sour smell in coop, What causes that?

[happyhens44]

Lately in Wi its been warm out, and I have a dirt floor coop. well I smell a sour smell. It it chicken poop smell (does chicken coop start to smell sour????) i dont know. I have smelled it in my neighbors coop, but not mine. Please help.

 

[PamB]

Could it be moldy food somewhere? If not, I'm not sure...could be just bad smelling poop I suppose.

ETA: Using sand instead of dirt helps a lot with smell. I use construction sand and the smell is much less now.

 

[speckledhen]

When I smell that, I know that an egg's contents has spilled somewhere and is growing bacteria. Clean out all your nest boxes and see if that helps. Other than that, check out wet feed in corners, etc.

 

[happyhens44]

Thanks speckledhen and pamB

 

[Fred's Hens]

Can you determine if it is an ammonia type smell? As the old litter warms, it does emit a more noticeable ammonia smell as well.

 

[Baymen Moe]

Definately check the feed area. I find it tends to smell worse than the droppings, especially in a wet run or coop.

 

[Robert Boyd]

Quote:
I see you have ducks and

Im a complete newby and I maybe way off,

I put my 9 week old geese and ducks outside when the grass started greening, returned them to there pens inside at night,
and after the first night, the soured smell would knock a person down inside.
I made temporary shelter outside in the fence for the ducks and geese, sperated them from my chickens, cleaned up there pen area, and the smell is completely gone now:^}

 

[Resolution]

The sour fetid odor is the result of dry feed and fecal material, feather dander and atmospheric dust mixing together- via the birds activities naturally- producing Poultry Smut".
This is a disease vector. Clean this enclosure out as well has humanly possible. Pine sol and bleach the walls and perches. Put out generous layers of cool wood ashes and crushed lime over the floor.

Eliminate feeding crumbles or mashes they disintegrate too readily and the recombination of the fines from pellets, crumbles and mashes with fecal material and feather dander is the leading cause of mycoplasma and psuedomonas infections as well a breeding ground for choryza.

Never feed your birds on the ground- place feeding trays on a table above the ground- make certain that any feed that spills ends up in another container- a wading pool full of sand for example- never let spilled feed end up being scratched into the soil.

 

[giefdog]

Sometimes when the weather gets warm in WI and U have a egg w/o a shell or one that is crushed in the nesting box it will sour clean out the nesting box and refill with new nest material

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
I've had that happen twice and didn't catch it till that smell started up. An egg seeped down into the straw to the bottom and formed a nasty clump of dust, straw and egg gunk that started "cooking" in the coop. Nasty smell!