Help, my run is starting to smell

Hi,

I have a run attached to the coop which the girls are in during the day, then when I get in I let them attack the garden

The run has now no grass left  and given all this rain it has started to smell. Can i disinfect the ground? Dont want the nieghbours to moan 

Any help much appreciated

you could try slabbing the area under the run. soil will go sour after a while with all the droppings. we got tired of turning the turf over and refillig.

plus points are:

you don't need to worry about soggy feet
you can scrape them clean and then hose pipe the area down
mr fox can't dig, gnaw, eat his way through - no matter how hard he tries!
we do ours once a week and our hens are happier - we had had slow layers to begin with but now all are happy and laying.

its especially good for our brahmas and cochins - or any other feather footed birds.

hope that helps. (we got our slabs 2nd hand off the auction website - lots of people are sorting gardens out right now so going pretty cheap!

Lay slabs on a bed of sand.  Mine are on slab as they are free range during the day, I use Jeyes fluid to scrub with a brush and then hose it off. Only let girls back in after completely dry.

Slabs is the way to go.... I completely agree.

I have four out of five pens on slabs and the only one on dirt is the original one we started with. 

There is also a product called Reosan which is a chemical deodouriser ..... smells like bubble gum and is for waste shoots and rubbish tips etc.....

I called their lab yesterday for a friend who is worried his hens might smell... and they reassured me that it is perfectly safe for poultry, budgies and canaries etc  (he keeps all three)


Might be worth a shot!!

Can you move the house and run?

you could also use shallow trays filled with fine sand for dust baths - i also add lice powder once in a while so they de-louse themselves too!

we grow grass in seed trays for the girls which they can scratch around in whilst in the run and then throw more seed in and replace with another tray until the original one grows back.

then the girls free range whenever we're around. (mr fox even pops down in the middle of the afternoon on the off chance of grabbing a take-away    )

and our slabs are on both soil and sand - depends on your budget
hope that helps...