Living in Suburbia - How do I control the odor...

[dwdoc]

Hello all,

I live in the burbs and need to know how to control the "aroma de chicken" so I don't have issues with the neighbors...

Thanks.

 

[awesomefowl]

Just keep your coop impeccably clean!

 

[dwdoc]

I keep the coop clean; it the run I am concerned about. How do I keep the ground free of odor?

 

[Carrie Lynn]

I'd like to know this as well.
Do people rake or scoop the run?
If I use builder's sand as a base will rain make the run a smelly mess?

 

[Chicken Fruit]

Let me end this discussion right now. BEDDING PELLETS! The kind you use for horses. No smell. Use DE under them. Scoop up the ones that are messy once in a while, add more.

I live in a tiny hamlet and no one has EVER noticed my chickens, even with 30 of them on my tiny TINY barn and yard.

 

[gumbii]

pine shavings, and keep it as dry as possible...

also daily maintenance... i have over 30 chickens in my house, and you can't smell anything... my brooder smells more than my pens... LOL... again, i clean that every morning...

 

[mrsbos]

It sounds like you already have a non-moveable coop design and live in an area that's warm year round. I have an Eglu that gets parked in my garden during the cold season. I throw in some leaves I saved in the fall into the run, it's covered so it stays dry, they constantly scratch around, and most the time the ground is frozen so there's hardly any smell. In the warm season I move the Eglu every couple of days to a new patch of grass. That way there is no poop build up in one concentrated area. Of course the "cave" as we call it in our family (roost and nest area), gets fresh pine shavings on a regular basis so it's always smelling "fresh" (well most of the time). It probably helps that they free-range all day too. Again, keeps the poop spread over a large area (well mostly on my back patio---yuk). I only have 3 chickens.

 

[dwdoc]

Ok, so which is best? Pine shavings or Bedding Pellets? I have easy access to the shavings; the wife owns a boarding stable but if the pellets are better for ordor control I'll use them. Anybody with experience using both - which worked better?.

I live in Florida and even now our temp in in the mid 70s.

Who knew there was so much to learn.

Thanks for the help.

 

[dsqard]

For a run you would probably want to use the pellets but I am thinking since your wife works at a boarding stable, you might want to consider Stall Dry or DE for your run. I would rake it at least a couple times a week (depending on how wet the ground is) and remove the droppings. If your ground is more on the soggy side, rake it more often. It is wet poo that smells more. The pine shavings are going to add to your compost pile a lot faster if you use those. I hope this helps.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Once we bought Nutrena feed, the chickens' poop was SMELLY, AWFUL, BAAAAD! Then switched back to Purina, it was all better.

I scoop the poop where I don't want it, and dig a hole in my compost pile, dump it in there. I do this about every other day. I flip the compost heap about every 2 weeks. It smells heavenly, like a greenhouse.

Very rarely, our coop will have a poopy odor. I clean the coop then, and put all that used pine shavings and stinky poop in the bottom of the compost heap. I do this by flipping the compost from spot #1 to spot#2, back and forth about every 2 weeks, with the chicken poop on the bottom. Then I try to find out why there was stinky poops, usually the kids confess to giving the birds something weird, like rotten food from an old lunchbag, or candy. The compost heap is disappointly small, it breaks down rapidly.

I really think if neighbors are voicing concern over chicken poop smell, they probably have an image in their heads of a large-scale poultry facility. Those STINK! We've all driven by them on the highway and nearly gagged at the stench. Just remember, though, that it takes roughly 18 bantam hens to create the poop measure of 1 medium sized dog. A small suburban backyard chicken flock of around 4 hens is far, far less likely to smell than the typical household 2 or 3 cats/dogs' odorous contributions.

Freeranging them in the grass SERIOUSLY improves the grass. But you might want spare clogs for walking around in that grass.