Hello, I live in SE Alaska where it rains alot - similar to Seattle so its always damp. My problem is the smell of the run area and I wonder what I can do to lower the smell? I hose it down a couple times a week but it still smells. I've heard you can use lime or lye? And if so, would I put it directly on top of the area even tho its wet? Any suggestions would sure be appreciated.
patandchickens has a page just for that. it's one of the personal pages. for a muddy run https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run I would cover with sand, so it drains well.
What kind of run dirt or concrete?If concrete I would NEVER use LYE.Lime We used in a pig run with 4 pig's for a summer but liberaly but then again they were quite away from house also.If you have bird's on a concrete or board flooring you are looking at regular maintence like scraping and keeping the poo's out.If they are close to your house.My 3 large coops get a thougrough cleaning 2 times a year.And refreshed nest boxes and the like once a month or 2.Maybe someone else has some idea's since you live in a diff. climate than I do.Winter's are cold here and We had a LOT of snow here last witner but I have different set up's I guess than you. also.Some have run's other's dont some free range while other's are penned in breeding season.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE. I like the idea of sand and I can go to the beach here and get a couple buckets each time I go. I have DE but I wasn't sure how to use it since it rains almost every day here and the hens' run is on gravel. Its not so much the henhouse/coop that smells as the area where they are most of the day outside. I'm going to try adding sand and mix it with DE and go from there. Thank you again, I wish I knew how to insert photos so I could send you a pix of their area, I'm not sure how to do that, but its OK, I at least no what to do now. Have had 6 hens for almost 2 years. Pretty much self taught and it was scarey for me at first especially when one of them went into brooding and I thought she was sick! They love the slugs we have here in SE Alaska! We get a lot of them cause I'm in a rain forest. It looks pretty gross when they are chasing each other around the yard with the guts hanging out and they all want a piece of a big ole brown slug!
At the top of the page theres a blue bar that says Index, User list, Rules, ect. Go to Uploads. Click it. Click Choose File, Browse or whatever it is on your internet provider. Find the photo, upload it and you'll see The Thumbnail url and img code. Copy and paste either of those into the thread.
My suggestion is based on your run fencing.. I planned ahead for scent control because I am "underground" with my chickens. I planted two lovely jasmin plants on either side of my run fencing. A few good things came from this! A wonderful smell of jasmin that overpowers any chicken smell, it offers shade where there was none before, and it just looks cool. So far none of my girls have bothered it, but they enjoy the spiders that web in the branches. Not sure if your climate will allow jasmin, but I highly suggest using it as a decoration, but scent control as well!
Part of the problem is probably that you say you're hosing it down a couple times a week! That keeps it real damp. Damp = smells. If you feel you need to do some poo removal, use a fine-tined rake, not hosing. If you can put in a bunch of sand or fine gravel so the poo dries out faster, that'll help; also do everything else you can to keep the run as dry as possible (see the 'fix a muddy run' page in my .sig below). In some cases, raking or lightly tilling the pooey layer into the soil will help, but not if you are in a high-rainfall area or have clayey soil. Good luck, have fun, Pat
