Oh, help my stinky run!!

[Luke13:34]

My run is a reinforced 12x12 dog run. During the fall, when I first put my chickes out there, I would put hay in the coop, they would kick it out and I would turn it and eventually rake it all out over a 2-3 week period. I would rake it into a pile in the corner where it was composting nicely.. I would turn this on occassion, too. Leftover food scraps and poop also got raked into the pile. Then the HUGE snowfall came. Three feet of snow that still has not melted completely. I could no longer rake the hay off to the side. I now have layers of hay/snow/hay/snow/hay/snow all around. Now that it has been warm for the past week the run is a complete mud pit. Today I noticed that IT STINKS.

I took some time this afternoon to remove a bunch of mushy hay and snow and will finish doing that tomorrow afternoon. I feel that once everything melts and dries up a bit, it will be much better, but I'm afraid the neighbors will complain if I don't get this smell under control quickly. I put a little bit of sand in the run in the places I removed the mush.

HELP!

 

[crj]

Why not put down some lime. I would check to see if it's ok for chickens. That will get rid of the smell. You could also cover it with dirt if you can get to it. Vinegar maybe? Whatever is a neutralizer will work. Baking soda? Just check to see if all these are safe around chickens. I'm sure someone will know more. I'm taking potshots here. I know the lime works for horses stalls. Figure the same might work for chickens. I'm having the same problem with one of my coops but I will be turning the soil and adding more sand. It's warm where I am but we've had quite a bit of rain lately.

 

[pkforever]

I need to know this too!!! I'm getting ready to remove a layer of "gunk" from the run. Then I'm gonna cover it with a layer of gravel. But it's still gonna smell real bad...