Holy Smell!!!!

[mraltice]

I know you already have lots of great ideas! We layer the bottom w/ a little sand. It keeps the girls cleaner and acts as a septic for the poopy. Good luck!

 

[MIKE555444]

The stall dry and such will help clear this up for now but long term you have to figure out how to control the water problem or the smell will return

 

[Jenski]

Lime will indeed burn their feet. Some folks use a bit of it, but I don't want to deal with foot injuries so I steer clear of that stuff.

patandchickens and MIKE... are so right, it's most important to manage how wet the run gets. I have used landscape bricks to steer rainwater away from my runs, and I use sand as flooring. The sand drains very quickly, and it works great!

Good luck, and please keep us posted on how things go.

 

[bart40330]

Distribute a bag of Kingsford charcoal in the run. It helps to absorb odors.

 

[australorpchick]

I added sand to my run and it helped a lot. Less flies, no smell, no puddles, no mud. I sprink DE on it once a week. 1/2 a yard cost me about $18.00.

 

[PeepsInc]

5 weeks of rain in NY. THe mud alone smells like pig slop. I scraped the ground with the back of a rake,then add alot of hay to keep the girls dry. The hay keeps them up out of the muck. I add the old hay to the garden every few days,& put down fresh. The chicky's like the hay seed aswell...

 

[consdrs]

I'm not sure where the idea that garden lime will burn anything. Hydrated lime used for building concrete perhaps. but dolomite garden lime will not. people on farms use it all the time to "sweeten" the soil and make things dry out and smell better. It will clear up your problem quickly. its mostly made up of calcium carbonate and magnesium. I feed my chickens calcium all the time in the form of oyster shells.

I live in the PNW and things can't help but get wet and stinky. I use lime and a tiller all the time, works like a charm.


Connie

edited to add, I also have sand in my run. best thing I could have done, love it!

 

[critterlover]

If you put Stall Dry in the coop, does it go under the shavings or do you mix it with the shavings?

What type of sand do you put in the run? If you put Stall Dry in the run, I gather it is not unsafe for the hens to peck at it?

My girls are almost old enough to go into their coop/run. Right now the run has grass. I was going to leave it as is until it got too messy and then I was going to see about putting sand in there and removing any grass that may be left, but now I wonder if that would be a bad idea.

What do you think?

 

[valentinebaby]

Quote:
I just throw the Stall Dry on top of the soil and lightly rake it in - seems to work fine for me. Eventually I will definitely be adding more sand to the run. Several posts on this site say you must put the sand on dry soil, not wet.

 

[LynneP]

Stable Boy is another option- I use it along with food-grade DE in the run and coop. We're roofed too and you're just about to discover the low-scent method of chinkenry- it's going to be SO much better for you!