Lisa Munoz
Hatching
- Jan 22, 2018
- 5
- 2
- 6
I'm very new to owning chickens...but truthfully I've fallen in love with it. My husband and I bought a house and the previous owners gave us their four Road Island Reds along with the coop they built and the supplies they had. The girls were very aggressive with me at first, but now they know who takes care of them and they have come to "tolerate" me.
They still won't let me hold them, and rarely like to even be pet. I'm trying slowly to earn their trust.
Anyway, to my problem. It's winter in Idaho. Lots of snow, rain, ice and just miserable at times to be a chicken and a chicken keeper. I'm out there morning and night with the girls. Since I work, I have to be out there before dawn to clean out their roosting area, give them fresh water, food and clean out the run from their morning droppings. I let them free range for about 20 minutes in the morning while I'm cleaning. Then, unfortunately they go back in until I get home about 3:45pm. As soon as I get home, I let them out of their run until sunset. Which until about a month ago was about 4:00pm. Thankfully we're getting a little more time and they go in about 4:30pm now. I'm outside with them the entire time, as the neighbors have cats and since there are no leaves on the trees, I don't want the hawks to get them.
Anyway...I'm very vigilant about their roosting area being dry and clean. I don't do the deep litter method, but clean the poop and wet spots out twice a day and add more pine shavings if needed. twice a month I take all the bedding out, spray some cleaner in it, add some DE and add fresh pine shavings. It's too cold to do a deep clean with water as it would never dry. Their run area is all dirt. It is compact in one area and the back is all dug up where they dig during the day. I clean it and rake it out twice a day when I let them out. I was adding pine shavings because the ground is wet, not muddy right now, but just always wet, from melting snow and rain. Although we have the outside of the run covered with plastic wrap for the winter, rain still gets in because we have it open at the top to keep it ventilated. So, the dirt run is wet. Well...it's starting to smell like urine. We've only owned them for five months, but the run has never smelled that way. It has a really strong urine smell. How do I clean it? The roosting area is fine, it's just the run. I tried adding pine shavings and cleaning that out twice a day, but it didn't seem to help. And, my husband who knows everything because he owned chickens when he was 10, said that i shouldn't put shavings in the run, and that's why it smells, even though i clean it out completely twice a day. Any advice would be great!

Anyway, to my problem. It's winter in Idaho. Lots of snow, rain, ice and just miserable at times to be a chicken and a chicken keeper. I'm out there morning and night with the girls. Since I work, I have to be out there before dawn to clean out their roosting area, give them fresh water, food and clean out the run from their morning droppings. I let them free range for about 20 minutes in the morning while I'm cleaning. Then, unfortunately they go back in until I get home about 3:45pm. As soon as I get home, I let them out of their run until sunset. Which until about a month ago was about 4:00pm. Thankfully we're getting a little more time and they go in about 4:30pm now. I'm outside with them the entire time, as the neighbors have cats and since there are no leaves on the trees, I don't want the hawks to get them.
Anyway...I'm very vigilant about their roosting area being dry and clean. I don't do the deep litter method, but clean the poop and wet spots out twice a day and add more pine shavings if needed. twice a month I take all the bedding out, spray some cleaner in it, add some DE and add fresh pine shavings. It's too cold to do a deep clean with water as it would never dry. Their run area is all dirt. It is compact in one area and the back is all dug up where they dig during the day. I clean it and rake it out twice a day when I let them out. I was adding pine shavings because the ground is wet, not muddy right now, but just always wet, from melting snow and rain. Although we have the outside of the run covered with plastic wrap for the winter, rain still gets in because we have it open at the top to keep it ventilated. So, the dirt run is wet. Well...it's starting to smell like urine. We've only owned them for five months, but the run has never smelled that way. It has a really strong urine smell. How do I clean it? The roosting area is fine, it's just the run. I tried adding pine shavings and cleaning that out twice a day, but it didn't seem to help. And, my husband who knows everything because he owned chickens when he was 10, said that i shouldn't put shavings in the run, and that's why it smells, even though i clean it out completely twice a day. Any advice would be great!