# is there such a thing as a fresh smelling coop? lol



## harvestgirl (Apr 29, 2005)

i just cleaned yesterday & today upon letting the chicks out it smelled almost like i hadn't cleaned!

any tricks of the trade to keep the coop fresher?


----------



## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Use hay for bedding. That generally keeps things pretty nice. Don't crowd the coop, either. If it's got 64sq feet, (8'x8') that would be a nice size for 15 chickens. 

Wood shavings is also a decent bedding. I'm told that wood pellets (like they use for horse bedding some places) keeps things pretty decent.

To tell you the truth, I've never noticed a bad odor from our coops other than in REALLY wet weather when the girls couldn't or wouldn't go outside for days at a time.


----------



## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Deep bedding is the key.
Place a board along the bottom of the door opening and just fill that coop about 4 or 5 inches deep.
We (when had the coop and not the barn stalls) used wood shavings. It only smelled briefly in the morning from the night droppings that hadn't gotten stirred in yet.
Toss some birdseed or scratch grains into the bedding adn the birds do all the work.
In the dead of winter you may want to top off the bedding a bit, but that is it.
We cleaned the coop in spring and fall and that was it.
It never smelled bad and we had GREAT stuff for the garden!


----------



## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

I usually clean out the chcken house 3 or 4 times per year. Shovel out all the shavings and replace with new. The coop is about 6x12, I think I have about 10 chickens? (is it bad I don't know for sure) The other half of the coop 6x12 has the turkeys in it. They have a cement floor, we usually just replace with a wheel barrow of fresh pine shavings and it smells just fine. If it starts to smell, I clean it. We just build it all brand new about 4 years ago now, so I am not sure if it still has that new coop smell  My parents have a old coop and I notice it stinks! They clean it more that I clean mine?


----------



## Dazlin (Nov 26, 2007)

I rake mine out every morning. Every couple of months, after a good cleaning with bleach and hosing down, I also spray the roosts with a mixture of lavender/eucalyptus/ tea tree oil, mixed with a large bottle of SSS. It kills the mites on the roosts too. This is a natural reppellant, I use it on my horses. Smells heavenly!


----------



## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

What is SSS? I really must know.


----------



## harvestgirl (Apr 29, 2005)

ok, i must be doing something wrong.

hrm.

i cleaned out yesterday. even put some some stuff from tractor supply the gal said it worked well on the smell. i put down some straw & wood chips ~ should i use one type wood chips over the other? maybe leaves?

that was yesterday.

today it smells (maybe not really bad , but bad enough for me to notice) AND there are flies!

little fruit fly type flies.

there are 3 windows in the coop i keep open all day while they are out.

as i said it's 4X6 (or 8 geez, i can't remember lol), 5 nesting boxes & 3 rungs for them to roost on. overnight there are 13 chicks & 3 ducks. too many?

i am thinking i need to get a separate coop for the ducks @ night time. the person i bought the coop from said it would fit 15 chickens.

think i need to divide them up & just have the chickens in the coop?

thanks!~


----------



## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Poo stinks period!! A fresh poo just dropped and it smells. Thats chickens.
Ducks are even more smelly.

I dont think its possible to have unscented chicken or duck poo. 

As for size. Well that many birds in that size of a place going poo every 30 minutes...yeah you'll be able to smell the poo.

I have a coop thats 14X6 with only 13 chickens and you can smell chicken poo.
The only time you dont smell it is right after cleaning and having fresh hay down. Its smells like wonderful fresh hay. 
Then the chicken go inside to check out the newly cleaned coop and in a few hours its smells like chickens where in it!! :gaptooth:

I have 3 chickens in my rabbitry thats 14x10. Every morning when we open the door, and its very ventilated since its has planks with 1/2"-1" spacing for walls, you can smell the fresh morning chicken poo's.

Chicken cecal poos are the worse!!! I hate being near a chicken when they drop a plop of cecal!!!!

Ducks, IMO are a lot more stinky than chickens.
All their poo smells as bad as chicken cecal poo's.


----------



## harvestgirl (Apr 29, 2005)

should use hay, or straw? i have straw now, but have seen hay mentioned a few times.

and they keep getting up *on the top* of the nesting boxes , it's slanted. they poop tons up there! i am hoping if i can discourage them from going up there, they will poop on the floor. i am thinking the poop/wood combo of the nesting box area isn't a great combo...lol ~


----------



## Bonnie L (May 11, 2002)

The best my chicken coop ever smelled was after the hens ate a bunch of garlic scapes! :grin:

Next best was this past winter. I spread hay around & gave them a bale of alfalfa hay to play with. That had the added benefit of giving the egg yolks a lovely deep orange color.


----------



## Joshie (Dec 8, 2008)

Our coop didn't smell until recently. It's my fault that it started smelling...... because I started cleaning. We use a horse stall. We spread two packages of lime on the bottom. We spread a layer of wood chips on top of that. In a week or two, when it started to smell, we added another layer. We continued this until we had about six to eight inches and didn't have to add any more for months. We started adding more towards the end of winter. We didn't have to put scratch on the floor as chickenista because chickens will scratch. They do move the poo around and that takes care of the smell. Cleaning out the stall now and will use the bedding on our garden this fall. I'll clean it out this fall too and will also put that on the garden. Garden will be wonderful next year. 

I have friends who are heavily into chickens. They show poultry. They told me that they do this too.


