I have a small prefab coop and my chicks have been out in it for about 2 weeks now. I am noticing it smells! Inside the coop is fine, I’ve changed the bedding but inside the run, where they spend a lot of time, smells pretty bad. I do plan to let them free range the yard, but I want them bigger before they’re doing it unsupervised. What can I do to mitigate the stench? I’ve seen coop refresh and other products, but then I’ve seen other posts that say it doesn’t work. Any advise is greatly appreciated!
Well, the Midwest has been wet. Wet poop stinks! And the weather is sorta warming up...also adds to the problem.
Give us a little more info on your run and situation. Number of chicks, amount of run space. Is any of the run under cover, and how is the drainage where the coop and run are placed.
Many have success with deep litter- a several inch deep layers of wood chips, bark, chopped grass, straw, sand..you get the idea.
My neighbor had a soggy run. He finally ended up hauling in gravel to lay down as a base material, then added straw on top. Much drier and was a good solution for him because of the area the coop was in. We have deep litter, but the run is an old dog run, so was slightly elevated above the flat soggy ground. The coop is elevated, keeping a nice area dry, and we have so far added 12’ of metal roof over part of the run, and will extend that further this year. All of this backs up the the barn, so rain down not get blown in from one direction.
The run is small and undercover, it’s 7.5 feet by 4 feet. I have 5 chicks, I guess they’re almost 10 weeks old. Drainage is good around, no standing water. Right now I have nothing down, it was grass under the coop, now there is a layer of poop and dead grass. I have hardware cloth down too, to help with predator proofing.
What really has happened is I didn’t think this part through. I am new to chickens and my plan was to free range them in the yard but I still feel they are too small. Do I hose it down to clear the waste? I fear making it a worse mess but obviously I have to do something.
Nooo!! Water will make it way worse!
Put down some wood chips....or uncolored mulch from the big box store.
Even a thin layer of pine shavings or straw will help right away.
The run is small and undercover, it’s 7.5 feet by 4 feet. I have 5 chicks, I guess they’re almost 10 weeks old. Drainage is good around, no standing water. Right now I have nothing down, it was grass under the coop, now there is a layer of poop and dead grass. I have hardware cloth down too, to help with predator proofing.
What really has happened is I didn’t think this part through. I am new to chickens and my plan was to free range them in the yard but I still feel they are too small. Do I hose it down to clear the waste? I fear making it a worse mess but obviously I have to do something.
Your grass will not survive the chickens, so give in and put shavings, bark, dirt, sand in the run. Add some boards at bottom to keep in the materials if needed. I’m glad the area is dry! Good luck!
I have 2 inches of sand in my run, no odor, best advice I received. I used contractor sand
not play sand, I was told play sand compacts. Hope this helps
As some others have said adding some natural material(Wood shavings, chips etc.) will help greatly my father in law used barn lime sprinkled around his run(it's a much larger run, couple hundred sq.ft.) and it helped cut down on the smell and he hasn't had any adverse affects to his birds. I'm always a little leery of suggesting something that I haven't used myself but as I said it did work well for him. Hope you find a suitable solution, and btw !
Are you able to move your coop/run? It sounds like it's the size of a movable tractor - you could remove the HC under the coop, attaching it to the outside in such a way as to raise it up while being moved around your yard and dropped back down to prevent the burrowers. Then you could "tractor" your coop around the yard - constantly moving it to new grass every few days - leaving the scratched, manured surface to regrow (fast and a lot).
If you want it stationary, I would remove the hardware cloth under the whole coop, if you can. Then I would raise the whole coop/run structure off the ground with cinder blocks, bricks, rail road ties or ... something. Treated lumber will eventually rot out around the base if doing DLM. As you are raising it, I would put that hardware cloth under the new base, extending out of the run on open ground. Then I would use the DLM method in the newly raised coop/run (I'm assuming that it is one unit together?). For DLM - use what you most have at hand, but don't discount shredded paper and cardboard as well. Layer your DLM, so that you aren't using all the same size materials in one spot - the key is different sized materials. You don't have to mix it, the chix will do that. Having it up on a base will allow you to have several inches of DLM, the deeper the better to reduce or knock out the smell and flies.
