odors and flies

[Chickenmom]

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I've posted. Since we are dealing with heat in the 90's the smell and flys are getting to be too much for our neighbors. We were away on vacation and we had a chick sitter come over to feed water and collect eggs. I left fly traps up, but they filled up very quickly. I'm putting up more today. We use the deep litter method in the coop, but still get tons of flys. Most of the poop happens out in the run which has wooden pallets over most of it. It gets very muddy... I put down Sweey PDZ stall refresher every now and then, but is there anything else you can think of that I should do to help with the flys and smell? Lime? Please share the wisdom! THANKS

 

[silkiechicken]

I heard of some people using DE to kill fly larve? I would try to take care of the dampness problem as that would be main source of stink.

 

[Chickenmom]

O.K. Thanks. You're right about the dampness. It does smell worse when the soil in the run is wet. Any thoughts on how to dry out the soil?

 

[silkiechicken]

Well... My solution to keeping the coops dry is to move them to higher ground.

You could try to pile up dirt inside or add sand for drainage, but that one can get expensive.

 

[blossom hen]

I added a load of sand to my run which was helping loads til we had another big, hard thunderstorm which washed out most all of my sand!!! (Next project - retaining walls around the run and another load of sand.)
But adding DE to the chicken's feed has helped the most. Do not have nearly as many flies as before I started using it.

 

[Chickenmom]

Thanks. A neighbor who keeps all kinds of birds suggested Stay Dry. He uses it and it works for him. I'll get some today.

 

[Anne]

Any possibility of increasing the size of their run?

I notice that when my birds have an oversized (large enough so the grass doesn't get worn down) or newly-rotated (has been vacant for a while and vegetation has grown back) run, flies and smell are not a problem, even in the summer.

 

[Chickenmom]

Wish I could! Unfortunately I can't. Nasty neighbor has called the Health Dept. on us and we may end up having to lose our chickens. I'm going to a Borough meeting Mon. p.m. to see what I can do. There is no ordinance regarding chickens as of now. We had a rat problem in the spring that we took care of with snap traps, covering under the soil, up the sides and over the top with hardware cloth wire and eliminating boroughs. The nasty neighbor has a barn next to our property line that is used for storage only and has had racoons, possums, woodchucks, etc. for over 20 years that somehow they were never aware of. When my DH was rat proofing our place he told her he saw a big hole going into her barn and when she heard the word rat she freaked. She called the Borough and the Health Dept. and they have cited us and her and are now considering creating an ordinance against chickens. When they first came over for an inspection they said everything was fine. Then we went away for a month with a hired guy taking care of feeding the chickens during July. The heat and him not being as neat as we are led to the Health Dept. coming over while we were away. They actually walked all over and even had the Mayor in our backyard while we were gone. They also did an inspection of all of our neighbors properties too even though one of them was out of town too. They made not mandatory recommendations to all of them. Neddless to say I've had to do some major fence mending. The nasy neighbor is not speaking to us, but at least everyone else is. One neighbor also keeps birds and will help us fight this and he says there have always been rats that follow a creek that runs nearby. Must close. Too depressing for any more tonight. I'll check in tomorrow.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I would keep putting out plenty of traps for the flies. Really keep on it.

For the run, I would take the pallets out. They are just going to make the smell worse, as the poop will just sit on them, smelling. I would put sand in the run. This will improve drainage, which will improve the smell problem and also help the mud problem. You can also rake sand to get rid of extra poo, if you need to. Some of the poo should also be washing into the sand and soil, with the better drainage, and the soil microbes should be able to work on it. Get some DE to feed to the chickens and use in the run, also, as a lot of people swear by it to help with fly problems. A board, a timber or bricks around the base of the run, can help retain sand, also.

Keep the coop clean. Deep litter is great, but doesn't work well if you have too many chickens in the space. If you're having a smell problem in the coop, then you need to add more litter, spot clean or do a clean out, depending on your situation. You might not be having a smell problem with your coop, so feel free to just ignore that part.

I think the key to dealing with the legal aspects, is to let them know that you are working the problem. For example, you could tell them you're very sorry there was a problem. You're home now. You won't be using that chicken sitter again. You've added more fly traps and DE to get rid of the flies. You're adding sand to improve drainage in the run. Fix the problems and invite them back for another inspection, to see that there's no longer a problem.

Good luck with all this. I think you can fix this and I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Chickenmom]

Thanks for the good advice.We did a complete clean yesterday. The pallets are out and all fresh shavings in, old fashioned sticky fly stips up, every surface washed, lime and PDZ down. It looks and smells great now. I'll get some DE and we will move the sand from our son's sand box into the run. He has outgrown the sandbox anyway. Again thanks so much!