Flies in Run

[Christie311]

I have been reading through the past posts about flies but have a question about my specific set up. We have 8 chickens 3 months old now. I am in Ohio and the weather has been nice and very dry. The run is dry. It has pine shavings, grass clippings and leaf clippings in it. The past week I have noticed flies gathering around the entrance of the run, so just outside of it and in the run area itself. Just outside the door of the run where we go in and out is just worn down grass, no poop or anything else, bone dry. I see maybe 10 flies just crawling there. Then inside are more. Grass clippings are mostly dry, if you dig around there may be some damp under there, not much. There is almost no visible poop in the run. It gets mixed in and covered either by us or the chickens. I look to see what are the flies on, nothing, just the grass/shavings. It doesn't smell at all. The run is about 20 feet long maybe 6 feet wide. What is attracting them? I have rabbits that have poop that doesn't get covered and there are very few flies one or two may be there, often there are none....

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Hello!

You don’t happen to have ducks, do you?

Could it be that there is possibly a dead creature somewhere around, a piece of rotting fruit, or something else particularly smelly or gross? Is there anywhere something might be hidden from view?

 

[Beamgang]

I have been reading through the past posts about flies but have a question about my specific set up. We have 8 chickens 3 months old now. I am in Ohio and the weather has been nice and very dry. The run is dry. It has pine shavings, grass clippings and leaf clippings in it. The past week I have noticed flies gathering around the entrance of the run, so just outside of it and in the run area itself. Just outside the door of the run where we go in and out is just worn down grass, no poop or anything else, bone dry. I see maybe 10 flies just crawling there. Then inside are more. Grass clippings are mostly dry, if you dig around there may be some damp under there, not much. There is almost no visible poop in the run. It gets mixed in and covered either by us or the chickens. I look to see what are the flies on, nothing, just the grass/shavings. It doesn't smell at all. The run is about 20 feet long maybe 6 feet wide. What is attracting them? I have rabbits that have poop that doesn't get covered and there are very few flies one or two may be there, often there are none....

Have you tried sprinkling ground cinnamon around the area? I have one corner that flies seem to like. I keep it clean and use the cinnamon. Helps.

 

[Christie311]

Have you tried sprinkling ground cinnamon around the area? I have one corner that flies seem to like. I keep it clean and use the cinnamon. Helps.

I have not tried that but I will! Thanks for the tip!

 

[Christie311]

Hello!

You don’t happen to have ducks, do you?

Could it be that there is possibly a dead creature somewhere around, a piece of rotting fruit, or something else particularly smelly or gross? Is there anywhere something might be hidden from view?

We don't have ducks!.... yet... LOL!!!! I checked and looked all over, dug around right where I saw them gathering and there was nothing I could see!? I went out today and there were no flies at all while I was out, we will be home all day tomorrow so I am going to observe the whole time and try the cinnamon like someone suggested to see what I figure out. In one of my beds on the other side of the house I saw a bunch of flies but found a stinkhorn mushroom growing LOL No mushrooms in the run either! I have just been stumped on this one!!

 

[Christie311]

We don't have ducks!.... yet... LOL!!!! I checked and looked all over, dug around right where I saw them gathering and there was nothing I could see!? I went out today and there were no flies at all while I was out, we will be home all day tomorrow so I am going to observe the whole time and try the cinnamon like someone suggested to see what I figure out. In one of my beds on the other side of the house I saw a bunch of flies but found a stinkhorn mushroom growing LOL No mushrooms in the run either! I have just been stumped on this one!!

Ps. One of our rabbits is name Clover

 

[Prince and Pavo]

We don't have ducks!.... yet... LOL!!!! I checked and looked all over, dug around right where I saw them gathering and there was nothing I could see!? I went out today and there were no flies at all while I was out, we will be home all day tomorrow so I am going to observe the whole time and try the cinnamon like someone suggested to see what I figure out. In one of my beds on the other side of the house I saw a bunch of flies but found a stinkhorn mushroom growing LOL No mushrooms in the run either! I have just been stumped on this one!!

Haha LOL! Yep, you’ve heard of chicken math… but I think it’s really called poultry math LOL!

That’s very strange that there weren’t any flies today…

Ps. One of our rabbits is name Clover

Awww what kind?