Stinky run!!!!!

[zenstarling]

think of your run space like an active compost area as others have mentioned. a mix of greens and browns that gets regularly turned. the chickens help with this (and they love it). grass clippings work, dried leaves and yard waste, weeds you pull outta the garden. as they poop into it you turn it over with a fork and they’re so excited about that they get in to scratching and looking for goodies. as you all turn it over it breaks down and starts looking like some good material for next year’s garden. after a heavy rain it’ll smell a bit, but as soon as things dry it’s gone. if you’re on poorly draining clay it’s essential you have some kind of medium in there for the poop to break down into!

 

[3KillerBs]

Coarse wood chips, the sort you get from a tree-trimming service, are often considered the gold standard for controlling mud and odor.

Evaluating your drainage to ensure that water is not pooling in the run or even running through it but is, instead, diverted around it, is the first thing.

The second is to get some dry organic material in there to interact with the poop and compost it away.

 

[neo71665]

My coop and run is built on clay (basically my whole farm is clay). I made the mistake of putting sand in the coop when I was a noob and didn't take long to get rid of that. The poop just mixes in sand and stinks.

I now own a wood chipper so I can make my own chips to put in the coop.

 

[Porpie Pie]

What kind of floor and/or materials do you have in your run?

Unless cement or similar I wouldn't hose down the poop. Wet run and poop equals stinky, especially if not drying.

Need to add some brown material- wood chips, leaves, pine shavings, clean dirt, etc. Sand might work, some have success with it.

Regular turning of materials helps too if your chickens aren't doing it for you. Also is the run covered?

It's dirt but our property is more clay like so it's very hard and compact. I rake it out regularly and put their water bowls in different spots so the ground underneath can dry as much as it can. Someone did suggest barn lime and since it's less expensive than pine shavings ( run is 20'x20') I decided to give that a try and mite/fly spray around the coop and run has helped with the flies TREMENDOUSLY! I think I'm liking the barn lime since it sucks up that moisture especially in the poop so when I rake it up it crumbles rather than smearing and dragging on the dirt.

 

[Porpie Pie]

think of your run space like an active compost area as others have mentioned. a mix of greens and browns that gets regularly turned. the chickens help with this (and they love it). grass clippings work, dried leaves and yard waste, weeds you pull outta the garden. as they poop into it you turn it over with a fork and they’re so excited about that they get in to scratching and looking for goodies. as you all turn it over it breaks down and starts looking like some good material for next year’s garden. after a heavy rain it’ll smell a bit, but as soon as things dry it’s gone. if you’re on poorly draining clay it’s essential you have some kind of medium in there for the poop to break down into!

I've thrown all kinds of stuff in but they don't scratch through it I'm guessing since it's more clay than dirt. I've wanted to replace some posts to the run but it's impossible to even dig without a jackhammer