Chicken run smell

[Chicklays45]

My chicken run is starting to stink and I was wondering can I use agriculture lime. If so how much. I heard if a chicken eats to much sand it can kill them is agriculture lime the same way .can I also take a yard rake and scrape some of it out.

 

[DobieLover]

Can you post pictures of your setup?
Are you using sand in the run?
Generally speaking, the drier you can get things the less odor. Obviously removing the source is the odor helps as well.

 

[JNC]

My chicken run is starting to stink and I was wondering can I use agriculture lime. If so how much. I heard if a chicken eats to much sand it can kill them is agriculture lime. can I also take a yard rake and scrape some of it out.

I use barn lime which is safe for animals. When my coop started to smell I would clean the walls. Take the bedding out and coat the whole floor with barn lime. And if I didn’t have time to clean the bedding that week I would just sprinkle some of the barn lime over the poops.

 

[Vacman]

It smells because it is anaerobic....lack of oxygen. I would cover the ground with a layer of straw, hopefully getting the chickens to scratch. Scratching the ground aerates it and the smelly anaerobic bacteria gets replace with good aerobic bacteria.

 

[ziggywiggy1]

I use pine pellet horse bedding in my coop and I spread whatever’s left in the bag around the run. No smell and once it gets wet it turns into fluff that the ladies roll in and stuff under their feathers to cool down You don’t need a lot, just spread a thin layer in the coop and it will expand a lot. You can spray it with a little water to get it started.

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC.

If you show us some photos of your setup and tell us your general location we can give you better advice more tailored for your circumstances.