Want to raise chickens but have heard they are "very messy and stinky"

[underground chickenman]

My momma always said, "Stinky is as stinky does." Haha, not really, but that would be a good line for would-be chicken farmers. Whether your birds are stinky or not depends on you. Search this forum for deep litter method and give that a try. That and good ventilation will solve any stinky problems.

UGCM

 

[CodyDunn]

Quote:
Don't even begin to think that's a dumb question! I can honestly tell you that every person I've ever met that didn't own chickens has asked: "This is probably a really stupid question, but do the the girls have to have a boy to lay eggs?" I always just get a big grin.

It's actually a reasonable question if you think about it.
I have heard that Silkies don't lay much, but I don't have any personal experience with them. Now Easter Egg chickens in my experience do lay pretty darn well. Plus the eggs and the chickens themselves come in interesting colors! They are very sweet too

I can understand wanting to go with the hatching egg route to start your flock, but I would most certainly do LOTS of research before definitely going that route. Doing something like that is much easier when you are already fairly familiar with many things chicken! At least it was that way for me. But truly, either try the search box, go through the list of subjects on the forum index page, and use the link categories at the very top of the page. You can almost certainly find tons of people asking the same questions you might have, and the wonderful people of BYC are answering them! So

and I'm sure you'll love it here!

 

[catfish/okie]

If you like to rais a garden you can scatter the droppings when you clean out your pen into the garden and break it in. Your pen wont stink and your veggies will be heathy and organic. You can make it too rich and burn up ypur plants if you use to much manure. So just keep enough hens for the amount of eggs that your family can eat. Only keep enough to sale eggs if you got at least an acre or more. If you got a big trash can or a barrel youcan mix leaves, grass clippings and chicken manure into the barrel. Keep it moist and turn it every day with a pitch fork. This makes a good organic humus. Drill small holes in the bottom of your barrel so it can drain you want it to stay moist but not sopping wet.

 

[City Gardener]

When I first was going to get chickens, I was really worried about the smell and the noise. I live in Brooklyn, NY, and don't get along with neighbors on one side, so this was really important.

I asked a chicken-keeping friend how often she cleaned out the coop. She is one of those incredibly neat, clean, organized people. She thought for a second and then said, "I guess I clean it about.... once... a..." I was sure she was going to say once a week or even once a day. But no: "About once a year, and I never noticed it smelling bad."

I clean my coop out whenever I start fussing with my compost and want to put the poop in the compost (It makes the compost turn faster). It doesn't smell!! Our run is roofed, so it stays dry, and I really think that's the ticket.

I constantly find BYC a great resource, but I started out with MyPetChicken.com, and found they were great for choosing breeds.

 

[fiberart57]

Chelsie,
Congratulations on your decision to become a member of the chicken fan club. When I relayed your family's comment about being messy and stinky to my girls they stomped into their house and flung the shavings and poo around a bit.

But they got over it.

Seriously. This website has a wealth of information not found anywhere in the world. Having said that I would also recommend checking books out from the library and reading everything you can about raising chickens. Before I got my girls I spent about five months of the winter of 08-09 checking out library books through my local library and interlibrary loan. Did you know that Storey publishes a book with pictures and info about lots of chicken breeds as well as ducks and geese? It was great!

Log in and just read through things. Go to the Coop section and look at coops and decide which one will work best for you. Read up on Feeding and Watering and definitely go to Pictures and Stories of my Flock and read about the Adventures of Barbara (BR).

Stay away from Emergencies and Diseases as well as Predators and Pests for a while 'cause it might scare you off.

Good luck,
Mary

 

[JROOSTER]

Hello and Welcome!!!

 

[Baylen]

Quote:
Yup, my husband stinks sometimes too!