Need tips on how to deal with the...uh.... smell of chickens.

[pasofinofarm]

Ok guys I know most of you probably just LOVE the smell of of a wet chicken yard steaming in the heat and feel all earthy and stuff as you fill your nostrils with all that natural aroma.... but it just makes me want to puke!

Here in the south we have 2 seasons, cold and wet and wet and HOT. The second season is by far the longest, lasting 9 or 10 months a year and sometimes even rearing it's ulgy head around Christmas time.
The combo of the heat and wet are making for a malodorus chicken pen.

No my chickens are not overcrowded, they are well fed, well cared for and well loved. The yard is large although decimated by daily scratching and pecking.

I certainly can not be the only one to ever notice that chickens, at least in the right (wrong?) conditions STINK
Any tips on how to controll odors would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Melissa

 

[Poultryisgood]

You can Rake out the yard or what i actually do is Get Orange or peppermint oil and spray there yard down with it its a bug killer and isn't harmful to your birds another thing you might try is putting a tarp or something over there yard gives them shade and helps the poo from not heating up as much!

 

[cookinmom]

I also live in the land of hot and wet (the air is wet, but not the ground; go figure!) The key is cleaning. I rake my chickens yard about every other week, to get the extra poo out of there. Rake it all into a pile, shovel it into a wheelbarrow, and haul it to the compost heap. Also, a big help is using DE (diatomaceous earth; you can find out all about it if you use the search function) sprinkled all over the run, in their house, and a little in their feed. It dries the poo and keeps it from stinking and drawing flies. So far we haven't had a big stink problem.
I do remember the lovely aroma on a humid evening when we used to visit neighbors that lived near a commercial chicken farm when I was a kid! It was suffocating!

 

[pasofinofarm]

Thanks Poultryis good. Keep 'em comming folks I need all the suggestions I can get here!

Blessings,
Meilissa

 

[BirdBrain]

Someone recently mentioned the product "Sweet PDZ" and I of course had to go check it out at this website http://www.sweetpdz.com/small.htm Sounds like it would do wonders for you. I haven't tried it, but it looks worth a try.

 

[SandraChick]

I use sweet PDZ when I run out of FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth (DE)--mainly cuz I have to order the DE online and I can get sweet PDZ at my feed store. If you can't find either, sweet PDZ's competitor is stall dry.

Of course the key to keeping things not smelly is keeping things dry---which being in the pacific Northwest I can appreaciate the difficulty of keeping things dry! water is what makes the urea in chicken poo turn into amonia which is bad bad bad for your chickens (and you for that matter). Keeping the area as clean as possible is important, as well as dealing with the wetness issue.

Many who live in a wetter environment use hydrated lime tilled into the soil, but there is a specific way to do it so as not to harm your birds and since I don't use the method I'll defer to someone who is more knowledgeable.

Sandra

 

[rufus]

Rototill the chicken yard. We used to have several chicken yards, and we would rotate the chickens every month or so. This gives the grass a chance to rejuvenate, and the tilled in chicken poop really turns it green.

Rufus

 

[pasofinofarm]

Wonderfull suggestions. Thank you all. Again I tip my hat to the Chicken Gurus. I got some DE at the local feed store and will start there but I have made a list of "nexts" to try just in case. Thanks again!

Blessings,
Melissa

 

[momma-hen]

I use zeolite in my henhouse, Really no reason it can't be used in the run if needed. Most things never work as well as "they" claim, but this stuff is pretty darn good. Can't buy it locally, so I bought it on ebay.

 

[justusnak]

I had a 7 ton load of AG lime delivered. Every once in a while, we throw a few handfulls out there. DH has tilled it for the summer, and the grass is trying to grow back. My free range chickens love to dust bath in the large pile of AG lime. The other 30 plus in the run...well....smell is minimal.