Here are five quick tips to help you keep your chicken coop smelling fresh. If your coop makes you hold your breath when you go in to collect eggs, think about how the chickens feel! It’s not too hard to keep the coop clean and fresh, if you do a little bit of cleaning every few days. I am listing a few important basics for you.
Keep Your Chicken Coop Smelling Fresh with These 5 Tips
1. Water and moisture are not your friend. If you slop or spill water when filling the water founts or bowls, the moisture will mix with the droppings and create a bad ammonia odor. The best way to keep this from piling up is to clean up any spills as they happen. We had to switch to a fount style waterer instead of a bowl because we had one duck in with the chickens and she thought we were giving her a small swimming pool each evening. Mrs. Duck could still get enough water to dip her bill in with the water fount. And there was less mess to cleanup in the morning. Now that the ducks are housed separately, we have returned to using the flexible rubber feed pans for the water bowl in the chicken coop.
Keep the Air Circulating
2. Install a box fan to keep air circulating. Stagnant air smells bad and the flies will accumulate more in a stuffy airless building. Running a fan, even on low speed, will keep the flies, and the odor to a minimum. Not to mention that it keeps the coop from becoming too hot, also. We hang an inexpensive box unit over the coop doorway. You can read more about that here, in my heat stress post. Installing a fan is one of the easiest ways to keep your chicken coop smelling fresh.
3. Use fresh herbs and rose petals if you have them, in the nesting boxes and in the sleeping areas. Not only will the herbs and petals smell great, the hens will appreciate the yummy treat. Mint is another great addition and it will help repel pests too. Check out more about using herbs in your nesting boxes. Another good source for chicken information is The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook, by Amy Fewell.
4. Every few days or once a week, clean out any bedding that is soiled or damp. We use hay or straw in the nesting boxes. Straw is preferred because it is low in moisture, which is optimal for keeping odor at a minimum. Occasionally we have to use hay because we are out of straw. I try to use the driest hay bale I can find that is not dusty or moldy. The chickens will track in some wet mud, or occasionally an egg breaks, in the nests. The bedding is thrown out in the chicken yard for them to peck through before it is added to the compost pile. Sprinkle some Diatomaceous Earth powder or First Saturday Lime product, under the fresh hay or straw to absorb moisture and odors.
Why You Should Use Lime in the Coop
Last year I started using an agricultural product, First Saturday Lime. I am not an affiliate with the company, but I am a happy customer. I believe in sharing my thoughts on good products when I find something worthwhile. First Saturday Lime is basically lime, but the formula is 100 % non toxic, non caustic and safe for pets and children, along with livestock and poultry. As with any dust type product, care should be taken when applying the product to avoid inhaling the dust. I make sure the fan in the coop and barn is off and that it’s not a windy day. Once it is applied, the product does not seem to blow around at all.
You can read more about the product on their website. After a year of using the product, I can honestly say that it does a better job of preventing odors, controlling insects and providing an additional calcium source than any previous product used here. We still offer oyster shell, or crushed egg shells but it’s good to know that the FSL provides an additional source of calcium for our layer hens.
In addition, we use it in the sheep and goat barn, rabbit house, and the litter pans for our house rabbits get a liberal dose of FSL at each cleaning. If you raise house rabbits, you know odor can be a problem. Since starting to use First Saturday Lime in the rabbit litter, I clean the boxes less frequently.
Time For a Major Cleanup
5. Several times a year, completely clean out the bedding on the coop floor. Sometimes we use the deep litter method of coop bedding. This means that we continue to add fresh bedding or shavings as needed to the coop and only remove the damp/wet or soiled bedding on the floor as needed. In the winter this adds to the warmth of the coop by keeping the decomposing litter and feces in the building. Decomposing matter creates heat. We keep less litter and shavings in the coop during the hot months of summer to keep it cooler. The frequency of cleaning out the coop will depend on the weather, humidity, how much time the chickens are kept in the coop, among other factors.
Keeping chickens happy and smelling good is not a full time job and doesn’t need to be. Maintain a dry environment and you will be able to keep your chicken coop smelling fresh.
