Chickens: Stinky Chicken Yard? I Can Fix That

Chicken Yard

When I began to consider keeping chickens in the yard I spoke to my neighbors about it. Because my neighbors had grow up on farms, I seriously reconsidered when they told me that chickens stink.

I had visited small farms and homesteads with coops that did smell very bad, and I didn’t want to bring that kind of funk onto my land, so I hatched out a plan to move my chickens around on the property so that they would never be in one area for long enough to stink it up.

With my plan firmly set in my mind I acquired my first flock of chicks, and built my rolling coop/nesting boxes. When the rolling coop was built I put a moveable fence around it as I moved it around the yard. It wasn’t long before a feral cat and our pet hunting dog had destroyed my entire first flock.

Back to the drawing board.

I realized the rolling coop model was not going to keep my chickens safe enough from predators on my heavily wooded property. So before I got the next flock I closed in a corner of my fenced in yard, and created a hawk proof bamboo and netting top for it. I rolled the coop/nesting box into the enclosure and began again.

For four years I have been keeping chickens on a 20’x 18′ piece of land, and I am proud to say that it has never smelled bad.

I am not working particularly hard to do this. I am just using knowledge of composting systems to tie up the smelly nitrogen wastes that chickens create. I am happy, my chickens are healthier living in a perpetually clean (not sterile) enclosure, and my friends and neighbors are not offended by my chicken yard.

As more towns and cities are permitting backyard chickens, more of my neighbors are acquiring their own flocks. It is important that as we start these new yard stock endeavors, we learn how to keep our pet hens healthy, clean and inoffensive.  To that end I am adding No Stink Chicken Yard consults to my lists of services.

If you want to come to my homestead and see how my No Stink Chicken Yard works I would be glad to spend up to an hour of show and tell for a $30 fee. If you already have a smelly chicken yard and you would like a consult at your place and you live in St. Lucie County the fee for that consult is $60. If you would like me to bring the materials necessary to begin the neutralizing of odors in your chicken yard in St. Lucie County the fee for that consult w/ materials is $100. This fee will cover yards up to 20′ by 20′ w/ 20 or fewer hens.