Managing chickens.smells,flies etc help

[Mysimplewyominglife]

sorry for the delay answering your question (I went to bed; I'm in UK like you); as Dunnmom says, you can ferment pellets or grain. I use a premium grain mix.

Premium grain mix? What brand? And thanks for letting me know. And I did not go to bed til 2am woke of feeling stressed half tempted to report her to the police

 

[anvia]

Pdz = zeolite in the uk.
The only seller I’ve ever found was on eBay & it failed to arrived repeatedly - & turned into one of “those” ebay situations which became a boatload of grief all around - so I can’t comment on whether it works - but it technically should reduce odour if you can get hold of it.

Fermented feed works for us too - you can ferment any feed. & it’s as simple or as complex as you want to make it! We add water to the next dry feed & cover it & about 12 hours later its ready- feed it & leave a smidge in the bottom of the tub to start the next batch - refill with dry feed, add water, cover, rest - then feed & repeat.
But... it has also been really good year for flies - only you can probably judge whether your chickens & housing are contributing unnecessarily. Are you on good terms with any of your other neighbours? - could you ask them to be honest with you & ask them how they feel about whether your chickens cause any issues for them? Eg. cockerels, or disposing of soiled bedding ect...

If you feel your neighbour is acting unjustly, even if she does have an issue she should not be abusive towards you. Perhaps having a chat with the police might help, start recording incidents? Be prepared for a visit from environmental health if she really does decide to declare war on your chicken keeping. Been here a few years ago at a previous house & it is stressful. We had many visits from environmental health who were very reasonable - it was actually a relief to hear that they judged our hens & their habitat in no way anti-social or problematic. If you are confident all is as well as it could be & you can always jump the gun on your neighbour & contact environmental health yourself? Being proactive & keeping calm taking a reasonable approach might help to nip things in the bud? That can be harder to do if you are also getting upset and stressed and not sleeping.
You’ll have to decide if you have an unreasonable neighbour or a hen problem. No idea what your local waste management situation is - but in my experience fortnightly bin collections ect promote more maggots & flies than a few garden hens ever could!

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

I did ask my other neighbor if he had issues with anything in regards to the chickens he said he had no issues as the ones he did have were fixed one hen kept breaking into his garden once we knew where she was getting in both us and our neighbor worked out a plan and stopped her but we still want to put up a proper fence, he knew we were trying out best to make sure everything is as clean and quite as possible he knows I get bad migraines which basically knock me on my butt. asked him about flies he said ya you got flies even if you only had your dog you would still have the same amount of flies and said this year was bad for them.

We try and compost small amounts of bedding for ourselves we also give some to family and friends failing that we put it in the green waste but it's not overly much as we don't use loads of bedding in the summer and we use sand in summer and I double checked we also use smite organic powder says it's DE powder along with ground sanitizing powder but I need to buy more we are empty. Thinking of trying horse and pony fly spray for outside of their coops along with the fly traps.

I also have no doubt my chickens and dog along with every other animal in the area add to the fly issue but I seriously fail to see how it can be all my fault and my chickens fault for all the flies in the area. Same woman has outdoor cats so I'm not ruling out her cats shting near her house and drawing flies that way.

I have dealt with the council who set up devices to record noise from my cockerel and found that he could be annoying to some but not a nuisance. and just suggested to keep up cleaning ect. and keep them updated which I emailed the lady from the council and told her whats going on and what happened with the neighbor she advised to write it down the best I can remember and if she does it again lodge a complaint with the local police.

Also rehoming some of my chickens anyway and tried to explain this to the crazy lady but she was having none of it she said you need to get rid of them period you and your chickens are ruining the area I don't see how as I keep them as clean as possible and stick to myself a large amount of the time in fact I normally do not go outside my property boundary unless I'm with family or friends.

I really don't mind if environmental health comes around I have no problem in following rules maybe they can tell me better products!

but I do feel even if she has a issue she was out of order treating me the way she did and kept it up once I went into my back yard to check on my animals that to me is defo harassment I would not have treated her in the same manner she treated me but I guess I was raised better. But then again she is know to drink, be a little out there, also fired from her last job, has no job so has to much damn time on her hands. I wish she would move like she was talking about as she said she does not like having a large house and garden and has never really liked the area anyway!

 

[Pugsabi]

I suggest you start keeping records of all the actions she's taking against you, document everything. If you can get any neighbors or witnesses to sign off saying they witnessed the harassment, even better. I hope she doesn't escalate the situation or continue her horrible behavior, but if you have to go to the authorities you don't want it to be a you said she said thing or it could go on forever. I don't know how it is in the UK but here in the US the police can't do much unless they witness the behavior unless you have proof. Do you have a CCTV/security camera? If it's feasible you should get one.

