Smell and noise ??

[mcf3kids]

I know this will sound rather dumb but I have not really been around chickens yet and hubby and I are planning on buying 8 chicks next month. We have the design planned for our coop and have started purchasing supplies - my question is how much do chickens smell in the summer months?? and do they make a lot of noise?? I am putting the coop on the side of my house that is below my bedrooms and abuts my neighbors pool area. When our neighbors saw us putting up a fence we told her about our chicken plans and she asked if they would be noisy and smelly. We of course told her no - but honestly I don't know how noisy or smelly they will be. We live in a rural town and our property is 1 1/2 acres. The coop will be about 80 feet from her pool area. Thanks!!

 

[AmyRey]

There is a rather large ruckus when someone lays an egg, but it only lasts a couple of minutes.

With proper care, the smell can easily be kept to non-noticeable levels.

 

[Mak]

Smell can be controlled in a couple ways. This is what I do:
A good layer of shavings on the coop floor to start, then add some every week until you get to 6-8 inches, then clean it all out and start over. The shavings absorb the liquid in the poop so it dries faster with less smell. The shavings themselves also smell good. I also have a poop board under my roosts. Chickens make a lot of poo overnight. The board catches it, and then I scrape it off with a paint scraper into a bucket in the morning, and it goes into the compost pile. When the coop is due for a good cleaning (which it is right now after a long winter!), there is a little smell inside it. Not a bad, gagging smell, but it's there. Chickens are like any other pet- they make poo and poo smells. You have to clean it up, one way or another. If you didn't clean out the cat's litter box, it would smell. If you didn't clean the rabbit's cage, it would smell. If you didn't clean up after your dog, it would smell. Chickens are no different. If you keep them clean, they won't smell.

Noise- well, that kind of depends on the tolerance level of your neighbor. If you end up with a rooster, yeah, he's going to crow. Day, night, whenever. And it's loud. We can hear the rooster about a quarter mile away in our yard, so I'm sure they can hear ours. Hens are somewhat less noisy. Mostly, they cluck and mutter softly while they are picking about for food and grit. When they start laying, they will most likely sing the "egg song." And it can be loud at times, especially if all the hens join in. They will also bawk loudly if they think there is a threat around- kind of a warning thing. If your neighbor wants absolute silence, that's not going to happen. That said, I haven't had any of ours complain about noise and we do have a rooster as well as the hens.

 

[AmyRey]

I will add that DE goes a LONG way to keeping our coop nice and fresh.

 

[mcf3kids]

Thank you for the responses - I do like the idea of a poop board under the roost for easier clean up - how big of a board do you have and is it something that you pull out of the coop to clean or do you just scrape it while its in the coop and put poop in a bucket? I see some people have a board they can pull out and clean like a fake floor but I'm not quite sure how that could be built into our design.

 

[Mak]

I do both, actually. Hubby designed the coop so the board can be slid out. Most days, I just scrape the poop into a bucket, but once a week or so (depending on how dirty it looks) I pull it out and hose it off. In winter, I bring out some spray cleaner since the hose is unusable when it's freezing. Spritz the board and wipe it down, rinse with a little water. We bought the white vinyl covered boards at Home Depot that they sell for shelving so it would be easy to wash.

You can see pictures of what I've done here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=45630

 

[Secretchicken]

We were cleaning out the coop about once a week and used straw bedding. The girls LOVE to make high sided nests to lay in.

 

[mcf3kids]

Mak - I see what you did there with that board under the roost - I'm going to show my hubby that! I like that and it seems very user friendly and "neighbor friendly" to keep the poop easier to clean up and keep the smell down - thanks!

 

[schellie69]

I change the bedding in my coop about once a week. I use DE in the coop to help dry out the poop plus the girls like to scratch around in the straw that keeps things mixed up. I am going to put sand in the new run and mix in DE to help dry the poop and keep the smell in the run down. Sand is great with helping to keep the smell down plus you can just rake or scoop and be done.

 

[mcf3kids]

I am going to do a sand run and add the DE into the sand - seems a lot of people think its the easiest to keep clean and has good drainage. That is the plan as long as we don't run out of $$ on the coop!