The waterer must have leaked.....

jerseygirl1

Crowing
13 Years
14 Years
Jun 20, 2009
4,501
39
366
Orange County, NY
and got water all over the coop floor, froze over, thawed and now stinks to high heaven. So I have just scooped out half of my entire 10x14 coop, lined it with Sweet PDZ and layered it in wood shavings again. It smelled like vomit, just awful. One nice day and now I have nice sparkling clean coop. A few months early. I'm guessing the smell was water, poop and feed all mixed together, just gross
 
Sorry to hear that, what a job!

Does that waterer have a rubber gasket? If so, try lubing it with plain vaseline to help seal it.


I use an electric dog bowl, which is set into a rubber stock bowl. Best rig so far!
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I had the same problem too! Yesterday I was just going to turn over the sand in my coop but as I started to, it smelled horrible. My waterer has been leaking for a while and i was going through 5 gallons of water for 9 chickens in less than three days. I ended up buying a heated dog water bowl for them this winter and I cleaned out over 2000 ponds of sand yesterday. It was extremely heavy since it was soaking wet!

Cody!!
 
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My coop has been cleaned out many times this winter.....no water leaks, just the chickens tipping the waterer over in the corner. I don't know how they do it, but my 3 & 5 gallon waterers have been tipped over and empty when I go out...so have to clean out the wet bedding and replace with fresh.

So it goes in the great North Coop!

ETA: Silly chickens, what are you thinking making all this work for me.....
 
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Ya!!! lol it smelled like rotten urine and chicken poop together! Sooo nasty! I locked the chickens out of the coop while I cleaned it so it didnt harm them!
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Cody!!
 
Ewww, I can imagine the smell...gag. I got rid of my chicken waterers and now I just use heavy ceramic pet bowls. The chickens haven't tipped them over and it's so much easier to clean the bowls out when I change their water, rather than all the weird little crevices in regular chicken waterers. I have a couple bowls around the yard and one in their run and it works out really well and the dogs and cats use them as well. When I start putting their water in the new coop that will be built in the Spring I'll have to place the bowls on top of blocks or something so they don't kick their bedding in it.
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Mine was leaking too, only if I didn't tighten it the right way, and I didn't always realize until it was too late.

I got tired of that so I picked up one of the larger black rubber tub/feed thingys from the feed store and now I have my waterer inside of that (but raised up by setting on a big dog bowl) anyway... any water that leaks goes into the rubber tub and not on the floor anymore and the chickens have no problem getting a drink.
 

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