Coop smell help

[Msoul]

My coop is mainly all dirt now but we get alot of rain which means mud...mud mixed with chicken waste. We try to keep it as clean as possible, but between the mud mixture the smell just becomes alot. Are there any suggestions on what we can put down to help with the smell? As well that will help with there not being so much mud? I have thought about laying hay down but wasn't sure if that would help or just make things worse. My main concern is my chickens walking in mud and the smell, but again it seems to not make a difference how often I try to clean it out.

 

[MrFluffyandGirls]

I use the deep litter method. It rains allot where i am too. When it gets to gross i take card board boxes and flatten them out, removing all staples and tape and layer it across the floor. Then I take a bag of wood chips and toss over. It's brand new again; until the next monsoon anyways. The chickens scratch and peck until the cardboard is completely shredded into the mix. I shovel out once in the spring and fall and use it to put around plants or fill in low spots on my property.
As for the smell...well the cardboard covers it so its not as pungent but chickens stink and there's not much getting past that in the run.
In the coop I hear hemp bedding is the best at naturally keeping stink down.

 

[Msoul]

Thank you, after reading my original post I should have re wrote it. It's not necessarily the coop house. It's the surrounding area outside the coop. It is fenced, but I leave the door open to the gate for them to free range, but they still get their feed and water around the outside of the coop where most of the muck is, that is where I am having the smell issue. Thank you for your suggestions I might try the wood chips around the outside of the coop as well.

 

[Sally PB]

Can you make the ground in and around the run (the area outside the coop) drain better by adding a slope or drainage ditches or French drains? Can you cover the run at all to keep some or all of the rain out? Keeping some of the rain out to begin with would help.

 

[ladybrasa]

So you are talking about like the chicken run? I added undyed hardwood mulch to a large section of run and it has really helped this summer.

 

[3KillerBs]

You need bedding in your run as well as inside your coop.

Wood chips, straw, pine shavings, pine straw, fall leaves, ... whatever dry organic material comes readily to hand. It absorbs the water and reacts with the poop to create compost.

Additionally, if water pools in your run or if groundwater flows through your run you need to fix your drainage because no amount of bedding can solve that problem.

 

[Alaskan]

Can you make the ground in and around the run (the area outside the coop) drain better by adding a slope or drainage ditches or French drains? Can you cover the run at all to keep some or all of the rain out? Keeping some of the rain out to begin with would help.

X2

You need to reduce some of that water/mud.

 

[aart]

Fix any drainage issues then add a couple inches of coarse wood chippings and a thin layer of straw or other smaller dry materials. That should sap the stink almost immediately.



Oh, and Welcome to BYC! @Msoul
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