Rain, Rain, Rain + chicken poop and food spillage = smelly - any suggestions?

[tbitler]

Hi All,

It's been a while since I've been on - My little chickies are growing up! However this bring me to the reason for the post. We've been battling flooding - we've had close to 16" of rain in the past month, the average is 4". The ground under the outdoor part of my coop (the chicken run) is STINKY! We move the coop around the yard once a week and I clean the entire coop inside and out every other day, however the smell coming from the ground at the past locations is smelly. I am sure it has quite a bit to do with the water saturated ground - but wondering if there is something I should be doing to minimize the odor?

I see other posts talk about DE, wondering about lime pellets like we use for the horse barn?

Also, others post talk about cleaning coops every 6 weeks - Not sure how that is possible, my 6 chickies make a terrible mess with loads of poop every night. I would love to not spend so much time cleaning them, if there is a smarter way.

As always, thanks so much for sharing your experiences and expertise!

Respectfully,

Traci & Dave Bitler

 

[GitaBooks]

Same problem here!

Our chick room is flooding, our chicken room smells terrible as it has a leaky roof (we tried to fix it and it only partially worked). My coop cleaning shovels all broke (that is how heavy wet bedding gets. My poor back). I let my birds out to free-range during the day, so thankfully they don't have to sit near the smell, but they have to perch by it at night. Cleaning is certainly a good way to help, and I hear that lime does work for this purpose. I've never used lime, I just have to try cleaning it when it starts smelling bad (try cleaning it with a broken shovel).

When to clean the coop depends on its size and the number of birds in it. Deep litter systems can make it so cleaning doesn't have to be done as often.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!

 

[PapaChaz]

for the yard, I totally agree, you can get some lime and spread around the area's that will take care of the smell. It can remember my grandfather keeping lime handy to put in the outhouse.

pretty much want 'barn lime' not lime pellets like you spread on the yard or in the garden. You want the powdered stuff.


I've also seen where people spread wood ash and that helps as well, but I can't attest to that personally.