Have you ever smelled your chickens?

[pusskatkins]

Quote:
I just had to laugh at this! My beagle boy's area stinks far worse than my coop! Hahahhaaa...thanks for the laugh!

 

[Resolution]

Your chickens shouldn't smell much at all. If their droppings are heavy, moist and extra smelly -you have a feed issue.

 

[WhispersToChickens]

In FL here the chickens yard gets a little oogy smelling after the rains....few bales of straw carefully watched ( as in the heat and humitidy in summer here hays and such likes to self combust (ask me about my trailer of horse hay hahaha). Personally I love my chickens but find their smell...esp wet chicken smell utterly GROSS. Id rather sniff horses and horse poop!

 

[woodmort]

Look back at the OP--we're not talking about the chicken's environment but about the scent of the birds themselves.
If your coop or run smells bad then it is a management problem not the fault of the birds. Not only that, it is the one thing--aside from roosters crowing at 3 am--that gives chicken keeping a bad name.

 

[Thenino]

Weird, I have never thought to smell them but I will try tomorrow. Speaking of the coop, I only have two hens. How often should I clean it out? I keep it seven dusted and I have been getting the poo and changing the bedding about every two months?

 

[OthalaAcres]

Quote:
Where do you get your chaff? I just contacted a roaster here in NH (organic & free trade... bonus!

) and fingers crossed that they can supply us with coffee chaff for our coops!

 

[damselfish]

Hi Thenino,

People have different ways of keeping their coop, depending lots of factors. What you describe sounds a bit like what people call deep litter, where the bedding just gets turned over, but not cleaned out fully except every few months or longer. As near as I can tell from people on here, that seems to work best on a dirt floor because it kind of starts to make compost.

My coop has a wood floor and deep litter did not work, lots of flies, etc. Instead, we scoop out all the poo daily after the chickens go outside, and change the full bedding twice a year. This works great for us.

So the answer is, it depends! If it smells bad in there, consider making a change.

Also, you might not need Sevin all the time, most folks use it to treat a problem, not as ongoing prevention.

 

[imanerd]

They smell just like our cats to me, no distinct odor except for dust. My DH said the same but had to go bury his nose in chicken feathers this morning to be sure.

My incubated chicks smell like warm bread to me...different from chicks raised by a hen.

We both agree that wet chicken smell is nasty. Nothing to compare it to but still nasty. However, not as bad as wet dog.

 

[BWKatz]

Woodmort, I knew u were an old softy.

I snuggle with my cats and chickens and they all love it. They both smell good and if one doesn't then I know it's sick. When mine go in the coop at night they head for the back roost so they can peer at me when I go by. It's like they think they'll never see me again. I've taken to not talking about my chickens to people unless they ask about them. Surprizingly, I get asked alot .

 

[woodmort]

Gotta confess I like to smell the cats when they come in from hunting in the tall grass too, especially when the clover is in bloom.