How to make it less stinky/wet?

[NamahKatana]

Is there a way to keep the chicken/duck area less soaked and stinky? It rains ALOT here and floods their yard. Is there something I can lay down to make it less of a stinky mess?

 

[Amiga]

The runners' yard is on a very slight slope. I also bolted a 2"x4" along the uphill side of the pen. I dug a shallow swale along one edge of it, and that seems to keep even the pounding rains from doing much more than rinsing the pen. I also have their swim water on pea gravel, and I shaped that to conduct water toward the swale, which leads to a shallow channel into a garden area. Free fertilizer!

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I used.cedar kennel bedding for the smell. It went away almost immediately. Good luck.

 

[NamahKatana]

D'Angelo N Va. :

I used.cedar kennel bedding for the smell. It went away almost immediately. Good luck.

Around the whole yard?​

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I had them in a pen when I used it. The whole yard would be rather expensive. Hmmm back to the drawing board.

 

[Miss Lydia]

When I know we're getting rain I spread g. lime on the ground where they hang out the most, it helps alot with the smell, not so much with the muck. I also use lime in the houses mixed into their bedding real good.

 

[NamahKatana]

D'Angelo N Va. :

I had them in a pen when I used it. The whole yard would be rather expensive. Hmmm back to the drawing board.

Thats what I meant lol Pen not yard​

 

[secuono]

Clean up all the poo, add lime, make a slope so all water easily run off w/no pooling anywhere. Or move them farther away from the house.

 

[Chicky-dees]

I agree with Miss Lydia - lime used around the area, under the pen or in any place that they play(water fowl are great at digging holes in the puddles and causing the topsoil to wash out over time due to filling/dumping playpools, etc) and it will actually keep your yard/dirt healthy. But I wouldn't use the lime until you can move the birds to another spot. Lime can be caustic and eat away at little feet, bad for mucous membranes (eyes, respiratory, etc). Lime will help break down the bacteria in the soil that causes the stink. Adding more of a 'mulch' type compound will eventually build up and you'll have to physically scrape it and add it to the weedbin, but in a quick fix it would work as long as you put lime down first. You want to get rid of the bacteria and not give it a place to hide so I'd try a little yard/garden lime from the feed store and see where that gets you. I have the same problem - not wet all of the time, but it can get humid and the still air holds in the smell, it seems. I pick up the fowl house and move it to the other side of the yard every few months.