[newChickenMummy]

Hi guys 

I've had my girls for nearly a year now and they're kept in a secure run which is on mud. I usually line with woodchips but recently ran out and have raked up all the old bits which were left in there so its pretty much just mud now.

This week I've noticed a kind of fishy smell in the run. Their run has never really smelled of anything before, I poo pick every day and clean thoroughly once a week. The run is covered with a tarp.

Other than getting some more woodchips and some stalofsan F anyone have any ideas what the smell could be or is this normal on a mud run? Could it be the tarp getting smelly with all this wet weather we've been having?

Cheers
Liz x

[8doubles]

No ideas for the fishy smell (ammonia ? is there anywhere a deceased rat / hedgehog could be lying ) apart from getting in there with a fork and digging the run over.

[ehs284]

Tell us more about the run please. Mud would not normally have a fishy odour and dead animals each have distinct odours (eg rats=cabbage), but none would be fishy. The most common cause of fishy odours (apart from fish ) is electrical. Hot plastic materials, especially bakelite, can give off these odours. The other suggestion is to get someone else to smell and describe just in case it is only your interpretation of the odour as fish.

[newChickenMummy]

Run is wooden frame and mesh on all sides and top. We've put a couple of sheets of clear plastic fixed to the front to stop the wind and rain getting in. The roof has a tarp over it (both the plastic and tarp are only for the winter, these will come off in the warmer months). Its on mud and their coop is one of those crappy chinese ones everyone buys from ebay which is inside the run. Run is buried about a foot into the ground to stop mr fox digging in and we also have some roof tiles around the outside edge just in case.

I did wonder about a dead rat or something but I couldn't see anything earlier. 

Don't know what else to tell you about it really, seems odd that it smells fishy, it kind of is like an electric smell I know what you mean but we have no electricity out there, nothing at all not even anything with a battery?! Its not ammonia either it doesn't smell like any of the usual chicken smells not that they smell anyway usually. I do have a very strong sense of smell so I'll try and get my husband out to see if he can smell it, usually he can't smell stuff that I can smell until much later which is frustrating lol!

I rake it every week and as I said been using woodchips which I clean out and replace with new about every 3 weeks but haven't been to get any more so its just been bare mud for about 3 weeks now. Still been raking what I can but ground is so hard in this weather.

Maybe I just need to get a good day and go out there and move the coop and give it all a good dig over and sprinkle some Stalofsan F down?

[joyfull]

Maybe I just need to get a good day and go out there and move the coop and give it all a good dig over and sprinkle some Stalofsan F down?

this would be a good idea - sooner rather than later 

[dizzylizzie]

Hi It may be just that its a static run. How long have they been on that bit of groung for?. i would dig it over, add stalason F and keep poop picking

[newChickenMummy]

They've been there since we got them last July, we do let them out to roam the garden whenever we are home but obviously during the day when we are at work they're in there. I'll get on it this weekend. It is becoming rather bumpy anyway where they keep digging holes to dust bath in, little monkeys!

[joyfull]

what size is the run?

[beulah59]

Dig it over and incorporate some lime, then fresh woodchip and stalosan?

[joyfull]

please be very carefull how much lime though and make sure it is well dug in as it can burn - lime is acidic and will burn roots etc 

[Flowerpower136]

Not sure about adding lime, will reduce pH, and I always think the higher the better for seeing off nasties?  Don't know, need a boffin . . .  HF, where are you?

Definately dig over. I do this regularly to ease compaction, and just to freshed it all up.  I do it really rough with a garden fork, and leave huge s*ds and clodds.  The girls just love it, and get their heads right between the tines if I'm not careful.  Lots of worms, and then they've got all the fun of straightening it all out again when I've gone.

'Fishy' does sound nasty.  Something decomposing?

[treacleminer]

Are you sure its coming from your run -  some of the fields around here have been sprayed with a slurry which has a distinctly fishy odour which you can smell from quite a distance!

[ehs284]

Flowerpower, it's the other way around - liming increases pH (reducing acidity) and a lower pH (more acid) generally inhibits bacteria - but it's a big generalisation. One point in favour of digging over is that it allows air/oxygen into anaerobic material. This halts production of septic smells and also the gases are oxidised. Generally the human nose is poor at detecting oxides. Nothing to lose. True fish odour is trimethylamine and this is sometimes used in plant growth regulators so perhaps there is a link - has anyone spilled weed control spray? I know what you mean when you describe your husband's sense of smell - actually men have poorer sense than women and pregnant women have a highly developed sense of smell. I'm a man and I have a bath every year whether I need it or not  (apologies to HRH EI).

[newChickenMummy]

Thanks for all your replies. I went out today and couldn't smell a thing :blink: Maybe it was something coming from somewhere else or maybe my nose was a bit blocked this morning! I'll see if I can smell it tomorrow.

Anyway I'll still give it a dig over as the coop is sinking into the earth where they keep digging! I'll use Stalofsan F rather than lime.

Run is 2.5 x 2m and 6ft tall. We have 3 girls.

[8doubles]

Three chickens sat on a perch , one says "can you smell fish"


I`ll get my coat.