Coop/Run Placement

[Greg Richardson]

The situation is the best place to put the coop is next to the master bedroom side of the house. We will have 8 chickens.
I hope to try the deep litter method first. Also have at least a 10 x 16 run.

My concern is smell and flys.
Anyone have around this many next to your house?
Problems?

 

[valentinebaby]

You definitely need to use food grade DE (diatomaceous earth) to help with the flies and smell. Do a search here on BYC and you'll find plenty of posts about it. Good luck! Gail

 

[patandchickens]

I'm not aware of DE doing very much for flies, if used in a normal sensible fashion. You'd have to use quite a lot anyhow and there are better methods.

The damper your run, the more odor and flies you'll have. So it'd be real, real important to have as dry a run as you possibly can. Consider a full roof on the run (which is great for predatorproofing too; although pricey and must be built properly and sometimes requires building permits) and raising the footing up above the surrounding area a bit with sand or gravel.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat