Keeping smell down?

[Chotii]

Realistically, I will not be building a larger coop. My father built this, and it's far, far better than anything I'm capable of building....and hubby will not let me spend $$$$ on a bigger coop for them.

But...what exactly *is* a "poop board"? I understand the concept, just not the implementation.

I may well be able to do chips, sand, peat moss.

I still do not know what DE is. Everybody here uses acronyms, and everybody seems to know what they mean. But I've yet to see the actual words used, so I'm at a disadvantage.

 

[Capone]

dig up the top soil in the run and put down sand so it drains better. its the best way

 

[Booswalia]

Quote:
I don't much like the acronym thing either. I have a very difficult time with it and the search engine is no help because it won't search for small words. Grrrr. That said, I have learned that...

DE is diatomaceous earth.
TSC is tractor supply ?
RIR is Rhode Island Red.
That's about if for my acronyms. It's too bad there wasn't an acronym list in the FAQ. I would create one if I knew what they meant.

As for the poop board. It's just a board that you place under the roost to catch the poop. It's to make cleaning easier. You can remove it and scrape it or it might be covered in hardware cloth with a slide out tray. There're all kinds of poop tray ideas.

 

[Ridgerunner]

But...what exactly *is* a "poop board"? I understand the concept, just not the implementation.

If you put a board under their roosts, you can scrape the poop off and get it out of the coop. Most are either painted or covered with linoleum to make them easier to scrape. A chicken does a lot of pooping while roosting.

I still do not know what DE is.

Diatomaceous Earth. It is tiny skeletons ofancient sea creatures that is very sharp and slices up insects that crawl on it, causing them to dehydrate from loss of body fluids, something like bleeding to death. Here's a link that might help. Some of us use it and some don't.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1560-Food_Grade_DE

 

[kristen2678]

Raking that run is a good idea too. I only have 3 hens who have worn the grass down to bare ground in their run. They are out in the yard more than half the day but still get the run pretty pooped up. I rake it everyday. No flys, no smell. It rained here for 6 weeks straight. When it started to get muddy, I put down straw and then raked it up after a day or two, then refreshed it. I also remove poop from the coop nearly everyday and they always have fresh bedding.

 

[cposz]

Same with us - 4 hens and we scoop the poop from the henhouse every day. We use pine shavings in the henhouse and scoop the poop up with a kitty litter scoop, adding fresh bedding as needed. It just takes a minute.

We also rake the dirt run at least every other day. We haven't had any smell issues so far.