Do I have to live with the smell???

[itsmechrissy]

Quote:
Have you read any of the threads talking about Crop Surgery? After reading some of those I opted to never use hay for my girls. As a matter of fact we have a bit of gound that needs to be re-seeded for grass and I don't want to now cause we usually use hay over the seed to keep birds away and I don't want my girls to have those crop issues. Of course I may just be overprotective

Read those and you may want to switch to sand sooner... I love the sand it is easy to clean out the poops, but that's not all that comes out of chickens so I've started using Sweet PDZ.

 

[CarolynF]

I too use SAND in the run and the coop. Makes cleaning a breeze and doesn't hold odors the way organic material such as shavings or straw will. I have almost no odor at all regardless of the weather. I find it's much less expensive, too because I don't have to keep buying more to replace the old, degraded material. The sand will absorb liquids and quickly dry out. The solids are easy to scoop up and toss onto the compost pile. It's all around cleaner, easier, and cheaper.

The run has about 3"-4" of sand, the coop about 1"-2". I clean it with a long handled kitty litter scoop. We bought the sand at the same place we get garden mulch and top soil. A pickup truck load cost $20 and was more than we needed, so I filled a 5-gallon bucket to keep for later, and used the rest for other things around the yard.

 

[sixty7x]

Sand is definately the way to go. I have about 9" of sand in a 4'X8' run. It's almost exactly 1 yd. of sand. My run is also covered but when it rains and snows it gets wet. The nice thing about sand is that it dries out fast! that is the key. Keep it dry and no smell. They love to dust bath in it too. I have another run that is connected to it that's 6'X10' and there is no sand. There is a smell from that run.

 

[lowry075]

Quote:
Have you read any of the threads talking about Crop Surgery? After reading some of those I opted to never use hay for my girls. As a matter of fact we have a bit of gound that needs to be re-seeded for grass and I don't want to now cause we usually use hay over the seed to keep birds away and I don't want my girls to have those crop issues. Of course I may just be overprotective

Read those and you may want to switch to sand sooner... I love the sand it is easy to clean out the poops, but that's not all that comes out of chickens so I've started using Sweet PDZ.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[serenityNH]

I have 15 chickens and was just saying to my mother today that everyone warned chickens would be smelly but I haven't had a bit of smell yet? Strange..... I sprinkle some DE down every couple of weeks and I put hay in my run and that really seems to work great. I know lots of people who use hay and never heard of any of thm having crop problems? I have never seen my chickens try to eat it either though, they pick at any dried flowers etc but never try to eat any of the hay. So maybe it depends on your chickens? I hang fruits and veggies in their run everyday so maybe because they are picking at them they leave the hay alone. Personally I love having hay in the run, it's a lot cleaner, looks tidy and the chickens love snuggling down in it to take a nap. Plus, my rabbits share the run with my chickens and they love the hay too

When I asked about sand on here I was told that people who live in cold climates should not use sand?

I guess we just have to try a bit of everything and see what works best for us and our chickens

 

[Fldeb]

What brand of feed do you use? My coop and run had a smell to it even though I raked, scooped and put clean shavings down regularly. The run is dirt and the coop has pine shavings. I switched from the Dumor brand and the smell disappeared. I still clean the same way but it no longer smells. Strange huh!

 

[serenityNH]

Quote:
Fldeb you could have a good point there.......
I feed Blue Seal which is made here in NH. Maybe the food does have something to do with no smell in my coop/run? I know with my dogs a high quality food really makes a huge difference. Even the fresh poop on the dropping boards doesn't smell...hmmm never thought of that

Maybe Blue Seal is a better quality food then I gave it credit for! Good thinking

 

[karlamaria]

We never have had a smell, and we learned a greet thing, to load down the coop with grass clippings and when there all dried up to rake them out, hence the poop goes with it. We have shavings in our coop, and we have never had a smell, maybe it's the fruit we feed them? Seriously no smell what so ever. Course with just 5 chickens there is not much of anything there. We also pick up each digit of poo once a week in the yard, no way want that piling up lol.

 

[Heathero617]

ince i switched to sand, i've not had a smell problem. I go in once a week and "fluff" up the sand and i swear i never find poop other than what they've laid down that day. I use hay in the coop in the boxes, and they need changed every couple of days but that gets loaded in the wagon and carted to the garden. I've also just started some freerange time with these birds. As I feel more comfortable with them being out longer, i'm sure the amount of poop inside will lessen as well. I'm going to try some stall dry just because of the humidity it smells "damp" in there, but not poppy. Bugs are good for chickens to eat so I dont want to use anything to destroy them completely.

 

[SirFarmAlot]

The main reason I go thru all the work of working tractors.