[Geeza]

Well its been ages since I have been here.. Our girls are doin fab and have grown Fast!! from chicks to full grown chucks. The problem is that we have 25 chickens at the moment and they are fine. They get cleaned out on a regular basis and we have never had any problems. Now the grass area has vanished a long time ago and is just dirt. This has never been cleaned (its dirt) until the rain!!! and it did rain!!! too.
From then we had this most foul smell like rotting flesh!!OMG it stunk....

Now it has dried out all is fine again but I am going to dig it over to make sure ...
What does everyone else do??

Thanks in advance

[northfifeduckling]

if you can rake it off when it's dry.  I'd fill some buckets and store them for 6 months on a separate heap for the veg plot...and partition areas where you maybe reseed some grass?

[shetlandpaul]

lime it and if possible move your run. what area is it. your going to either have a big run or have a none grass run. any smell or over poo areas is a bad sign are you worming them because your likely to have a worm build up.

[sandy]

Not got the problem yet but if you use lime can the chickens still walk in the area or wil it burn thier feet? I have loads of gravel and then some deep soil boarders where they make bomb holes, the area is surrounded by loads of trees so is ideal but now I have ducks as well I don't want it to get too smelly, what else can you use to clean u the area?

[shetlandpaul]

don't think you have the same level of problem. 25 chucks in a pen i quite a few. it comes down to the fact that the run needs moving there is no othe way. unless you want a concrete pen but thats not much fun for the hens.

[shrekfeet]

sounds like too many birds in too few a space to me. How big is the run? I think this is a sign - act now to avoid other problems with infection and the like.

[doganjo]

I use sharp sand - idea courtesy of another TAS member. - I rake it over everyday when it's dry - leave it if it's wet, and top up with more sand when required - as it gets flattened down - result - very little smell.  I have 4 ducks,a cockerel and 7 hens in my run of 18 feet by 36 feet.

[Tullywood Farm]

That sounds great- but I would still be tempted in the winter to scrape it all up, replace the soil and sand, and put the rest on the veg patch or trees - its the best fertilizer ever, and costs a fortune in the garden centre.

Joe

[doganjo]

I would still be tempted in the winter to scrape it all up

Yes, that's what I'm doing - the top raking when dry gets put in a pile near the compost bin.