Nervous about the smell coop again this summer.

[Jamesthesilkie]

Soooo I've spent a while searching around, looking at threads about this, but I want my own one, and more specific help.

Last summer, my coop ALWAYS stunk, I cleaned the roosting boards daily, had deep litter, but coming within 15 feet of the coop, you would be hit in the face with chicken stank and flies.

My coop is 8x8 and currently has 15 chickens, will be 20 soon but that's about my max for this coop. I had about 6 inches of pine shavings, straw, leaves, pine needles, and anything else I could find in there.

I did not use pdz in there, but I have a bag and will start using it soon, I'm hoping this will help as well. I am located at the very top of North Carolina, so summers are hot but not awful compared to other areas.

The coop stays very dry as well.

Based on the info I've given, does anyone have some extra tips for me coming into this new year to keep my coop not as smelly?

 

[3KillerBs]

Can you get photos of your coop so that we can see your layout and, most importantly, your ventilation?

15 birds is already right up next to the maximum for an 8'x8' coop -- because if that is the exterior measurement you don't actually have the 64 square feet you'd need for 16 birds inside. Also, if the feeder, waterer, and nest boxes take up interior space then you need to subtract the area they take up from your total figure when calculating how many chickens you can have.

If your bedding is dry rather than moist and doesn't have direct ground contact to seed the bedding with the composting organisms then you don't have deep litter, which is a composting system, but deep bedding, which needs to be cleaned out periodically. Just how periodically depends on weather, chicken load, type of bedding, etc. but my sign that it needs to be done is that it develops a noticeable odor -- anywhere from 6-12 weeks for my Little Monitor Coop.

Having a constant odor problem in a dry coop suggests to me that you've got a serious ventilation problem. You need 1 square foot of ventilation per bird.

That's 24/7/365 ventilation. Anything you close at night or in the winter is just supplemental ventilation and doesn't count.

Additionally, where that ventilation is placed matters. Heat and ammonia both rise so the ventilation needs to be placed high up near the roof.

Show us what your setup looks like and we'll have a better idea how to make it work better for you.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I know this can be a touchy subject to some people....but I'm going to share my experience. In my old house, I had a 4' x 6' coop for 6 birds. I lived in a subdivision with a privacy fenced back yard which the birds had full use as their run. But needless to say, I was very cognizant of the smell because I did NOT want my neighbors complaining. I used pine shavings as bedding inside the coop....and despite my constant attempts to keep it clean, it STANK to high heaven. I would get so many flies in the house because of the coop that I would joke that Beelzebub had come to visit.

This past February I bought a new house and built a new 8' x 10' coop to house 35+ birds. This time I used a mix of masonry sand and screenings (small gravel often used for driveways). I have been AMAZED at the difference. I really wish I had found this option before now.... There is literally NO SMELL at all. No flies. No mess. Each weekend, I take 20 minutes or so to sift through the sand with a cheap kitty litter scoop. Throw the poop in a bucket which I dump in the compost pile.

Did I mention that I live in Central Arkansas where summer temps are often 90+ degrees? And still...no smell. No flies.

 

[Ted Brown]

Wowwww pretty coop

Thanks.

The design is from the Prince Woods book (1923) "Modern Fresh Air Poultry Houses" (see "My Coop" for a pictorial). I take no credit other than doing the research to find it. The design is brilliant and does what it was intended to do - keep birds healthy and happy.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Several people in my neighborhood have started keeping chickens too. I have been asked why mine don't stink.
Turns out they are feeding Dumor. I feed Purina. Maybe it is the brand of feed added to the other things like bread and such making stinky poop.

My coop management to reduce costs of bedding...
Clean under roosts (no poop board) once a week.
Move all shavings that weren't under the roosts to under the roosts. Dump nest box shavings under the roosts.
Add fresh shavings to now empty floor and nests.

No stink no flies.

 

[DobieLover]

Soooo I've spent a while searching around, looking at threads about this, but I want my own one, and more specific help.

Last summer, my coop ALWAYS stunk, I cleaned the roosting boards daily, had deep litter, but coming within 15 feet of the coop, you would be hit in the face with chicken stank and flies.

My coop is 8x8 and currently has 15 chickens, will be 20 soon but that's about my max for this coop. I had about 6 inches of pine shavings, straw, leaves, pine needles, and anything else I could find in there.

I did not use pdz in there, but I have a bag and will start using it soon, I'm hoping this will help as well. I am located at the very top of North Carolina, so summers are hot but not awful compared to other areas.

The coop stays very dry as well.

Based on the info I've given, does anyone have some extra tips for me coming into this new year to keep my coop not as smelly?

Adding more chickens is not the answer.
The DLM requires active composting to keep odors away. It doesn't sound like it's composting.
Have you considered abandoning DLM in favor of poop boards with PDZ?

 

[tripletfeb]

Consider a poop board. Then all you have to do is clean that every day or so. That will keep down the smell. But, I do not use a poop board personally. And I use the deep bedding method. Only clean my coop twice a year and it does not smell. I also only have 6 chickens and will not be adding more. Maybe the leftovers you feed them are getting moldy? They might not eat all of it and it can sit there and stink. Try stopping that and see if the smell clears up

 

[Krazikatlady64]

Here are super simple poop boards with sand and nesting boxes. My coop is very open.

Fans at the top on a board and chained so they dont fall.

 

[sunnie7]

I switched over to poop boards with PDZ...only regret was not doing this sooner!!! We also got rid of our 3 ducks that shared the coop. Won’t do that again! I spend maybe 3 mins scooping each day, zero smell my coop floor is pine shavings and stays so clean!!!!! No food or water inside the coop.

 

[Ted Brown]

Something is amiss.

I have 25 birds in a 10' by 16' coop, use drop boards with PDZ, deep bedding of pine shavings with some straw (6-8" deep, DLM is something else entirely and generally does not work on a wood floor). I clean the boards each morning. I went for over a year without changing the bedding and no smell whatsoever. I changed the bedding for two reasons: buildup of "dust" (actually droppings that break down) and I was dealing with mites. My coop is a Woods KD style with excellent ventilation.

Is the bedding damp or wet?