I did three 8x8 coops (link to lots of pics below) last fall after Hurricane Florence ripped thru and 2 months ago, started removing the compost from all 3 to use in tire planters (new this year) used for protection around the base of some of my pens (shade, too) and in raised beds I've started. Haven't dug it out in all 3 coops yet, but getting there. Then will need to refill with DLM materials - we use a combo of pine straw, hay, oat/wheat straw, leaves, weeds, garden weeding/clippings, grass clippings, shredded paper & cardboard - and put veggie/fruit scraps on top to encourage the chix to dig.
We "tractor" our chix around in a combo of a covered rabbit cage and puppy Xpens. Last summer, I had just sheets that I got from work stretched over the pens. Late last fall, after loosing a bunch of chicks, I now have a 2x4" wire "lid" on the Xpens (I can still use the sheets for shade if desired). The Xpen is attached to the rabbit cage which is turned upside down to allow the larger openings on the ground - but I still have to put the chicks in the pen so that I can occasionally turn the rabbit cage over to hose off the build up of poop. I have 3 of these set up, with several more rabbit cages that can use for new chicks before turning out into the pens. It would probably be easier to move if I put a wooden base under my improvised tractors, but I haven't gotten around to it yet... I don't use DLM in the tractors - just moving them from spot to spot every couple of days. The growth in our front yard right now is phenomenal! You can tell where the tractors were and weren't! Once we figure out where the water line is, the rows where the tractors ran can be turned into in-ground garden rows - 2-1/2' - 3' wide with the tractors still usable between the rows to "mow".
Here are a couple of pics in the back yard -
A photo album of some of what we've done. The 2x4" wire pens worked great for temporary pens when they were small rounds, as larger pens they were much harder to move/set up, and didn't take long for chicks to start flying right over the tops of the 4' tall pens. I dismantled and rolled up the wire before the two Hurricanes came through. I didn't have any predator problems until later in the fall - in October. I hadn't put those open pens back together yet after the two Hurricanes (may have lost all of my birds if I had). I've made changes to some of those coops since January 2019 - adding in hardware cloth in areas & using wire in combo with the bottle walls to keep predators out, but haven't gotten new pics done yet...
Coops, Cattle panels, DLM & Sheds
The run is small and undercover, it’s 7.5 feet by 4 feet. I have 5 chicks, I guess they’re almost 10 weeks old. Drainage is good around, no standing water. Right now I have nothing down, it was grass under the coop, now there is a layer of poop and dead grass. I have hardware cloth down too, to help with predator proofing.
What really has happened is I didn’t think this part through. I am new to chickens and my plan was to free range them in the yard but I still feel they are too small. Do I hose it down to clear the waste? I fear making it a worse mess but obviously I have to do something.
Oh, that’s why you are having a problem. The run is not even big enough for three chickens, so five will make the problem even worse. Is there anyway you can move the whole coop and run to a different spot? I think with that many chickens in such a small area, you need to clean it out at least twice a day.
I have 5 (4 almost 1 yr pullets and a 2 week old chick). I have a mostly covered dirt run with all kinds of litter thrown in: leaves, wood chips, really fine pine shavings, hemp bedding, chopped straw (from a bale my girls enjoyed playing in over winter). I've not changed it or cleaned it - ever. There is no smell. Mine isn't as deep a litter as suggested for the deep litter method, but it works well for me. Zero stink.
I would add something - anything "woody," as @aart suggests. It will start to absorb odor right away.
BTW - I don't think you really need the stall refresher/pdz, but I've found it works well. That's what's on my poop boards. No smell in the coop, either. My girls' place smell nice... reminds me of a forest.
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