Regardless of cleaning, still stinky...new solution!

[pawsplus]

It seems to me that if you put leaves over sand the leaves will break down and mix w/ the sand, eventually making an icky mess. It may not happen soon but eventually it will and you'll have to replace the whole thing.

The OP sounds like he/she just has gravel w/ no sand at all. That IS hard to clean b/c you can't sift out the poop.

W/ a run as small as that, the best plan (IMO) would be a nice thick layer of sand over the gravel and then sifting out the poop as often as possible. See my Mud Eradication Page (link in sig) for suggestions. I use a small horse stall fork to which I have zip-tied hardware cloth--it works like a giant kitty litter scoop and removes all poop from the run sand as well as from the shavings in the coop.

 

[DazeGoneBy]

Quote:
FIRST of all, you are topping my list of awesomeness simply for saying "chickens' accoutrements" on your Mud Eradication Page.

Secondly, yes, I have "river sand" as discussed in my BYC "Bathing Experiment" page. We put that down because I knew it would drain better than fine sand. I'll take a stinky, gravel run over a muddy or sandy run any day of the week. I think the beauty of leaves over gravel is that it still drains, is cheap, all natural, is a built-in hide-n-seek for bug hunting, and (fingers-crossed) will reduce the smell, and be better/softer for their little feet (hopefully even less chance of bumblefoot).

I will also put in a fly strip, since I read a thread on here that a strip did the trick with no smell (hubby put up the hanging water bag thingy that smells like decomposition to draw in the flies...ewww talk about fixing one problem but causing another!).

I don't want to mess with sand. I'm just biased against it. I don't know how decomposing leaves in fine sand would turn out.
Maybe others do?

 

[simplynewt]

Daze, you have an awesome looking coop and thanks for the post. I did not know about putting leaves in the run and now is a good time to add em to it.

Is a deep leave method used on this ?...No pun intended.

 

[DazeGoneBy]

Quote:
Thanks Newt, and I'm glad if this thread is a help.

I will get my hubby to ask his chicken keeping friend how deep they have their leaves. We just put down about an inch-thick layer to start. It's been only 2 days so far, but things seem to be 1 million times better wrt smell and general well-being of the hens.

 

[jmtcmkb]

Quote:
Ok I feel stupid... Don't the leaves make a huge mess of the sand? How do you clean them put when they are all broken up? My husband is VERY apprehensive about me getting chickens because oaf the whole smell thing so I am trying to learn as much as I can before I get the chickens...

My husband is VERY smell sensitive, and I am telling you with 100% honesty we have had 5 chicks for 5 weeks in a spare room adjacent to our bedroom and he hasnt smelled anything whatsoever. I have used pine pellets as bedding, and I do keep on it adding more and DE, stirring once a day. When they are outside I cant imagne it getting any worse than in the house. I think if you stay on top of things you'll be fine.

 

[Tambo26]

I have sand in my run. A couple of weeks ago I was raking leaves and thought the girls would have fun scratching around in a big pile of leaves. They sure did! I found that their feet were so much cleaner!! I always check their feet before I pick them up to cuddle. (Poopy feet = no cuddle). The leaves just seemed to keep everything cleaner. I raked all the leaves up after a week. (I do a weekly/bi weekly sifting of all the sand) What a GREAT thing for the compost pile too! Plus, I think the leaves will be less cold on their feet than the bare sand in the winter. (until the leaves run out!)

 

[Chic-n-farmer]

I learned about the love chickens have for leaves years ago.....

I took a break after raking a ton of leaves into neat piles.... when I came back out one free-ranging hen had distributed them all over the yard again.

 

[California_chickie]

What a great idea! Thanks for sharing! I know this thread is older, but today is my spring cleaning day!