Okay, I love my animals, but am still a girlie girl...HELP?

[asher]

I HATE the stench. We were cleaning today and...ugh...I love love love my animals, but the smell and the manure...yeah, not so much! ;-) Especially when feed gets wet (which it does sometimes, even in the covered runs when the wind blows the rain in).

I know pulverized lime is great, but is there anything else that helps with the smell? Outside we have six chickens (soon to be more), 7 rabbits (soon to be more as three are due this week) and 4 mostly feral barn cats that we rescued.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

You can purchase a gas mask

i know how ya feel bout the smell

 

[PurpleChicken]

Sweet PDZ and Stall Dry are both available at most feed stores and
are very effective. I prefer Stall Dry but many here prefer Sweet PDZ.
It comes in 50 pound bags and is under $20 and lasts a long time for
the few chickens and rabbits you have.

Personally I like the smell of chickens and rabbits, except the ammonia.
But hey, I fix equipment at wastewater plants and it doesn't bother me.

If you rub some Vicks Rub under your nose it will cover up the smell.
I'm sure there are other aromatherapy type things you can use too.

 

[Crazy4Chicks]

I keep seeing people using food grade DE - maybe that might help?


Julie

 

[asher]

Quote:
Hi hon!!! How are you?! Long time no talk! I see on your other thread that congrats are in order! Are you all still moving down this way at some point?


Purplechicken ~ DH complains about it way more than me. I only catch it in the air certain times (like when we're newly cleaning). He is SO not in to the animals and complains a lot. hehe I'll definitely check in to that stuff! Thank you!

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

I dont think DE would be able to get rid of smell just the bugs

Quote:
Hi hon!!! How are you?! Long time no talk! I see on your other thread that congrats are in order! Are you all still moving down this way at some point?

you!

I am still moving over there. I missed talking to ya. thanks. I am writing my vowes down as we speak. I told her I want to move to NC and get some land and she said its fine. she loves my chickens and duck eggs

 

[asher]

Quote:
The DE didn't do anything here for the smell, IMO. Lime was great, though.

I swear it's not really stinky here, just specific times, particularly when cleaning and mucking out the barn. hehe

 

[hooligan]

I have 15 chickens and unless it rains for days and days it doesn't get smelly. We never have had a problem with smells. What are you keeping them on?
We have 3 house rabbits and don't have a problem with smells with them either. But if you have THAT many rabbits (well soon to be!)and the smell is bothering you, you might want to clean daily, which is what I did when my parents had outside meat rabbits. Shovel daily! Its a pain but its healthier. Some ppl will come take away your rabbit poop for their gardens too.
As for the cat smell I am assuming you mean pee...good luck! If you find anything that keeps them from smelling let me know! A stray cat peed on our AC window unit and our bedroom smells like cat pee!

 

[patandchickens]

Is this indoors or outdoors you're having the problem?

If it's indoors, you need much more ventilation, possibly a drier floor surface (divert incoming surface water, and possibly replace or raise the floor surface with gravel or etc.). Stall-dri or sweet pdz will do a little extra good after you've taken care of those first two things, but will not substitute for them. Oh, and more frequent cleaning, too.

If it's outdoors, if your pens are genuinely stenchy (as opposed to you have a bloodhound-like sensitive nose) you need to make them drier (divert incoming surface water, possibly replace or raise the floor surface with gravel or sand or etc), clean them more often, possibly till in some hydrated lime into the soil, and find somewhere to put the feeders so that rain won't blow in.

Hope there are some useful ideas in here,

Pat

 

[asher]

They are on straw or hay. I had them on pine chips but it seemed to smell quicker when it got wet (which wasn't a problem in the barn).

The buns are fairly new so no mess there, yet.

I'm not exactly sure WHAT the stench is from, to be honest. The barn doesn't smell, the coop doesn't smell. Maybe it's just the general animal-ness outside. hehe My cats actually, I don't smell either.

I will say the runs and barn and coop are right under large trees so when it gets damp, it stays damp in that area for a bit which doesn't help at all.