Hello, my pen and coop area are in diar need to love and cleaning. Ok I take that back. Theres alot of love there, not alot of clean! I have posted pics of my pen in the past, I'll attach a pic just to refresh. My outside pen is just dirt. We used to have grass growing in there a long time ago before the chickens. They took care of that! The inside part is also dirt. I have never cleaned it out, floor wise. I think last year I made an attept to go in there and start some shoveling, but it was so compact and heavy, I gave up! The level of the ground inside is a good 5 inches higher than when we made the coop. This is combined with shavings and hay. I also have 3 very big bunnies that live in with the chickens, that add their waste and also burrow tunnels through this area. I am trying to decide if I should rotatil the inside (if I can get the machine in there) to mix the soil better, even out the holes and tunnels the rabbits created, or if I rotatil it, it may make it easier to shovel out. We have had alot of rain here the last few days and my pen is like foul soupy mud and the inside floor gets pretty damp and stanky too. Trying to figure out ways to cut down on the odor. Thanks in advance! What do you guys all do, or is that just part of the beast, stinky pen!
Getting ready to overhaul pen and coop
Ours was that way after it rained for a few days this year. I finally had DH put ag-lime on it to see if it would cut the odor. It didn't very much but a little. He did rototill part of it and most of the odor came from the part that wasn't tilled at all. But I think that was because it was wet too long.
GG
forgot pic!
So you are saying that rotatilling did help to cut down the odor? I have been looking at products at one of our local feed supply stores that they sell for horse stalls to cut odor. Havent researched it anymore than that. Seems like there should be something that can be put in with the soil to cut back on odor.
i am going to guess EM, or efficent microbes, added to your soil, would prevent the stinky soup mess... there is a forum somewhere about EM...
once you rototill it, i would haul it out, and after adding whatever you decided, try some more bedding. the more tilth you have in there, the less soup...
tf
Jana, I don't really know if it did. It seems that he tilled the drier part instead of the muddy part. The only time it stinks is when it's spring mud. Other than that, there is no odor. At least not very much that I have noticed.
TF, since it is outside, we wouldn't put more bedding on the ground. But, when we had our dog kennel downstate, we used ag-lime in the run to control odors. You never smelled any from the dogs, and we have had as many as 14 dogs in the kennel at one time. So, I would think it would work on chicken runs too.
GG
Hi Granny--after 7 years of trying to keep the dust and mud down in my dogs outside yard, I finally tried dumping a couple bales of shavings in there and it has made a world of difference in terms of mud, dust and smell. It also made it easier to clean up after them
Hmmmmmmmm, Catscan, you might have something there. We just put the shavings from the temporary pen in the garage into the chicken pen, and the chicks are thoroughly enjoying spreading them all around up there. But, again, it isn't in the muddy part. But, I am going to insist that my DH put some of them on the muddy part of the coop. It just might work.
GG
In the dog run, we had pea gravel, so it might make a difference. Will try it.
Janastasio, you certainly have a great looking pen there. The chickens look so happy and healthy. Congratulations.
The green panels on the bottom, do they go down a foot into the ground?
Karen
our pen #3 just kept getting muddy. Eggplant has been in there waiting his Q time to be up. so after moving hte chicks into a bigger wading pool, so the baby human can have the small one LOL, i had DH just dump it all in there. it had wood shavings, chick crumble, and poop in it. there are already so much happier and more comfy [he has hens with him]...
another thing you could do with all that moisture, 8if you have a place to put your chickens for a week to ten, is spread some milo around in there, you know, the chicken feed? that water will sprout it, the sprouts will soak up the water, and when you put the chickesn in they will have a hey day with all those greens!
tf
Thanks for all of the suggestions. The fenced in area will hopefully being going to the dog this summer. I have rolls of fencing that I am going to put on the other side and half of yard for the chickens. My access into the indoor chicken area will still be from the pen, but it will be locked off to the dog and the chickens will exit into their area from another door inside the coop. The pen smells even when its not wet. I've tried shoveling before, but the stuff is dense and HEAVY! And I'm no weakling! I havent heard of milo. I will look this up. We were hoping to plant grass seed in there for the dog, but I have a feeling there will be to much chicken doo in there to grow it. I've heard that too much of it will "burn plants". What do you think. Once we get the chickens other area fenced in I can leave that yard empty for a period of time.
what burns the plants is the heavy nitrogen when it is fresh. you can start the deompostion process and reduce the heavy odor by adding as much as possible of dried chamomile flowers. the least expensive wya to get them is fromt eh produce or herb section in your grocer. called MANZANILLA. sprinkle it around liberally. it is a key ingredient in composting the euro-organic way [not the proper term, can't recall it]...
sound slike a good plan on the pen and the dog!
tf
TF, if I get this from the grocer and sprinke it on the ground, is it a plant that will grow or is it something that will help the compost cycle? I'm going to google it now. Holy odor today! We have had rain every day here for about the last week. Lots of thunder storms with periods of heavy rain fall. My pen is like mush! My chickens feet are so muddy and their eggs are so muddy! The moisture and dampness also gets to the dirt on their inside part of the coop, so that also stinks too. Its been pretty humid and rainy. Recipe for yuck! Thanks for the suggestion. Whatever I mix has to be done in the next day or two. I cant take the smell! I dumped in about 40lbs of left over chinese food from my husbands work yesterday. I think that didnt help much with the smell today! The chickens pretty much ate it all, but the air around the pen has a little funkier smell today!
yep to bth. soem will grow, they will eat it too... it is crushed plant, stems, flowers, and seeds... sounds like you need 10 lbs of it!
I started the rotatilling job today after work. Boy was that a work out. We have a gas powered rotatiller. I have never used it before. I was completely soaked in sweat when I finished! I got the pen and as much as I could tilled on the inside. It was amazing how much soil there was. I got one cart full shoveled out and put it on a hill that need to be seeded this year with grass. I will wait a little time until we put seed down. Hopefully this will help with the smell and then I will add in something else to help as well. Job is started but have a long way to go!