What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Jonesey]

I have 4 chickens with an area 25 feet x 15 feet for them to roam about in all day. At night they are housed in a chicken house that can house 6-8 chickens.

 

Each time I open my kitchen door I get whiplash with the smell knocking my nostrills for six! How can I eridicate the smell of poop etc?

 

I clean their house out daily of poop and change their pine wood shavings regularly, I pick up their poopfrom thr run daily too.

 

What can I use the nutralize the odours without harming the chickens and also allowing them to scratch feed without poisoning them?

[The Dogmother]

You will need to clear out the run roughly once a month and treat the soil with BioDri or ground sanitising powder to clear any bacteria, then lay new litter. I'd suggest using Aubiose in the run instead of woodchip, and make sure that your run has a clear, waterproof cover/roof to stop it getting damp.

 

That ought to do it.

[HappyhenSG]

If the ground underneath is quite damp it could be that the wood shavings/chips are starting to compost, especially if you lay it down quite deep and just poo-pick from the surface. We used to have this problem before sorting out the drainage and installing water butts to collect rainwater from the covered roof of the run.

 

I use Stalosan (obtainable from the likes of Scats, Countrywide, etc) to disinfect and deodorise the soil every 3 months or so, and in particular when I get new girls in.

 

Hope this helps.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I can honestly say I've never had the slightest whiff from my run (and it's right by the house). I use Easibed horse bedding, Stalosan F and garden lime after a clean out and have corrugated plastic on the roof.

 

I'm sure you'll be able to eradicate the pong easily .

[clucker1]

Should wood chip be changed after a certain length of time? We have a 9x12 run quite deep (depending on where you stand ) which the girls are spending most of their time in now. Did a mega clean of everything at the weekend with Nettex ground sanitising powder...but not sure if I need to change the woodchips ever. We have had them now for 6 months and they are fab...the chickens love them and no mud..yippee!

[Jonesey]

I can honestly say I've never had the slightest whiff from my run (and it's right by the house). I use Easibed horse bedding, Stalosan F and garden lime after a clean out and have corrugated plastic on the roof.

 

I'm sure you'll be able to eradicate the pong easily .

 

Love your run! Ive had my chickens 4 weeks now and the ground is bare earth, my run is caged (25x15 feet) but no roof. I'm going to look at taking the mesh off the roof and replacing with a clear plastic of some sort to protect the earth from the elements. I'll try your other tips too.

 

Many thanks

[sparkysmum]

I would agree. I roof will prevent your run becoming a pooey, muddy, slippy area in the winter. There is little to be gained in having wood shavings down if the run is open to the elements. If you can do it, a roof will solve lots of issues. Good luck. Alli x

[The Dogmother]

Should wood chip be changed after a certain length of time? We have a 9x12 run quite deep (depending on where you stand ) which the girls are spending most of their time in now. Did a mega clean of everything at the weekend with Nettex ground sanitising powder...but not sure if I need to change the woodchips ever. We have had them now for 6 months and they are fab...the chickens love them and no mud..yippee!

 

It depends on how many chickens you have and how long they spend in the run, but a good rule of thumb is to change the litter every 6-8 weeks, or when it looks manky. I find that hemp bedding such as Aubiose or Hemcore is much drier than wood chip. It is essential that at least part of the run is covered - hens paddling in wet litter will pick up fungal and bacterial foot problems. Not to mention that intestinal worm eggs will thrive in the dampness.

[clucker1]

Thanks Dogmother.

 

So far, so good with the woochips. We do have excellent drainage for it....after all the mud we had before OH out in MASSES of drainage. The chickens have one section which is completely dry which they go into when it is very wet. Have just put down ground sanitiser, but will keep an eye on it all....the plan is to put it on the garden when it needs changing....but so far it is lasting longer than I anticipated. The chickens do turn it over A LOT so perhaps they are maintaining it quite well themselves. On top of that, when they have piled it into heaps more than 1 foot high we then rake it out again to even it all out again.

[The Dogmother]

I usually sprinkle some powdered disinfectant down when I do the weekly clean - not every week, but more often than not.

 

I'd be tempted to move to a drier hemp-type bedding/litter when you've used up all the woodchip.

[clucker1]

Thanks for that Dogmother. I cast my eagle eye across the woodchip this morning and it looks so very much better than what the girls were in last year which was a pile of mud! With the aubiose etc, doesn't it blow away and around? We have no roof on our run other than the wire mesh. It is a windy site (top of a hill) and OH says no roof, so for us the wood chip is good as it doesn't blow around.

[The Dogmother]

I've not had it blow around. I have a strip of plastic lawn edging around the run base to stop them kicking it out and there's a clear tarp over the run.

 

Whatever you use for litter, if it gets wet then it's more likely to smell.

[clucker1]

Not too bad at the moment on the smells! I used bokashi last year, and have continued to plus natural live yogurt which I think is supposed to help too.

On a different note, I think you advocated cod liver oil...want a laugh, Cluck one of my 2 clever chickens was slurping it out of the lid yesterday as I was dispensing it. She liked it a lot! Had to stop her!

[The Dogmother]

daft chook!

 

Cod liver oil is good for general health and it also helps them to assimilate calcium for harder eggshells and better egg-laying contractions.

[clucker1]

Well its quite interesting as we think! it was that chicken who had consistently weak shells...but now improved, so perhaps her body was telling her she needed more of it, although I normally mix it in with their pellets. Perhaps, I should just put a bowl out instead...that could be the starter, main course pellets and pudding natural yogurt

[The Dogmother]

I'd just mix a squirt in with their pellets. The weak shells could be caused by a few things - anything from lack of calcium to shell gland fatigue.

[clucker1]

I think it was from lack of calcium because as I hadn't realised they could need extra calcium ... had thought grit did it for them and everything they needed was in their pellets, which was fine when they were younger. Now they are approaching 2 years old, the extras are all helping.

[The Dogmother]

There are two types of grit - insoluble, flinty grit that helps digestion by grinding down food in the gizzard. And soluble grit - shells - which provides them with calcium.

[clucker1]

yeap, it was the soluble they were missing from their diet.