Does your run/coop smell very bad during winter?

[Bsmac]

I use pine shavings in the coop and run. Poop boards in the coop. I change shaving in the coop twice, once in the spring once in the fall. In the run I also use pine shavings, I scoop poop a couple times a day. Sometimes I use a little pdz in the run to prolong the life of the savings. I also dust a little garden lime when changing bedding. During summer`s humidity I change shavings once a month in the run. In the winter it can go longer usually about 6 weeks. I have tried deep litter in our run it does not work for us. Our run has an overhang and gutters so it stays dry. Too dry for deep litter, it just turns into a dusty smelly mess! I don`t thing there is a a system that works for everyone as everyone`s set up is different. But this really works well for us!

 

[FunClucks]

Thanks for the responses. Just to be clear, the coop seems to be ok as we do have a poop board with PDZ and pine shavings on the floor. The run is the main smelly culprit. I believe we have enough ventilation in the run as I can feel the air moving around. It is as dry as it can be with tarped up walls and roof/overhang. Sand feels dry to the touch too. I think it's just the pooping in the morning when they first come out to eat and drink and wait for me to open the door.

At this point my only alternative options to get are bales of straw or the pelletized bedding at TSC. Would tossing a good layer of either of these on the sand do any good?

If everything is super dry, I don't know where the smell could be coming from except from their poop. Could some of the lower levels of the sand be holding water? If there's no moisture, then it may just be an unpleasant smell, rather than a pending/present mold issue, which is really what you want to avoid from a health perspective. You could try sprinkling some sweet PDZ into the run, otherwise I don't know what to tell you. Maybe others will have better advice. Good luck!

 

[redinator]

Thanks for the responses. Just to be clear, the coop seems to be ok as we do have a poop board with PDZ and pine shavings on the floor. The run is the main smelly culprit. I believe we have enough ventilation in the run as I can feel the air moving around. It is as dry as it can be with tarped up walls and roof/overhang. Sand feels dry to the touch too. I think it's just the pooping in the morning when they first come out to eat and drink and wait for me to open the door.

At this point my only alternative options to get are bales of straw or the pelletized bedding at TSC. Would tossing a good layer of either of these on the sand do any good?

You might want to dig down a bit and see if floor of the run is dry under the top layer. If not you might need break it up and turn the sand/soil etc to help the lower layers air out bit better and dry.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You might want to dig down a bit and see if floor of the run is dry under the top layer. If not you might need break it up and turn the sand/soil etc to help the lower layers air out bit better and dry.

x2. My guess is you have poopy, damp sand under the top layer. Without aeration wet poop turns into an anaerobic, smelly mess.

 

[Ahoragi]

That's possible. I will check. Right now it's 7 degrees so too cold to do anything like that. I see a few birds with specs of frost bite on their combs. Ouch.

 

[Sally PB]

I have pine shavings in the coop. Extra deep this time of year, so they can make bowl-nests in it and hunker down if they want to. Sometimes they do.

I have poop boards under the roosts. I use sweet PDZ on the boards and scoop poop every morning, a 5 minute task. Today I'll need a hammer to pop off some of the frozen ones, as it got down to 12°F last night. It might take me 8 minutes today, including getting a hammer from the garage.

The run is just dirt, a side yard that has long since been scratched bare. I clean out the coop in the spring and put all the shavings in the run. In the fall, I give them piles of leaves raked up from the yard.

Unless I have the lid off the poop bucket or someone has just dropped a cecal poop, neither my run nor coop smell. I have a roof over the run, so the ground stays dry. In fact, in the summer I dump their water bowl out in the run at night to moisten the ground so that it can compost. Not this time of year, as it would just freeze solid.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

First winter with chickens so I do not know what to expect but our run smells so bad in the morning, worse than our bathroom on Taco Tuesdays. It is wrapped with 14mil tarp but exit door is not and it has 8" of opening along the overhang for ventilation. Floor is sand that is about 3 months old. Current temps are 28-ish.

Is this normal? I'm thinking it is as they are all pooping in there early on but geez.....

As your run ages, The material will continue to break down. Before winter i make sure that the entire run has straw on top. Lots of straw has many benefits: offers insulation, enrichment as they scratch scratch scratch, and extra material to grab the poop and help get it mixed around. As the season goes, this material will break down and eventually turn to dirt again! Through the winter Straw is a great help. This is of course its under a run roof and not exposed to moisture. Straw sucks when its wet. And stinky! Rake around in there too. Get those poops covered in something! If you have stink and sand, but NO moisture? Rake rake rake it all around <3 Good Luck! In a couple of years your run will have soil thats like gold and ready for a garden where all things can grow <3 Also, If you have access to Dried leaves? I bag and store them to help with the winter. Straw costs money, Leaves are free but take work. I gather bags from neighbors that I know. (gotta know whats in those bags before adding to run).

 

[Mother of Chaos]

First winter with chickens so I do not know what to expect but our run smells so bad in the morning, worse than our bathroom on Taco Tuesdays. It is wrapped with 14mil tarp but exit door is not and it has 8" of opening along the overhang for ventilation. Floor is sand that is about 3 months old. Current temps are 28-ish.

Is this normal? I'm thinking it is as they are all pooping in there early on but geez.....

It’s the sand. Unless you live in a super-dry climate (think: high desert), sand in the run generally gets incredibly stinky. It can’t absorb anything, and all that ammonia has nowhere to go but in your nose.

Consider switching to a deep litter method in your run: multiple inches of hardwood mulch, dry leaves, wood chips, pine straw (dead pine needles) - at least twice as deep as whatever the current depth of your sand is. Work it into the existing sand (and poop), and it should start getting better quickly. Jump-start it with zeolite (Sweet PDZ), and keep aerating it with a garden fork until you have a live compost system going.

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

I saw a thought about straw/hay, and it just doesn't absorb moisture. It's great for nesting boxes, but I used it in my run once and it had never smelt worse. I do a deep litter method in one chicken area (much larger area they spend the day in) and in the other area (a smaller run attached to coop) I do pine shavings then moving the old shavings into the deep litter and generously replace the shavings. That happens every 6-7 days, really whenever it smells. Of course, the poop shelf gets cleaned every two days and that also gets put into the deep litter.