No Run and a large coop

[dshafer]

OK, I have a coop large enough for my 13 Chicks, clean the roost fairly often, no dropping in the coop, but they have a fenced in area of about 350 sqf that they go out from sun up to sundown and I let them out on my couple acres every other day. I put straw in the pen every so often, but it is 100 degrees here right now and the flies are going crazy and the ground is hard. Any suggestions for cutting down flies and the smell in the pen?

 

[amanda1]

I don't have a ton of experience, but we use wood shavings, and pile fresh shavings over the poop. We only clean it all out every few months. A fan also seems to help break up the fly swarm.

 

[Intheswamp]

I'm a bit confused....the title says "No run..." but yet you say you have a 350sf fenced-in area that they run in each day. Most folks would probably call that "the run".

Anyhow, if this is the area that you are having the problem with regarding smell and flies? If so, for a large open area there's not a whole lot to be done that it sounds like you're not doing already...raking up the poop and putting it in a compost pile and covering with some brown (plant) material is good, not perfect, but good. You could get some of the bag traps and see if you can lower the fly population with them and maybe try some repellents. For some people vanilla scented Christmas tree air fresheners have been noted to do a surprising job of ridding areas of flies...YMMV.

A good general thread on fly control...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/183332/fly-control

Nice thread on the vanilla air fresheners and flies in general...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/368487/flies-no-more-found-the-perfect-fly-repellent

Best wishes!
Ed