----------



## Sanza (Sep 8, 2008)

harvestgirl said:


> should use hay, or straw? i have straw now, but have seen hay mentioned a few times.
> Both are good, hay just smells nicer
> 
> and they keep getting up *on the top* of the nesting boxes , it's slanted. they poop tons up there! i am hoping if i can discourage them from going up there, they will poop on the floor. i am thinking the poop/wood combo of the nesting box area isn't a great combo...lol ~


The reason the chickens are pooping up on top of the nests could be because their nest boxes might be as high or higher then their roosts, and chickens always seek out the highest place possible to roost.
You could also put a poop board under the roosts to catch all the poop at night and scrape it off every morning and that will cut down on the poop in the coop. If your chickens still insist on roosting on top of the nests then block that area off using some wire.


----------



## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

My coop doesn't stink. I tend to use sand as bedding in the summer, and pine shavings in the winter. Both of those get stirred up. I HATE straw and hay because the poo just collects on the top of the straw/hay and cakes there. They don't rustle around enough in it to keep it turned and cleaner. However with pine shavings or sand, they keep it 'turned' simply from the scramble at feeding time. 

I can't remember how large our coop is but it is by no means huge. However, we free range 24/7, 365 so they need it only as a place to get out of the rain, to lay eggs, and as a safe place for me to offer them food without the goats getting it. I think free ranging cuts down on the poo buildup drastically.


----------



## harvestgirl (Apr 29, 2005)

Sanza said:


> The reason the chickens are pooping up on top of the nests could be because their nest boxes might be as high or higher then their roosts, and chickens always seek out the highest place possible to roost.
> You could also put a poop board under the roosts to catch all the poop at night and scrape it off every morning and that will cut down on the poop in the coop. If your chickens still insist on roosting on top of the nests then block that area off using some wire.



the roost is defo. higher,i just think they haven't figured out how to get up there...lol it's easier to jump up to the solid roof.

i think the smell is from the cute but messy ducks  i'll be moving them today & keeping them separate from the chickens, i have hopes that will all the great advice i got here will solve the problem.

thanks everyone!!~


----------



## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

I also have ducks - 6 of 'em - that share my chicken coop with the chickens. Once again, they free range - and I think that's why my coop never gets to stinkin'.


----------



## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

We have ducks in our coop too... and turkeys. And it doesn't smell. But ours free-range too. That definitely helps. 

Personally, I won't use hay as bedding. Not only does it seem like sacrilege to me to use perfectly edible materials for chickens to poop on, hay molds very easily. I know lots of people use it and they don't have any problem with mold (or so they say) but I'm not going to risk it. And I don't use straw because the pine shavings and saw dust just work 10 times better, imo. Like someone else mentioned the poop is always very easily worked in/dried out by them -- and they smell great.


----------



## Dazlin (Nov 26, 2007)

Chickenista, SSS is Skin So Soft from Avon. The original scent.


----------



## TractorNut (Feb 22, 2010)

Chicken coops are supposed to smell like chickens/poop. That's why it's a chicken coop :grin:


----------



## harvestgirl (Apr 29, 2005)

i really think it was the ducks spilling/playing in the water. i even hung the watering can & it was still 1/2 soaked on the floor today.

i stired it up, added more wood chips, cleaned the roof area of the boxes & then lined it w/ tinfoil. will see if that prevents them from getting up there.

then i kept the water out tonight, will see if that makes a diff. in the a.m. they were out all day & it was raining ( they loved it!), they'll go out again first thing.


----------



## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

My coop dont stink! but it dont smell like rose either! lol

I use hay or straw what ever I get a deal on! they eat the stuff in the front half of the coop. the hay at least. 

it breaks down a lot faster then the wood. my winter clean out is half the size it was a month ago.


----------



## Sanza (Sep 8, 2008)

harvestgirl said:


> the roost is defo. higher,i just think they haven't figured out how to get up there...lol it's easier to jump up to the solid roof.QUOTE]
> Maybe you need a ladder for them to get up onto the roosts then, or ladder style roosts.


----------



## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

harvestgirl said:


> i really think it was the ducks spilling/playing in the water. i even hung the watering can & it was still 1/2 soaked on the floor today.
> 
> i stired it up, added more wood chips, cleaned the roof area of the boxes & then lined it w/ tinfoil. will see if that prevents them from getting up there.
> 
> then i kept the water out tonight, will see if that makes a diff. in the a.m. they were out all day & it was raining ( they loved it!), they'll go out again first thing.


Poo looses its smell when it dries. Wet will make stink!!!
Dry is very important for odor control.

Some people are also more sensitive to the smell of poultry.
I dont notice it unless its the first spring cleaning after a long winters buildup. Cant clean the coop in winter. Its all frozen. Come spring its all thawed out. Yuk!

But my DH can smell if I have been near the chickens. He is super sensitive to their odor and knows when I have been around them. If I hold a chicken just for a few minutes my DH can smell chicken on me.

He also hates the smell of chickens but tolerates them. 

He doesn't mind dog odor. I hate dog odor, especially wet dog!! Gag!
All dogs to me smell like dogs!!! Pew


----------



## GeorgiaGirl (Jun 1, 2009)

Dazlin,
could you give me the recipe/mixture for the tea tree oil, lavender, eu? Pleaseeeee?

Thanks!


----------

