[Ginarina]

hello all
I am still new to keeping chickens (a year to the day more or less) and I often wondered if I should hose down their garden (shingle) with some dissinfectent as during hot weather I see flies even tho I keep them as clean as I can during the day and use a chicken deoderising powder on areas that look attractive to the tiny beasties...or am I being overly fussy  any anwsers welcome xx

[bantam novice]

Hello there, I am not an expert either but from what I have read I would think that an occasional hose down with some disinfectant such as stalosan F or Ficam W (I think that is what they are called though feel free to correct    ) or a dilute solution of Poultry shield should be OK.  Do your hens have an area where they can create a dust bath?  If not I have seen a suggestion of filling a large old tyre with a mixture of sand and earth (and possibly a little Diatom Earth) which sounds good to me.  Good luck and keep us posted 

[Ginarina]

 8)Thank you for the suggestions I have made a note of the dissinfectant and yes I saw something about sand bath and old tyres I will put all that to good use thanks for reminding me xx

[Lindeggs]

Personally I choose not to use disinfectants on the soil around my coop, because I want to put the good soil bacteria to work for me!  Disinfectant kills both the goodies and the baddies so I just try to make conditions right for the goodies to out-number the baddies.

Obviously how you manage the soil is going to be hugely influenced by the soil type and climate of your area, so not everything will work for everyone.

If flies are your only problem and there is no unpleasant smell, perhaps a fly trap hung in a nearby tree might be all you need?

Some other alternatives might be:

• Just hose the droppings into the soil using plain water
• Have a bucket of dry soil or sand handy, and put a scoop of dry soil on top of the droppings, so they aren't exposed to air
• Use some of the output from other composting systems to innoculate the soil with good bacteria (bokashi systems are perfect but others will also be good)