How much do they smell?

[Akane]

Most farms I know don't clean anywhere near daily. It's a few times yearly type thing. The spring and fall cleaning of the chicken coop and usually they have far more chickens. Entirely different. With 11 chickens my coop seems fine for 2-3months with a couple inches of pine shavings before the smell is noticeable. You can smell chickens if you go in the coop but hardly even standing in front of the door. I've also kept chickens in my house until they were 8+ weeks old and the smell is less than the guinea pigs produced. My guinea pigs and rabbits I've kept were much smellier and required more frequent cleaning than the chickens.

 

[MagsC]

Mine arent in a coop yet, but they ARE in a brooder in the house which I clean out frequently. I use wood shavings and as long as I am good about changing them out every three to four days or so, I only smell the wood shavings. In a bigger outside coop, we used to clean it out at least once a week, no terrible smells. As people have said, its all about keeping up with it.

 

[debilorrah]

Gosh we clean our coop once a week with 13 birds and it doesn't smell at all unless you have your nose right in it. I don't think your neighbors will smell it unless you let it go for months.

 

[Adamd]

Well that is a relief, I guess I wont worry about it then.

How about noise though?

 

[dangerouschicken]

Fresh pine shavings every few days will keep smells down. As for noise, they do make quite a racket when laying eggs. It can be heard by neighbors in a regular neighborhood. BUT it only lasts a few minutes and they are done. I am putting my city chickens as far from my neighbors as possible because of these very reasons.

Hope that helps.

 

[jonbanks]

i dont have much of a smell problem. im a fireman so i only clean my coop once or twice a week now. i dont notice it. my wife complains but she didnt want the chickens so of course she is gonna wine. you will have flys though and i mean lots of flys. so get some d.e. that will help i hear. and if you live in the south or out west you will prob end up having snakes around so beware. lol anyway its alot of fun and give it a shot

 

[mksenoj]

Mine dont have much of a smell problem. I clean my coop once week. I line the ground with d.e. and then wood shavings and build a good pile.

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

I live in Florida so it gets hot and sticky. My chickens don't smell either. We have two coops the first one has a wooden floor that we line with DE or Lime and Hay or wood chips. As long as you have good ventiliation you should be OK. The second coop has a sand floor. My son dug sown two feet to put the metal siding on so a predator could not dig in. I like the sand better as its so easy to rake out the mess. Again I have noticed no smell. Only get hens if you are worried about noise. Flies can be a problem but there are so many products on the market that you can safely control them. We use fly predators and don't have very many flies.

 

[orcasislandchickens]

I'm with the clean it daily crowd. But it isn't hard with only three hens. They pretty much poop where they roost (in my henhouse three small neat little poop piles a night). I do the dustpan thing right under the roost daily, and then clean the coop out properly once a week or so. It takes me maybe 1/2 a minute a day and 15 minutes more on the weekend. Not a big deal at all.

But I have neighbors like yours. They actually pulled a sort of surprise inspection where they trooped over during a get together with some of the other neighbors. They all "dropped over" with the kids since they were next door. Could the "kids" see my new chickens? The pen was spotless, absolutely no smell at all anywhere. Believe me they checked. The kids had a great time and I haven't heard a word from the "neighborhood" since.

Ebay UK has lots of coops with pull out tray floors, look there to get ideas on those.

 

[dangerouschicken]

I can just see my future city neighbors doing that, too

When we move, I have it planned so that the coop is farthest from the neighboring houses, butted up against a stone wall, where on the other side is a Target parking lot. No one can smell them over the stink of Target, I'm sure

And the line of sight will be blocked by the kid's playset, so unless they knock on my door for permission, they can't even get a glimpse without my knowing it.