Stop telling me that chickens SMELL !

[speckledhen]

Chickens like to be clean. If you as their owner/manager keep their environment properly, they will keep themselves clean. I pick up my best flock pal, my black Ameraucana hen, Gypsy, who thinks she's a purse, I guess, judging from how much she loves to be carried around.

I bury my nose in her hackles and tell her she smells just like a dryer sheet. She truly does smell fresh and clean, unless she has been pooped on by someone else or has stepped in something along the way. They spend lots of time grooming themselves if you watch them for any length of time. If they step in something, they keep trying to get it off their foot-they don't like to be nasty, it's quite obvious to an outside observer.

If a flock is nasty and smelly, it's the flock manager's fault, IMO.

 

[chickened]

Yep, a hens' egg is a good indicator of her coop sanitation. I have bought eggs on line that were filthy... not the hens' fault.

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
Ain't that the truth. I like to pick up my birds and smell them. When I bought my first Dels they stank to high heavens. I had to drive home with the windows down. After a day in new wood chips they were clean and white. Not so much now that it's muddy here but they still don't smell like poop. They do like to bathe in sand though.

 

[JD4570]

Chickens don't stink! Now the aftermath of me eating to much barbacue, eeew!

 

[cassie]

My standard reply to someone who says some animal stinks is to tell them everything stinks if it is not kept clean, including them. And then I change the subject.