How stinky are chickens?

[LivingLocal]

Thanks for the info on the organic feed. That's probably the way I was thinking of going...

 

[bluey]

it depends on the person who owns them...

the amount of chickens, space and care determines the smell IMHO.

Too many chickens, not enough land, and/or poor maintenance of their living area are huge factors.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Absolutely right!

Chickens are birds and smell like most other birds, and are naturally clean like other birds.

I lately attended a big county fair.
There was hundreds of cages with thousands of chicken and some rabbits in the building. There was no smell or stink in the building whatsoever. (Rabbits do not smell either)

Then there were buildings with horses, cows, pigs, sheep, dogs etc, they all stank very bad.

People saying that chicken stink are stupid and ignorant, I bet some of them need a shower more often that they think.

LOL

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Chickens LIKE to be clean. If you give them the opportunity to keep themselves clean and groomed, they will naturally be that way.

You need to keep the poop down, the feather dander down (which is the casings when they feather out) and the food and water spills cleaned.

Since chickens do not eat like a dog or cat they have a WHOLE lot less smell in their poop. On the other hand they pretty much poop where ever the deed needed to be done. So it is up to ypu to keep the floor of the coop raked and refreshed and such.

I notice a slight poop smell when I open the barn door in the morning. I do not notice any ammonia smell. I do notice a slight smell from all the chickens beaks, but it is what I call Chicken breath.

I guess if we pecked at the ground all day like they do we would pretty much smell the same way.

 

[speckledhen]

A big thing is do NOT overcrowd your coop. That always makes maintenance harder.

 

[scbatz33]

My teen daughter complains that my chickens smell. I think she just wants out of doing chores!

There are alot of commercial farms around my area and they DO smell. It's vile to drive by them especially in the summer. There are also a lot of folks who use chicken refuse to fertilize their gardens, that too smells atrocious!

However, my birds do NOT smell. ALL my birds have ROOM to move. That is key - not over crowding. We have a large fenced area for them to get out in each day.

We also clean out under the roost every other day or so and the whole coop gets cleaned out once a week. We use straw in winter and shavings in the warmer part of the year.

We even have our chicks inside - since it's too cold right now. We have 17 chicks in our bathroom. The paper gets changed every day and the room has very little smell. I think there would be no smell at all if not for the lamp heating everything in the room! It's a double edge sword with keeping the babies warm and not "cooking" poo!!

 

[Indiana hens]

I have a couple that smell like blueberries during the summer

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

Quote:
Our coop is only 10 feet from the house. Windows open unless foul weather, and no smells coming from it-but then we use the organic feed. Makes a huge difference!

Edited to add: we have 22 chickens in our 9 x 9 ft. coop. They do not have a run at this time because we built the coop in the winter after the snow started flying, so all of their poop is in that coop! Just as soon as we have our spring thaw, they will be getting a run, but will also be allowed to roam parts of the rest of the property. (less than an acre)

 

[LivingLocal]

Quote:
Haha!

 

[Sissy]

Hummm blueberries
sounds delish LOL