When I went to let the chickens out this morning, I could tell from yards away that the manure in the coop smelled way worse than usual. It normally has a typical barn/animal smell, but even the general nature of the smell was totally different this morning. When I opened the coop door to scrape the poop off the ledge they use to get in the nest boxes, it took my breath away. I had to run back up to the house to get to where I felt like I could take a breath again, then run back down to the coop holding my breath and scrape the poop and rake the bedding and run back.
I changed the bedding in the coop on Saturday (today is Tuesday) and put down fresh. The old bedding was a mix of pine shavings and shredded boxes. Smelled fine and normal. I replaced the old bedding with only shredded boxes for the moment because I’m out of pine shavings. The ladies have spent a lot of time on the old litter pile where I dumped it to compost since. All seem to be acting normal, but honestly I couldn’t stick around.
The poop I scraped from the ledge looked normal, and I did not notice anything strange in the bedding. I’ve now gone back out after 10 minutes and it smells normal again. I can still smell it a bit near the bedding.
What is going on?? Did they all just have cecal poops at the same time this morning? Is it because they’ve been at the old bedding? New bedding not effective enough (has been fine in the past)? Disease? Bad timing?
I’m not fussy about barn smells. I have seriously smelled better road kill. I’d rather have my dog be sprayed by a skunk and run through the house again. It was that bad.
I changed the bedding in the coop on Saturday (today is Tuesday) and put down fresh. The old bedding was a mix of pine shavings and shredded boxes. Smelled fine and normal. I replaced the old bedding with only shredded boxes for the moment because I’m out of pine shavings. The ladies have spent a lot of time on the old litter pile where I dumped it to compost since. All seem to be acting normal, but honestly I couldn’t stick around.
The poop I scraped from the ledge looked normal, and I did not notice anything strange in the bedding. I’ve now gone back out after 10 minutes and it smells normal again. I can still smell it a bit near the bedding.
What is going on?? Did they all just have cecal poops at the same time this morning? Is it because they’ve been at the old bedding? New bedding not effective enough (has been fine in the past)? Disease? Bad timing?
I’m not fussy about barn smells. I have seriously smelled better road kill. I’d rather have my dog be sprayed by a skunk and run through the house again. It was that bad.
