Official BYC Poll: How Do You Keep Your Coop Smelling Fresh?

[marsmallowthesilkie]

I clean the coop daily and add fragrant herbs

 

[Ted Brown]

I use drop boards and clean daily.

 

[Tashua]

Use deep litter method with hemp bedding inside & stir it up daily & add some every other month or so. Lots of ventilation , a little lime occasionally . Pop door is always open to the covered (metal roof) run . Use peat and pine shavings in the dirt floor , adding a brick of shavings as needed. Never have any smell *so far *

 

[gimmie birdies]

I live in dry E. WA. But we get snow that lasts the winter, I put straw on the floor. I also put dresser drawers under the roosts to catch droppings.

 

[Ascholten]

Smelling Fresh... That's a thing?

I have extra long tongs like you'd use on a grill, Generally, I Try to clean it out every day, get to it before they scratch and bury it, and get it removed. I use a few inches of mulch too so that even if some is missed, it gets buried, so that keeps the smell down a bit, I use pine shavings. They also absorb a bit so when I use the tongs to stir things back up, and even it back out, since they LOVE for some reason, piling it into the corner. if I come across a buried turd, that is now dried, or lumped in a clump of pine, I can snag it and remove it. regular turds tend to dry into little raisins, cecal dumps ted to clump together with the pine and you take a moist wad out.

Unless it's been really rainy for several days and everything is just wet, it's generally not really noticeable, if it is soaked, it can get a little sour but not wretchedly so.

Aaron

Edit: I have had folks ask before, Why Bother? Why not just open floor it, the reason is, I use the chicken crap for fertilizer, so grabbing it does have it's uses, plus if one of them is sick, that will be one of the first signs that something is not right and hopefully I can catch it early

 

[Sally PB]

I use drop boards and clean daily.

Ditto. ^^

I do the coop scoop every day and have PDZ on the poop boards. The only time I smell anything is if someone has dropped a fresh cecal poop.

 

[Mutchi]

ever since i read the artical on nesting boxes, i decited to spice up the nesting boxes a bit, and put herbs and flowers in them! so i chose 'i hang herbs such as baisil, mint, lavender, ect around the coop'

 

[aart]

Ditto. ^^

I do the coop scoop every day and have PDZ on the poop boards. The only time I smell anything is if someone has dropped a fresh cecal poop.

X3

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.
-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
-Pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.
- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.
-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).

There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.

That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 7 years.

 

[Cazook]

I use Stalosan F.

 

[ThatTeowonna]

A thin layer of Sweet PDZ on the poop boards, poop boards scooped daily, hemp bedding on the coop floor, hemp bedding changed out annually, 22 sq ft of year round ventilation with an additional 22 sq ft opened up for warm weather ventilation and probably most significantly, a predator proof run attached to the coop where the pop door is never closed where the chickens immediately retreat to when coming off the roost.
The run is covered with wood chips that get raked about every other month to even them out and everything cold composts in there. I've never removed material from the run. My brother-in-law commented when he entered the coop for the first time "I can't believe it doesn't smell in here."
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That's an awesome run!