Coop Oder control.

[soccrmum]

Hi all,

1, Right now I have pine shavings in the roost area. Can I use sweet pdz without the pine shavings?

2, In my coop I have linoleum floor and pine shavings. Can I also use sweet pdz in the coop area?

3, Can I use sweet pdz in my dirt run and chicken yard?

4, So when I clean all these areas, can I just put it all in my garden compost?

Sorry for all these questions but I want to do this right. Thanks

 

[DobieLover]

That's a lot of PDZ. It's a good odor controller but it also dusty and expensive.
It's been my experience that using poop boards and scooping them daily, having an attached predator proof run so that the birds can leave the coop as soon as they come off the roost in the morning and keeping everything dry goes a very long way at controlling odors. I personally like PDZ but I really like the coffee ground bedding for use as litter on the poop boards. As soon as that comes back into season I plan to stock up for the year and use it exclusively because it's so much lighter and less expensive than PDZ and there's no noticeable dust.
I use pine shavings, hemp bedding or a combination of the two for the coop floor litter and I clean that out annually.
For the run, all I do is use coarse wood chips directly on the soil. I have never removed anything from the run and annually add a fresh load of wood chips.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I use pdz between the floor and bedding in my coop and use a cat litter scoop to scoop the poop as often as I can. I have also used on the poop boards but as mentioned above its too expensive to use in place of bedding. I don't use it in the run. I use First Saturday Lime instead and that has been a big help

 

[rosemarythyme]

Wanting to use that much PDZ tells me there's potentially an issue with ventilation, moisture, drainage, overstocking of birds to sq footage, or some combo of the above.

A dry coop and appropriate run litter for your climate/setup (you said dirt, which is not sufficient in many set ups), with sufficient space for the number of birds, should give you an odor free chicken area with no need to add anything else.

 

[soccrmum]

Wanting to use that much PDZ tells me there's potentially an issue with ventilation, moisture, drainage, overstocking of birds to sq footage, or some combo of the above.

A dry coop and appropriate run litter for your climate/setup (you said dirt, which is not sufficient in many set ups), with sufficient space for the number of birds, should give you an odor free chicken area with no need to add anything else.

I don’t have any issues. I use pdz and pine shavings in the roost area and pine shavings on the coop floor. Have plenty of ventilation. My roost area is about 3 x 6, my coop is 6 x 8, my run is 5 x 6 and their yard is 8 x 12. I only have 8 hens.
I just want yo make sure I do everything correct and use the right stuff to make sure my hens areas are in good shape.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I don’t have any issues. I use pdz and pine shavings in the roost area and pine shavings on the coop floor. Have plenty of ventilation. My roost area is about 3 x 6, my coop is 6 x 8, my run is 5 x 6 and their yard is 8 x 12. I only have 8 hens.
I just want yo make sure I do everything correct and use the right stuff to make sure my hens areas are in good shape.

That is not allot space for 8 birds 4 square feet of coop space per bird?
JMHO

 

[rosemarythyme]

I don’t have any issues. I use pdz and pine shavings in the roost area and pine shavings on the coop floor. Have plenty of ventilation. My roost area is about 3 x 6, my coop is 6 x 8, my run is 5 x 6 and their yard is 8 x 12. I only have 8 hens.
I just want yo make sure I do everything correct and use the right stuff to make sure my hens areas are in good shape.

If there's no odor issues and your flock is in good health then whatever you're already doing is working. If you do start seeing problems, whether it's odor, mud, etc. then that's a good time to revisit and see about improvements.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't use PDZ at all. I use Deep Bedding in my enclosed coops and Deep Litter in my dirt-floored coops.

Using Deep Bedding in a Small Coop

One of the main keys to staying odor free is ventilation. Both the warm, moist air and the ammonia rise so you must have top-level ventilation to prevent odor.

Repecka Illustrates Coop Ventilation

 

[soccrmum]

Thank you all for the help. Just one last question. If I use pdz and or first Saturday lime can I compost it and then use it in my vegetable gardens? I want to be sure I am not adding anything to my vegetable gardens that would not be good for human consumption.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Thu all for the help. Just one last question. If I use pdz and or first Saturday lime can I compost it and then use it in my vegetable gardens? I want to be sure I am not adding anything to my vegetable gardens that would not be good for human consumption.

Yes they can both be thrown in the compost.