OMG their run all of a sudden smells horrible!

[crtrlovr]

My issue has been not so much with the smell of the chicken poo itself, but a bag of fine crumbles that I accidentally tore in half dragging it off the cart and into the hen house. I gathered all I could, but there was still quite a bit of it that was on the ground in front of the chicken house door. I figured "oh, well, they'll just eat it when I turn them out tomorrow". It came a gully-washer, toad-strangler, whatever you want to call it -- a downright FLOOD that night and the crumbles just sort of melted into the soil. From that time on, when it gets wet out there, it STINKS to the stratosphere! I've raked, dug, spread hay, etc., and it still stinks when it's wet. I'm hoping to get a big load of sand delivered as soon as it dries up enough for a big truck to get back to the run. Is there a "holding one's nose" smilie?

 

[patandchickens]

crtrlvr -- OMG, I know so exactly what you mean, and isn't it a *special* smell? Like something very evil died?

Last spring I brooded chicks in a big cardboard box for the first 2 wks, and left the box in my sometimes a bit humid basement for a bit too long before disposing of it, and then made the gigantic mistake of thinking I should just dump the whole thing -- disintegrating box, chicky bedding, and LOTS of spilled chick starter -- on the future site of a new garden bed.

It took us a week or so to figure out where the stench was coming from.

it took all summer for it to stop smelling like we had dead whales buried there.

Gah

Pat

 

[Cathryn]

We keep the soil in our runs tilled with lime, sulfur, and wood ashes. The ratio we use is 4 large horse feed scoops of lime to 1 scoop of agricultural sulfur and 1 of wood ashes. The three are mixed, then sprinkled onto the soil like you would powdered sugar to cover a cake completely. Any organic matter like wood chips are raked up first, new soil put in, then the lime, sulfur, and wood ashes worked in with a tiller. We also plant our pens with clumps of grass from along the sidewalks and driveway, wild bird seed and chickweed. This is done yearly and almost every month in the summer in the duck pool area. I would not put lime down where your chickens or ducks could walk in it. Hope this helps, Cathryn

 

[Zahboo]

Figure the smell has been trapped by ice and such all winter. you have 4 or so months of funk surfacing, feel bad for your nostrils

 

[chiknwhisperer]

Do you keep the chickens in the coop or something while the lime is in the run? Or is it okay for them to be out there? Just wondering since I have no clue about lime. But I know about the funk from a chicken run lol

 

[Katy]

Agricultural lime is just ground up limestone. It won't burn their feet.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

Can you get it from a feed store or someting?

 

[animals1981]

limestone gravel and sand seems like it would be hard to clean out?

Anyone heard of using wood ash for the runs flooring? what about the normal dirt we buy for our gardens ?

There must be something out there that helps poop desolve faster lol

 

[kdcrws]

I raked mine out real good this morning then threw in a bunch of dead leaves and that seemed to take care of the problem. But wooo-weee those were some STINKY girls!

 

[Justino]

i had the same problem but then i switched to sand in the run and it doesnt smell to me anymore