Stinky coop resolution

[flyinhigh]

Once when I was very ill and couldn't clean the coop at usual time I was worried that the chickens and the neighbours would be ill themselves from the stench! The next day i gave them leftovers and when I went into the coop to collect the eggs the next day I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful odor! There was a (cooked) head of garlic in that leftover food and the stink was replaced by a ( not overwhelming ) subtle smell of garlic, what a great surprise,

 

[sourland]

Gives a whole new thought to 'garlic chicken'.

 

[flyinhigh]

Ya, I never thought of that myself...pretty funny!

 

[sumi]

Well, I heard feeding chickens garlic helps reduce the ammonia in their poop and it won't smell so terrible. Well, what do you know? It worked!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are you saying that normally if you don't clean it daily it has a stink? I didn't clean mine out for four years and it did not normally have any stink to it. I do have a droppings board which I clean every week or two. If my bedding gets damp, it has a smell but as soon as it dries back out it's fine.

I'm sorry but there is just not enough in your post to convince me that garlic really truly works a miracle.

 

[flyinhigh]

No. I can go for months and months, but I had cancer, was in hospital, got flesh eating disease, and broke my back. I live in a rainforest so it is very damp here. If it doesn't rain I don't have a problem. When it rains for weeks and weeks without stopping it gets slinky. So it was weeks of rain, I was in and out of hospital ( in for months at a time) and when I got home I went to talk to my hens and as happy as they were to see me - I was overwhelmed by the stench.
All I am saying is if there is s stench and you are unable to change the bedding - give then garlic!!!!

 

[redsoxs]

Gives a whole new thought to 'garlic chicken'.

 

[flyinhigh]

C

Well, I heard feeding chickens garlic helps reduce the ammonia in their poop and it won't smell so terrible. Well, what do you know? It worked! 

That is exactly what happened! I would like to know more about a pooping board! I have a shallow bench under the roost pole and that helps but it doesn't give me years before that ammonia smell builds up. How wide is your board and where do you position it? I know I am responding to two different posts here, sorry for not quoting and replying separately. I really think it has to do with the climate. If it is summer and dry I rarely smell anything, but when the rains come and that dampness just permeates everything it's stinky - we get a ton of algae growth on all surfaces.

 

[flyinhigh]

Sorry I guess I tapped the reply twice, if anyone knows how I can undo one of them let me know please. Otherwise SORRY!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes climate has a lot to do with it. When we get wet spells there is a bit of a whiff, but it's really not bad. Here's what I did. I built a brooder under the roosts and use the top as a droppings board. I only did this about a year ago. The first three years I didn't have anything under the roosts, but I did take out the accumulated poop under the rosts every three or four months to put it in my compost heap. I finally built this in to get that stuff more regularly for my compost. It's three feet wide with two roosts over it. It sticks out about a foot further than the roosts.

I think something that really helps is that my coop is way oversized for the number of chickens I have. It's hard to say how many I normally have. Last winter I was down to 7. At the end of summer I had 41 but about half of those were in a separate grow-out coop. A lot of the others were small chicks which don't count as much. I still have 20 but in the middle of January many of them will be big enough to go in the freezer and I'll be back down to a manageable number. In March the cycle will start again.

If you climate is so moist that algae is growing on the walls there's probably not much you can do about it. I sure don't have any great words of wisdom for you.