4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Cyber Chook]

Hi, my cube and lovely 5 chooks arrived today and I'm ecstatic. HOwever... my question is, Might I have made a mistake in getting five? I'm truly not precious about my garden, and wuold much rather have the fun of owning chickens than worry about how it looks. But it rained very heavily, and water just sits on the lawn and turns to mud, making it a horrible, slippery mess for all concerned. I'll put down Hemcore tomorrow in their run, but it's also the surrounding lawn that's a mudbath.

Secondly, they do seem to smell quite strongly. I don't mind, but my close neighbours will do shortly, especially on a nice hot summer's day, I'm sure. Is this because there wasn't any hemcore down in the run, do you think? I'm not a fussy person where these things are concerned (ex-veterinary nurse and country gal), but I was surprised by how strong it was.

Sigh. I love them already! But am weighing up whether I should go for an Eglu instead, and return 2 of the chickens

Would really welcome opinions at this tricky point.

[FruitandNutCake]

Hi,

 

I've only got 3 at the moment, but am planning to get another 6.

 

But with the 3 I've got, I haven't noticed any smell. And I've got two rabbits with them.

 

But I do clean out their bedroom avery morning as soon as I let them out. And when I get home in the afternoon, I clean the poo from their walk in run, and clean up the free-range area and run again after I've put them to bed.

 

I'm not sure how bad it will be when the summer comes - I have noticed a lot of flies already - but they seem to be mainly around the rabbit droppings.

 

I intend to replace the aubiose in the areas where the rabbits gave made their toilet, and use auibisose filled litter trays in the most used areas so that the litter trays can be emptied and washed once a week.

[Egluntyne]

Hemcore in the run, with a plastic cover over the run to stop the rain soaking the Hemcore will do the trick I'm sure.

 

I use Aubiose which is similar and have my Eglus on paving slabs.

 

Re the aroma.....there are several ways of dealing with it.

 

1. Garden lime (not builders) on the soil from time to time...it neutralises the aciity too. It won't harm the hens.....it is just crushed limestone or chalk.

 

2. Garlic powder (as sold for horses) in the fee. Amazingly it works well.

 

3. Bokashi bran in the feed, and in the poo tray. Ditto.

 

 

Good luck!

[Laura & CTB]

Regarding the smell - start using the garlic powder asap. When I first got my two chooks home the smell was incredible and I wondered what I'd let myself in for!

 

The breeders do not use garlic powder and also they've probably got upset tums because of the move.

 

It will get better

[Gallina]

I think it is probably the rain that is making the poo smell.

 

If you have a small garden, don't let them out of the cube run when the weather is awful, and cover the cube with plastic, tarpaulin etc (lots of ideas on this forum for cheap covers).

 

The poo dries up very quickly in my cube run and isn't at all unpleasant. (You can tell from the fact that it gets long enough to dry that I am not as chicken-houseproud as others on the forum: but my run does not smell.)

 

If there is anything nasty stuck to the bars I quickly s"Ooops, word censored!"e it off daily with a plastic scoop from the Early Learning Centre; but I don't even empty the poo trays each day, and they don't smell either, and again I think it is because the poo dries up there.

 

It's unlucky starting with rain. Shut the hens away and look forward to the weekend, when it is supposed to be better.

[Phosphorus]

Oh please let it be better at the weekend. My girls arrived on Saturday to gorgeous weather - every day since then it has been miserable. Thankfully they have a covered run so I have still been able to go in and see them and they haven't suffered too much.

 

My run has aubiose and I haven't really noticed much smell at all. I do poo pick in the morning, the run, roosting bars and the trays. However I usually find I have missed loads when I go back in for a chat and a cuddle I poo pick again at bed time to save me worrying in the morning. Maybe it is my obsessiveness or just that the aubiose helps - oh and I give them bokashi bran - not sure if that has helped yet as they are picky eaters and I have been tempting them with treats

 

Anyway they don't have to smell, don't panic. Definately recommend using hemcore or aubiose and maybe put their run on paving slabs. That was the reason we slabbed our run - we have London Clay as well - garden is turning into a mudbath as we speak but the chicken run is heaven

[moomin]

My run smells only slightly, it's not really an unpleasant smell. I think it's more to do with the rain and getting wet.

