Need some advice on coop placement. Please help!!!

[gumpsgirl]

We are in phase two of building our coop and now several people that I talked to at church today told us that we are putting it in the wrong place because of the smell. It is about 30 feet from our house. My DH wanted it near the house because of the predators that we will have to deal with. We worked all day yesterday and have it completely framed up. Floor, walls, and roof. Now I am worried about where we have put it. If I tell my DH that this 11' X 9' coop needs to be moved, I am afraid that he will not take that very well. I imagine it will be something like,

! At the same time, I want to take care of the problem now, BEFORE we get any farther into this coop. It might even be to late to move it, even if I wanted to. Will the smell be that bad if I keep the coop cleaned out?

 

[speckledhen]

No, the smell will not be that bad. My coops really don't smell. The only smell I really get is in the run when it's been raining and stays wet a long time. Then, just tilling it under with pulverized lime, wood ash and/or DE sweetens it up considerably. If you cover it, that will cut down on that, too, by keeping it drier.
BTW, my main coop is 70 ft from my bedroom window and the nursery coop is closer than that.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Quote:
Feeling much better!

Thank you!

 

[speckledhen]

People always think chickens have to be filthy and smell terrible, but not true. I take a small garden rake and pooper-scoop the previous night's poop from under the roost into a 5 gallon bucket every day then dump it on my compost pile, which is further away from the house, or you could dig a hole and use it for that. Then I rake around the shavings under there, on occasion adding fresh as they break down. Also, I may sprinkle some Sweet PDZ under the roosts to absorb any odor that lingers (same as Stall Dry). You can also use food grade DE, but I find that makes things much dustier so I only use that in summertime. I sand the roosts on occasion then rub them with veg oil to which I've added tea tree oil, maybe 1/4 of a small bottle. That kills germs on the roosts, deters bugs and also deodorizes the coop as well.
Just thought I'd tell you things I do to keep smells down. People always remark about how my coops don't smell bad when they poke their heads in to see the girls.

 

[LynneP]

If you're planning on using DE and perhaps Stable Boy or Stall Dri I bet your placement will be fine! People have some odd attitudes about chickens. We were told we'd have instant rats, but with 25 feral cats using the property and no rodent activity whatever, I'm betting they're wrong and so are your critics!

Based on many suggestions of the better kind, we're installing a droppings shelf under our roost, which I intend to sprinkle with DE, peat moss and Stable Boy so I can scrape it clean into a cleanup bucket daily.

 

[Chirpy]

I'm sure it makes a big difference on where you live (what part of the country) as rainy, humid areas would be prone to "possible" smell more.

However, I grew up in Wisconsin and my grandma always had chickens. The hen house was probably 30 feet from the front door of their house and we kids played outside all the time. I never smelled the chickens unless I went into the hen house and then there was just a faint smell but nothing bad.

Another thought is that if the hen house is downwind from your house that will also make a difference if there ever is a smell.

I've only had chickens for a year now and thus far I can't even smell mine inside the hen house... but I live in a dry area for most of the year.

 

[Dawn419]

Our 3 coops are up close to our mobile home, and you'd never know we have them until the boys crow...meaning there's no chicken smell.

We use food grade DE which dries out the pooh and also keeps the fly population down. Visitors are always surprised because our place "doesn't smell like a farm".

One coop is maybe 10 feet from our computer room window, the other two are about the same distance from our kitchen window...both windows are kept open in the spring and summer and we may smell the neighborhood cows but we don't smell our chickens!

Hope this helps!

Dawn