six 4 wk old reside. I find that the smell is not from their poo but from the feed they kick out. I put trays under their food dishes which seems to have helped some.

Reminds me, I need to go out and do the bunny and 4 wo trays...DH and a friend at work are coming this afternoon to deliver a 'like new' frig I found on Craig's List to replace ours that appears to be on its last leg. Don't want his friend to think I'm a sloppy housekeeper; geez...what do about all the cat and dog hair??

Never enough hours in my days.

 

[fastpat]

Quote:
The water spillage problem was causing the spilled feed to generate a very strong odor, maybe it was beginning to ferment a bit. I put the one gallon waterer up on two regular sized bricks and that ended the water spillage. this morning I went to a larger feeded that holds up to seven pounds at a time, I put it on bricks as well to reduce the wood chip influx. They do like to scratch around in the chips, for spilled feed and tiny chips I expect. I gave them a two foot length of grape vine pruning, with young, tender leaves and tiny flowers, they're dragging that around the brooder now.

I'm using Aspen chips which seem to work well, change them out at about the two week mark.

 

[MaKettle]

I had heard the horror stories about how chickens are the nastiest animals--they stink, they smell, etc. I was pretty surprised at how fast my 5 chicks (4 weeks old now) can mess up a clean brooder. My husband was kind of enough to give me the "I told you so" talk. We have our chicks in an extra large dog crate, which has been reinforced with hardware cloth to protect them from our fur kids. I start out with a small layer of pine shavings, fluff them up daily, & then add more as needed. Smell has never been an issue but dust certainly is! Keeping things dry (which can be daunting with active chicks) & well ventilated is key, in my opinion. I clean my brooder out once a week & have had no problems with illness, smell, etc.

 

[Why and Dotte]

I couldn't imagine brooding indoors, I keep mine outside in the coop. The downside to it is temperature control though, I'm always either turning a lamp on or off lowering one or putting it higher, the temp is more stable now though so I'm not running in and out so much anymore.
There is no stink though

and they get used to my hens and vise versa.

 

[Chickenmaven]

I brooded the first batch of chickens in the basement. Rancid & dusty!!!! Euw! Never again. I was cleaning dust for a month after I had them out.
Never, ever again!

Now, I use broody hens in the coop. My only recommendation is to find a way to get them out soon, even if it is onto the porch or into the garage.

 

[Ms. Cluckingly]

Thanks yall! Some great advice and I greatly appretiate it.

So I just moved them into the bottom half of a HUGE dog kennel. (free from a neighbor who was tossing it.. SCORE!) I am deffinatly going to put their waterer on a brick or two, and try and find a better feeder for them. We have the long plastic one with man holes for heads, and they just kick up shavings into it. Hmm.... maybe I can put the feeder on a spare piece of 2x4? Ah... well... Yeah, I cant put them out in the coop yet, because we haven't one, but soon I hope!! For now.. we must co-exist together in the same living room. lol Thanks yall!

 

[Kim_1970]

I find that the Equine Fresh helps keep the smell to a minimum. But of course its just my opinion.

 

[bantybev]

Quote:
I use stall dry in mine with shavings and I think it works great.