 

I can't give them garlic powder yet because they are such fussy madams - I add anything to their pellets or water and they won't touch it.

 

I do keep on top of the poo though, I pick it out every day - tray, roosting bars and run floor Nice job. It makes lovely compost apparently!

[Aunty e]

This happened to me my first winter - aubiose and bark chippings in the run, a cover over the top to keep the worst of the rain off, garlic powder in the food, NEVER let them out when it's raining and you'll be fine. The smell will go almost completely and they'll be much happier without muddy feet in their run. Try not to let them out too much over the winter when the grass doesn't grow back. When we let ours out at winter, we made sure there was some scratch feed like mixed corn in the flower beds to encourage them to play there, and some cabbage for them to gnaw on. And we kept them topped up on veg s"Ooops, word censored!"s as well.

 

Be thankful you've realised now, I had to returf because I was an idiot.

[Helly Welly]

We have clay too and learnt the had way. Now they stay in when its wet, we have a large walk-in run so they have plenty of space.

 

Garlic powder in the feed works a treat for the smell. I'm not the most house-proud chicken mummy, but there haven't been any odour issues since using garlic powder.

[ajm200]

The bokashi bran and garlic powder to work. When we first got ours the smell was noticable, now we only really notice the smelly yellow droppings and they are easily shifted with a blast from the hose.

 

A layer of hemcore with s sprinklingof bokashi in the poo trays does help too as the hemcore helps to dry it out and contains citronella to mask the smell

[Stevie]

I add garlic powder to their food which gets rid of the smell.Dont add too much though otherwise you'll swop one demon for another! The garlic powder in Omlets shop has a handy scoop included and i add 2 of these to a full 'grub' container.

 

Because i have the Eglu on lawn-its not practical for me to use hemcore etc so i sweep the droppings out every day and move the run every 2-3 days so the soil dont get contamined.

[Hen Watch]

My lot are usually only smelly on very, very hot days in Summer but then you get the garden hose out (hosepipe bans permitting) and blast to poo into the grass and smell goes.

 

I have noticed a bit of a smell today though and it is when we have this persistant, warm rain. Don't worry it isn't usually like this.

 

Definately garlic powder in their pellets (or mix in with their treats like cooked rice if they won't have it in their pellets). Buy it from horse feed shops. And get some Auboise (or Hemcore) for the run floor at the same time.

 

I have 1 chook that would stand out in the rain all day if she could, and 3 namby-pambies that dive into the run. But my garden sits on clay too and has huge ponds all over the grass. I'm afraid my darling chooks got locked inside their run today, as they will make a bee line for the soggy grass and rip it to shreds in 10 mins flat looking for worms.

 

Have noticed a few baby flies sitting on top of the eglu this week. Again, don't normally get this and put it down to time of year and warm, wet weather. If you are worried, get some Citronella oil online, put a few drops in the droppings tray, and some on kitchen roll tucked high up in the run where the chooks won't eat it. Get some online from this link.

 

http://www.neph-aromatics.co.uk/essential_c.htm#citronella

[Cyber Chook]

I started writing individual replies, but a queue is forming behind me for the computer so I want to say thank you all, what a nice lot of encouragement, just what I needed in my moment of horror and panic. I broke both arms in January, so you can imagine me picking my way rather carefully across the muddy slope of our 'lawn' (grand name for mudbath).

Caroline

[Hen Watch]

This was mid March.

 

 

6 weeks later the grass was still OK until this annoying non-stop rain we are having. This is the mud bath my chooks made today. Rather amusing to see just how many worms they can bring to the surface and eat. But not so funny when I slip up on this mud. So here we are today at 6.30pm....

 

 

I've now put a police cordon (of an old fire guard and my patio table) around the most soggy area of grass and they are not happy chooks.....