Everyone is discouraging me

[RedDrgn]

If you don't keep up after them, they will stink (especially when the temps are above freezing). Accumulated chicken $h!t DOES stink. However, we've got a 100 square foot run for 9 chickens that has a mixed sand/native soil base that we throw straw in through the winter months and grass clippings in in during the mowing season. We rake out any leftover clippings and replace them weekly and we rake out all of the straw and replace that every 2-3 weeks; we get very little in the way of odors unless a chicken happens to drop a fresh cecal poo at your feet in 70+ deg weather.

Between our material and the fact that our run is under a second story porch and rarely gets rain/snow in it, the whole set up stays pretty dry all year round. The poo dries quickly, and so very little scent at all.

We floor our coop with several inches of pine shavings, which are changed weekly all year round. By the 5th/6th day after a change in high summer, the coop can get pretty ripe, but the shavings and a sprinkling of DE throughout the coop keep it in good shape.

As for the chickens themselves....if I grab a chicken and sniff it (and I can't deny having done so), they smell like dust 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time they smell like mud or poo, and that's only because they just ran through it!

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]

Once the eggs hatch, your babies will have to stay inside for 4 - 6 weeks, and will have to be changed every other day, depending on how bad they are at spilling their water. Mine were so naughty about that, and loved to kick the shavings into the water container, so I was changing the water 2 - 3 times a day. I moved mine out at 6 weeks, but had to make sure the lower 2 ft of fencing was too small for them to squeeze through. Lost three 6 - 8 week olds, because they squeezed through & then went into the neighbors yard & were eaten by the neighbor's dog. If you have heavier hens, such as Buff Orph. they are too fat to fly over a 6 ft high fence, at least mine were. My Barred Rocks on the other hand, could scale a 6 ft with no problem, and that is how one became dinner for our neighbor's dog. And I did warn her about the choice she was making, was never big on wing cutting.

As for the dog, we had a dog prior to the chickens, he has never bothered the chickens. The other two we got as puppies, and the chickens were full grown & bossed the puppies around. The puppies (who will be 3 years old, the end of the year)are twice the size of our adult dog (age 5), and they are still afraid of the chickens.

And yes, the egg song can get quite loud, my hubby said the hen is saying "I pooped an egg! I pooped an egg!" And heaven help, if a hen is sitting on a nest that another hen wants to sit on. She will pace & fuss & cluck until that other hen gets off, or she will try to squeeze herself into the nest box with the other hen.

It takes almost 3 - 4 months at the earliest to know if you have a rooster. We had two chicks hatch in June, and found out this month that one for sure is a roo. My hubby woke me at 6:30am & told me we had a roo in our yard. I went out & saw my 4 chickens, then took a good look at Hannah, and saw the tell tale signs (I have been ill for almost 2 months and never noticed) Hannah's tail is arching, and she is bigger than her sister Cotton (they are 1 day apart in age). Now I am watching Cotton, because her tail feather's look to be arching too, but she is still smaller than Hannah (aka: Hank). Daddy was a black Silkie, Momma was a Buff Orph. This is Hannah/Hank last month, before we knew she was a he. Good Luck with your eggs!

 

[mortie]

Thank you, thank you! Appreciate all the responses!

 

[barnaclebob]

I think the best way to avoid smell is to keep their run dry. Mine only smells slightly when it gets a little damp. More than 5 feet from the run and you cant smell it. 5 chickens in a 30 square foot run. Its pine shavings on top of concrete pavers, when its clear there is more poop than shavings it gets switched, maybe every two months. They are in the run 90% of the winter and 60% of the summer.

 

[mortie]

It rains a decent amount here but I think we'll be okay. If you can't smell anything more than 5 feet away I'll be good.

 

[lazy gardener]

The minimum standard is 10 s.f. of run space per bird.

 

[flowerfaeiry]

#1 - get that incubator running now! It has to get to 99.5 and steady BEFORE the eggs arrive!
#2 - do your incubating research on BYC , tons of good info!
#3- enjoy your chicks! Its love at first sight! Keep the babies warm and put outside when fully feathred

And the best way to avoid stinky coop is VENTILATION! Chickens can handle the cold, give them plenty of fresh air!

 

[annagarret]

If you don't keep up after them, they will stink (especially when the temps are above freezing). Accumulated chicken $h!t DOES stink. However, we've got a 100 square foot run for 9 chickens that has a mixed sand/native soil base that we throw straw in through the winter months and grass clippings in in during the mowing season. We rake out any leftover clippings and replace them weekly and we rake out all of the straw and replace that every 2-3 weeks; we get very little in the way of odors unless a chicken happens to drop a fresh cecal poo at your feet in 70+ deg weather.

Between our material and the fact that our run is under a second story porch and rarely gets rain/snow in it, the whole set up stays pretty dry all year round. The poo dries quickly, and so very little scent at all.

We floor our coop with several inches of pine shavings, which are changed weekly all year round. By the 5th/6th day after a change in high summer, the coop can get pretty ripe, but the shavings and a sprinkling of DE throughout the coop keep it in good shape.

As for the chickens themselves....if I grab a chicken and sniff it (and I can't deny having done so), they smell like dust 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time they smell like mud or poo, and that's only because they just ran through it!

...that's cute!

 

[mortie]

#1 - get that incubator running now! It has to get to 99.5 and steady BEFORE the eggs arrive!
#2 - do your incubating research on BYC , tons of good info!
#3- enjoy your chicks! Its love at first sight! Keep the babies warm and put outside when fully feathred

And the best way to avoid stinky coop is VENTILATION! Chickens can handle the cold, give them plenty of fresh air!

#1 - I have

It's running pretty smoothly and I have it right about where I want it.
#2 - I've done quite a bit of that, too. Read so much my eyes are bleeding and there is a butt imprint on my chair. I've got the basics, but I do tend to overthink things...

You can follow my progress on this little adventure here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/856283/confessions-of-a-city-slicker

 

[fatcatx]

I spent a couple of days reading a 1k+ post thread about the DLM and that does interest me.

I imagine there are a lot of methods that people use and the debates about which one is best can get pretty hot. The impression I have been getting is that chickens stink no matter what, they are just inherently stinky. If there is a non offensive way to do this, that's fine. I will find it. I just wanted to know if they are just stinky no matter what.

Hi Mortie, I got 4 new chooks last year and DH built a super sized version of the coop and run similar to above for them. Chickens themselves are not smelly but the poop can be if you don't stay on top of it. The only place for our coop was right up against the fenceline so I have been hyper-vigilant about keeping it clean. (We're in the city on 1/5th plots.) I am assuming you are close to your neighbors too? We installed a pull out tray under the roost and I use a few inches of wood shavings in the tray underneath the roost. We lined it with scrap vinyl flooring to make it easier to clean. I scoop it out about once a month but you may have to do it more often. We are in a low humidity climate. As others have noted, Keeping thing DRY is the key to limiting the stink. If you are in a damp or humid environment, cleaning will have to be frequent. We used alot of sand in the run so I could sift out the poop. The one change I would have made to our run was to all of it covered with a roof to keep everything dry through the winter and elevate it more for better drainage - that would make the run much easier to clean.