Looking for Guidance

[Backyardexplorer]

Hello all,

Today sent me into a tailspin. Sitting in my kitchen, I stared through the window watching flies swarm our coop. An ungodly amount of flies.

I am new to chickens, in fact my husband and I have been working so incredibly hard the past week upgrading the yard/coop for the chickens. We have 5 new chicks being delivered on Friday and after witnessing the flies today I couldn’t help but feel like “what have I done? I can’t handle more chickens because I can’t handle the fly swarms”

I feel like I’m missing something. Please tell me your routine, what am I not doing here? Am I doing something wrong? How do you keep your run floor clean? What is your flooring? How often do you clean? What do you use for fly control?

My most dreaded question: Is the insane amount of flies just something that comes with the chickens?

I am located in South Texas where we are already close to a 100 degrees everyday. I’m not sure if the warmer weather impacts the flies.

 

[nuthatched]

Those pop traps work great.
Also, make sure your coop is dry.

 

[FrostRanger]

Some flies are inevitable, but if there are a lot of them, I would set up some fly traps outside the run where your birds can't get to it (don't use fly paper if you can help it though, it's easy for it to fall and get stuck on a chicken). I personally use mulch in my run. I don't clean it ever, I do deep litter inside my coop and run so the poop gets mixed with the mulch and decomposes. No smell and very low maintenance plus, free compost

 

[aart]

We have 5 new chicks being delivered on Friday and after witnessing the flies today I couldn’t help but feel like “what have I done? I can’t handle more chickens because I can’t handle the fly swarms”

So you already have chickens?
Post some pics of the coop and run and tell us where the flies are thickest.

 

[Backyardexplorer]

So you already have chickens?
Post some pics of the coop and run and tell us where the flies are thickest.

Yes, I have 7 chickens, 12wks and younger. Plus, today I received 5 new baby chicks. Twelve chickens total when they eventually coexist together.

This is their current small coop. Yesterday, I moved the coop, scraped up the layer of “contractor sand” we had put down 1 week prior, laid a fresh layer of soil and added a fresh layer of diatomaceous earth. The flies swarm the ground where the excrement is. That’s why I’m curious, do people clean their runs each evening? Should I have a different base down that allows me to scrape the excrement up easily? Do people put down diatomaceous earth or something else to aid for hygiene everyday?

I am new to owning chickens and genuinely feel like I’m missing something hygiene wise for my animals due to the amount of flies I am battling. I replace food and water daily and replace the cedar shavings in coop/nesting boxes once a week.

The second photo is their new larger coop that we are still working on predator proofing. They have not moved in yet.

 

[FrostRanger]

I think overcrowding is the main issue here. The small coop I would realistically keep 2-3 in and the larger coop's run is only big enough for 10 with the coop itself holding less (you want 4 square feet of coop space per bird and 10 square feet of run space at a minimum). Moving them to the big coop will help with flies but it's going to be awfully cramped for 12 birds

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You need litter. By having bare sand for the chicken poop to land on, the flies are having a heyday. Add a nice, 4" thick layer of pine shavings (not cedar, which is toxic to chickens) and the chicken poo will fall to the bottom of it, making it harder for the flies to get to it. The pine will also aid in the smell. You won't have to clean it very often at all, just add more litter when it starts to get packed down.

 

[aart]

I think overcrowding is the main issue here.

Definitely contributes to the problem.

That’s why I’m curious, do people clean their runs each evening?

Some might, I've never done it.
I use coarse wood chippings from a tree trimmer.
The wood will decompose the poops.
You can add other dry organic materials, like dry leaves, dry grass clippings to help too.
Only need a few inches of this stuff to do the trick.

But I have a large run and land so a place to dump a load of chippings.

Two loads:

 

[Sally PB]

This is the first year I've used fly traps, Rescue brand. The 'pop' trap someone mentioned.

The bait stinks like rotting meat, and flies were all over it in about two minutes. I have two traps, hanging in trees away from the chicken run and the house. I don't want to trap flies that are in the run, I want to trap flies to keep them out of the run.

 

[RojoMarz]

This is the first year I've used fly traps, Rescue brand. The 'pop' trap someone mentioned.

The bait stinks like rotting meat, and flies were all over it in about two minutes. I have two traps, hanging in trees away from the chicken run and the house. I don't want to trap flies that are in the run, I want to trap flies to keep them out of the run.

I also tried the pop trap and agree. It SMELLS, but did attract the flies to it. Hang it far from people or hold your nose.