How bad do chickens stink in summer?

[cluckcluck42]

Hi everyone,

I got my 11 chickens in early December of 2009, so I have not owned chickens in summer yet. All winter the smell was not bad at all thanks to the cold!

I just had a convo with my father about how we are building another coop to house about 6 chickens and he was telling me there is no way we can keep the chickens on the property for summer because they will smell too bad. We live on a lake on a good acre+ with neighbours a decent distance on each side of us.

For our main chicken house it is a large shed with good ventilation at the top. Half of it is the coop, the other half is storage. It currently houses 11 chickens and 11 month olds in the brooder. Our new coop is going to be a very large chain link enclosure with a roof and a coop inside. It is more than big enough for 6 chickens, possibly up to 15 but I wouldn't go more than 10.

We are building a fenced in area for the chickens so they do not run around eating our garden and pooping where our friends and family will be walking.

How bad is the smell in the summer? Should I really be concerned??? My fathers chicken wisdom is limited to him raising a large amount of meat chickens in a very small space so I thought I had better ask. He has also been wrong about every bit of chicken wisdom he has told me so far, like hens will never lay in a laying box, so we should definitely cage them. Also, you cant eat fertilized eggs. I won a fifty dollar bet on that one

Of course we will be taking out soiled materials and composting them as we go.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you can keep it dry, the smell will not be too bad. If it gets wet, look out!!

It will also help a lot if you use a droppings board and remove a lot of the poop from the coop, keep it from building up. A lot of peple talk about using DE or something else. I use wood shavings, remove a lot of the poop with a droppings board arrangement, keep it dry, and don't have any problems in the coop and I do not use DE.

In the run, the more space you can give them the better, but if you can keep it dry, you should be OK provided you are not too cramped to begin with.

This is based on my experience. I have 8 chickens in a 8' x 12' coop and a 12' x 32' run. I suspect others with less space and different poop management practices may have different experiences.

 

[patman75]

As long as they stay dry and the litter stays dry it wont be bad at all. Good ventilation and a covered run will help.

 

[Backyard Hencam]

Our hens do not smell. I realize that you live in a hotter climate in Ark. than along the coast. I think the secret to smelling pretty is keeping the coop and run clean. I clean every day. Just use a dog pooper scooper for the "big ones".

We compost with leaves, hay, coffee grounds etc.

Just keep in cleaned up and dry. You'll be fine.

Good luck!

 

[cluckcluck42]

Quote:
Yeah we are going to get a droppings board ASAP, I didnt do it for the winter because everyone was roosting in different spots but we are going to take away some of the options so they will roost in one specific area. I know for sure that this will help.

Also, we have a backhoe so we can move the outdoor coop and I'm sure that will help cut down on smell, we can compost all the poop. Geez I'm starting to think maybe my compost will be worse than the coops. hehe.

 

[cluckcluck42]

Quote:
gosh, it is SO wet right now and its getting just warm enough that I caught a whiff this morning when standing in the coop. It did not smell all winter. We have to take out all the bedding and start fresh with new stuff but we are trying to wait until the snow has melted, since it seems silly to replace it all and have to replace it all again in a few weeks when it gets mudded up again. This is a pretty big coop so it takes many many bags of shavings to fill it. We are putting down a few more bags and trying to make it last until the wet is all gone. My thought is that we should wait to take out the current bedding until its done being wet and then start new for the summer with dry stuff. Unless it starts to smell really bad, then we will take it out ASAP.

Right now it is not too warm so there hasnt been much smell. After writing this I realized maybe I should clear it all out NOW while its not too warm out and the stink isnt too bad. uh oh, gonna have to have a chit chat with the other half tonight!!!

Thanks for the well wishes, I am getting to like proving my father wrong about keeping animals.

 

[CityChook]

Chickens don't stink. Poo stinks. And if they are living in wet conditions, it won't matter if you have 3 or 30 - it's gonna smell bad.

If your coop is wet, then that is a factor that should probably be addressed sooner than later, especially if you're getting MORE chickens. Yep, if it's wet, it's gonna smell.

 

[Illia]

It is wet here all year round, and mine don't stink. We have 32 chickens and growing, and even in the summer they don't stink. As posted in previous threads - It is all about cleaning out the coop!

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I have an 8x8 coop that house a dozen chickens (used to be more) and there is NO smell at all unless you walk into the coop and that isn't even bad at all. I clean mine out twice a year and when it's not cleaned out I am adding 1/2 bag of fresh pine shavings every 2 weeks to a month depending on how much time they spend outside free ranging.
My father in law said the same thing to us and we got them anyway and he was amazed that they did not smell like he said theirs did. The difference...they had meat chickens and they didn't keep it dry and used hay for bedding. THAT will smell! If you keep it dry and add a little fresh pine every now and then it will not smell at all. I go into my coop and close the door behind me and can stay in there as long as I want and very little smell at all. SOmetimes I sit in there on a chair and just watch them LOL "don't judge me folks!" LOL I just can't help myself

 

[MandyH]

We have 7 coops at the moment and are in the process of adding 2 more. If they don't stink in the winter they won't stink in the summer. We use 6-8 inches of sand, not dirt, but sand and 99% of the time you wouldn't know we had chickens. THe sand keeps the coops/runs dry by letting water go to the bottom and it also pulls the moisture out of the poop allowing it to dry and decompose quickly. About once a year I take my little Mantis tiller and run it through the sand in the coops just to turn the sand over. We have found the sand way better than wood chips, or straw or any other organinc matter that decomposes. If there is a place where poop piles up, we take the shovel and scoop it out and use it in the garden and flower beds.