 

[Trux]

I recently have had this problem. My run has a dirt floor and is fine as long as it doesn't get wet. We have been getting a lot of days of 100 degree plus weather and i have been wetting down the chickens to keep them cool, Hence bad smells and flies. It was suggested to me, here on BYC to use deep litter. Where I live we dont have lots of organic matter to add to a run in the summer so I added 10 cubic ft of straw. I also added PDZ to the soil before I put it down. That was 4 days ago and the smell is pretty much all gone as are the flys.
Suggest reading up on Deep Litter method, there are many things you can add to the run and your chickens will have fun doing what chickens do

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

I suggest you start keeping records of all the actions she's taking against you, document everything. If you can get any neighbors or witnesses to sign off saying they witnessed the harassment, even better. I hope she doesn't escalate the situation or continue her horrible behavior, but if you have to go to the authorities you don't want it to be a you said she said thing or it could go on forever. I don't know how it is in the UK but here in the US the police can't do much unless they witness the behavior unless you have proof. Do you have a CCTV/security camera? If it's feasible you should get one.

We have been thinking of getting CCTV installed and this is issue has pushed it higher on our need list!. I have been thinking of getting wood chips and put it down with the pebbles would that work for deep litter method? also their run is pretty much covered except a small area and they have free run of the whole back yard (garden) but I'll admit it's basically a large dirt patch which we are going to be slowly reducing the free ranging time and try to get grass growing again that should help with more of the smells. I also got some insect spray it has good reviews. also thinking would citronella sticks or something help?

 

[Pugsabi]

We have been thinking of getting CCTV installed and this is issue has pushed it higher on our need list!. I have been thinking of getting wood chips and put it down with the pebbles would that work for deep litter method? also their run is pretty much covered except a small area and they have free run of the whole back yard (garden) but I'll admit it's basically a large dirt patch which we are going to be slowly reducing the free ranging time and try to get grass growing again that should help with more of the smells. I also got some insect spray it has good reviews. also thinking would citronella sticks or something help?

If you do wood chips make sure they are not cedar. You'll have to get a rake or shovel to turn the litter every once and again. Citronella might work for the smell until the deep litter is established, but just keeping it as dry as possible will reduce the smell considerably.

 

[igorsMistress]

Geez, so sorry you're having issues with your neighbor! I hate the fly issues, but they're around in summer so it is what it is.

You didn't mention your management strategy so here's what has worked for me: flies are attracted to damp and smelly. DE can help dry things out so if you have a lot of moisture with the heat that can help dry out poop. I sprinkle it in the wet areas of my yard as needed.

I also rake my entire yard once a week, dump poop in the compost pile and cover with some dirt, especially now in our monsoon season. I also use a poop board that I clean every couple days to keep flies down in the coop, and fly traps in a couple different places in my yard. The fly traps are a huge help! I've found the rest of my cleaning routine encourages the flies to go to the traps and the problem isn't quite so bad.

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

My management strategy is every day or every other day pick up poo from yard or til it into the soil if it's not wet or do a little of both i.e piles pick up any largish piles and compost them and the odd small bit of put til into the ground.

I clean their house out 1-3 times a week we are using sand so we made a thing to sift through the sand so all poo gets sifted out. once poo is sifted we put it in a wheel barrow put a little DE powder and ground sanitizer on it and mix it a bit and move it so we can spray down the coops with soapy water and depending on the day we either let it air dry or we use rags to dry it down and then let it air dry, after that we spray mite stuff into and cracks in their house and let it air dry a bit. after that we move the sand back in and put a bit more of the DE powder and ground sanitizer on top of the sand.

They don't have so many flies in their houses or in their run but a few out in the yard where they free range thankfully the last 2 days have been dry but the previous days have been a bit wet and because our yard is dirt it can get pretty bad but we are trying to get the ground ready for turff (already growing grass strips). My mother was shocked I did not whack her one but seriously what good would that have done.

I can't wait for my fly traps hopefully be here by monday and we can cope with natural repellents and fly spray used for horses and such. Still annoyed that she acted like that no reason for it!

 

[igorsMistress]

My management strategy is every day or every other day pick up poo from yard or til it into the soil if it's not wet or do a little of both i.e piles pick up any largish piles and compost them and the odd small bit of put til into the ground.

I clean their house out 1-3 times a week we are using sand so we made a thing to sift through the sand so all poo gets sifted out. once poo is sifted we put it in a wheel barrow put a little DE powder and ground sanitizer on it and mix it a bit and move it so we can spray down the coops with soapy water and depending on the day we either let it air dry or we use rags to dry it down and then let it air dry, after that we spray mite stuff into and cracks in their house and let it air dry a bit. after that we move the sand back in and put a bit more of the DE powder and ground sanitizer on top of the sand.

They don't have so many flies in their houses or in their run but a few out in the yard where they free range thankfully the last 2 days have been dry but the previous days have been a bit wet and because our yard is dirt it can get pretty bad but we are trying to get the ground ready for turff (already growing grass strips). My mother was shocked I did not whack her one but seriously what good would that have done.

I can't wait for my fly traps hopefully be here by monday and we can cope with natural repellents and fly spray used for horses and such. Still annoyed that she acted like that no reason for it!

Sounds to me like you're doing everything possible then. I hope the fly traps help! You're right, her behavior was uncalled for.