How to Raise Chickens Without the Smell and the Mess

There is no denying that the biggest challenge in chicken farming comes down to one question: how do you raise chickens without the smell and the mess? It almost seems normal for a chicken farm to fill the surrounding air with unpleasant odors. That is why choosing the coop location is an absolute must before starting this kind of farming business. However, there are some specific methods you can use to eliminate, or at least minimize, the odor and the dirty look of your broiler farm. Here is how to raise chickens without the smell and the mess.

Spraying

To reduce the odor from chicken droppings, farmers usually start by scraping out the manure once every 3 days. Regular scraping can begin once the chickens are at least 14 days old. That is the age when the birds start producing droppings in earnest, a stage farmers call turun sekam. Prepare a coop bedding made of husk dust (known locally as jemput) or sawdust to hold the droppings. When the coop starts to smell, spray it with D O F, a product that is easy to find at poultry supply stores. The D O F dosage is as follows: mix 100 cc of red D O F with 100 cc of green D O F. Combine both with 17 liters of water, then spray the mixture evenly over the coop bedding. Once you have finished spraying, put the manure into sacks and tie them tightly so the bacteria and maggots inside die quickly.

Also read The Benefits of Broiler Farming as a Business

Turning the Bedding

The second way to raise chickens without the smell and the mess is the turning technique. The preparation is much the same as for spraying. Start by laying down bedding such as sawdust or jemput. After the chickens have produced droppings, all you need to do is turn the bedding over. To make this technique more effective, turn the bedding as often as possible, ideally every day. Besides reducing odor, turning the bedding helps the droppings dry faster and cuts maggot growth by up to 80%. Spraying is still needed, but much less often, only about 3 to 4 times per season.

Bedding Material

You can also reduce coop odor and mess by choosing the right bedding material. Besides the two materials above, there are other alternatives. You can use fine lime powder or dry sand to make the bedding more manageable. Choose whichever of these bedding materials suits your chicken coop best.

Digging a Pit

The last method is to dig a pit under the coop. Make the pit exactly the same length and width as the coop. That way, all the droppings fall into the pit and the odor is kept to a minimum. Fill the pit under the coop with one of the bedding materials described above. This method has proven effective at drying droppings quickly and getting rid of the smell.

Also read Tips for Raising Broiler Chickens for a Faster Harvest

Those are several ways to raise chickens without the smell and the mess that you can use as a reference. We hope you find them useful.