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jomo1972

smelly runs!!

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Can anybody help me with this?

 

I have a coop which is fixed and close to the house. The problem is that the smell is becoming noticeable and I've had a friendly complaint from one of the neighbours. I don't know what I'm doing wrong? I clean the coop out every week with Jeyes fluid. I think its the floor which is almost solely mud now. Chickens are very destructive. But I don't know what I can do about it.

 

If one thinks about it, its inevitable with rixed runs. There is no means of waste disposal.

 

Jo[/i]

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There are a number of things you can do:

 

1. Reduce the smelliness of the hens' poos, by feeding them bokashi bran (contains friendly bacteria that help with digestion) and/or garlic powder (the sort sold in horsey shops in big tubs - or through the Omlet shop here - not Schwartz herbs in a little glass jar!)

 

2. It sounds like you don't use any bedding in there - something like aubiose or hemcore (again from a place that sells horse supplies) would help to absorb the waste and you could then clear it out regularly.

 

3. The ground is probably rather acidic and nasty - if you can either move the coop or get inside it, it would be a good idea to dig the ground over and fork in some lime to reduce the acid.

 

Unfortunately wooden housing is difficult to keep sweet-smelling, which is why so many of us have opted for eglus. But there are a few people here with wooden hen-houses, so maybe someone will be along with some more tips soon!

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Is there any change of you lifting the coop and placing it on paving slabs?

 

If you use bedding as suggested by Eyren, the slabs make it very easy to rake or hose the bedding off, and you can give them a good scrub.

 

The garden lime tip works a treat.....and almost instantaneously.

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We have a wooden house. Ours is on paving stones, its much easier to clean, you can sweep everything up and the wash it down. The run on ours is supposed to be attached to the housing but the OH put some hook and eyes on the instead so that they can separated to make cleaning easier. Due to the risks of red mite we aso scatter the red mite powder everywhere after cleaning out.I also poop scoop every day.

 

Hope this helps.

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hemcore/aubiose on the run surface will help a lot. Hemcore has citronella impregnated in it and it coats all the poos, they actually disappear!

 

Others are right about red mite - it smells devine

 

I use Stalosan in the base of the run (under the hemcore) which is a proper livestock powder that nutralises the soil and prevents infection (can be used for all types of livestock and isnt harmful to animals or humans)

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I can get inside the run and clean it out.

 

I've also tried putting straw down but its so muddy that it just embeds into the ground.

 

I could put paving slabs down. But wouldn't the chickens hate it? They are ex bats so I wanted them to go really free range. Paving slabs would be easy to put down and much easier to clean though.

 

Jo

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well, this is our run and fingers x'd, due to our regime, we've not noticed a really bad smell and have had no complaints. There's a bit of a smell but it's not unpleasant.

 

http://www.liverpoolpoet.talktalk.net/newrun1.jpg

 

We feed them garlic powder in their food which really does reduce the smell of the poo.

 

We 'poo pick' the coop every day and once a month the coop gets a scrub with poultry shield, a sprinkling of stalosan f and mite powder and then fresh aubiose.

 

The run gets mucked out about once a month, all the aubiose is dug out and goes on the compost heap, the soil gets a good sprinkling of stalosan f and then fresh aubiose goes down.

 

Aubiose is good for soaking up poo and reducing the smell too.

 

p.s. the coop is on slabs but the run is on soil surrounded by slabs. we have also in the past dug garden lime into the soil but now we use stalosan f.

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Mrs Webmuppet; is it okay to just sprinkle the red mite powder around the house? I'm new to hen keeping and have just got some mite powder, it doesn't say anything about using it other than directly on the chooks. Sounds like a good idea though.

Poet; Is it better to use lime or Stalosan on the soil? Do you put either down regularly or just now and again? Thanks

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Mrs Webmuppet; is it okay to just sprinkle the red mite powder around the house? I'm new to hen keeping and have just got some mite powder, it doesn't say anything about using it other than directly on the chooks. Sounds like a good idea though.

Poet; Is it better to use lime or Stalosan on the soil? Do you put either down regularly or just now and again? Thanks

 

we sprinkle the mite powder in the nest boxes and around the coop, particulary the ends of the perches and nooks and crannies where the mites can gather.

 

garden lime will neutralise any acidic soil and sweeten it but it won't kill any parasites/bacteria, stalosan f will. Just google stalosan f and you'll get more info but as our run is fixed, I prefer to use stalosan as it kills most of the nasty bugs in the soil.

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I just randomly shake the red mite powder over the run floor and around the house, up the walls, nest box floor , perches and any other surfaces I can reach.

 

I use hemcore as well, and poo pick daily (we have had a few visitors who come to see the chickens so I like to keep things spic and span just in case) :lol:

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I use hemcore as well, and poo pick daily (we have had a few visitors who come to see the chickens so I like to keep things spic and span just in case) :lol:

 

You sound just like me! I cant go a day without poo picking now...its become a bit of an obsession :roll::)

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Sadly my thing about poo picking is that I like to keep things clean and tidy.

:)

It also stems from my horse riding days..........I used to look after a horse for an elderly lady and whilst she couldn't muck out etc she was a stickler for keeping the paddock and stable clean ( I think it was a case that her eye sight wasn't too good and she didn't want to stand in anything! :lol: )

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