**Updated 4/28/2017 from the original post written 6/25/2013
Updated 5/20/2019
I discovered another method that doesn’t require as much work by me. I use the deep littler method in my coop (and no water bowls or fountains inside) and I never smell an odor in the coop. The deep litter is dry so all poop gets covered and dried pretty fast. The chickens walking around and scratching is ususally enough to turn the deep litter often. About once a week I may run a quick rake over it and that is it. With this method I will only need to empty it once or twice a year.
No smell and about $9 to replace the litter works for me 🙂
Hi! I like your idea, but as I close my hens up each night I feel that I must keep water in their house, and I always have a mess each day, could I get away with omitting the water in their house?
We also leave water in the coop and also in the duck house. What worked for us is not having any bedding, near the bowl or water container. You can skip leaving water in the house if you are timely at opening up the coop in the morning
We went to chicken nipples and there is no water mess.
Nancy, we, too, close our chickens in at night (and hate to think that anyone wouldn’t). We only put water in the coop if we’re going to be away for the day. Otherwise, they’re fine without water in the coop.
I don?t have water in their night time coop.. they are let out fairly early in the am. They don?t RUN for water in the morning as if dying of thirst.. they are hungry though… lololol
Chickens don’t go in the cope at night for food and water only sleep. Water is not needed.
What kind of litter? Is it cat litter?
Pine shavings
Is it cat litter?
Patty, no not cat litter. Some people refer to pine shavings as litter. I do not recommend using cat litter in your chicken coop. – janet
Thank you Backyard Chicken Lady. I think the chickens would be fine without water in the coop at night but I have one duck in there with them. She has always lived with the chickens but ducks need water available all the time. Good comment though for those with just chickens. thanks
We are brand new to raising chickens and looking for all the information we can get. So far it’s a blast! Thanks for sharing this post. (stopping by from the Self Sufficient Home Acre hop)
~Taylor-Made Ranch~
Wolfe City, Texas
Thank you for visiting from Taylor-Made Ranch! I will look for your page and visit you.
Janet this was such a great post! I chose it for one of our features. Thanks so much for sharing at the HomeAcre Hop! Would love to have you drop back by tomorrow: http://wp.me/p2urYY-127 Have a Happy Fourth!
What do you use for litter? We just got a pile of peeps and I would LOVE to know how to keep their coop from smelling, well, like a coop 🙂
We use Pine Shavings or Sawdust if the sawdust is dry enough. We have a sawmill so sawdust is free but I buy packaged shavings
Hi, I’m new to chickens. We use straw for bedding. Is that ok? Which bedding is preferred?
Yes Mandy, straw is fine except for very young chicks. I just get sawdust and shavings cheaper so I use that. Straw should do the same thing in a deep litter method. Take out the wet or heavily soiled and let the rest break down naturally- Janet
I live in Florida, & this is my first try at raising chickens, where I live is very wet, we,ve had a lot of rain and my area is getting muddy and begining to smell. what should I do? and what is deep litter method ? thanks bobby
Well Bobby, its kinda hard to comment when I can’t see your place but try to dry up the mud as best you can. You may need to add some wood chips or something to the chicken yard so it drains and dries a little more. In the coop, clean it out and add new litter. Then just remove the wet, soiled litter as needed. Add more shavings or straw as necessary to keep the coop clean. And refer back to the article because I think it’s all in there. – Janet
Hi Bobby! We are also in Florida and we found that putting a layer of gravel on the ground then putting the litter on top aids in the drainage issue. We also situated the coop in a section of yard that has a slight slant rather than the areas that develop puddles. So far 3yrs without issues 🙂
Deep litter method basically refers to just adding fresh litter on top of the old litter instead of entirely changing out the litter. With each addition the litter gets “deeper”. The older litter underneath composts and the chicken’s scratching provides the turning that would normally need to be done with a compost bin.
For litter we use yard waste (grass clippings, leaves, anything weeded from the garden etc.) both from our own yard and what neighbors donate from their yards. This helps reduce the amount of straw & shavings we need to buy. Also, fresh clippings help improve any coop odor.
Angela- thank you for your great response to Bobby’s problem. Your tips are helpful ones and I sure hope that it helps the readers to have this information. Keeping our chickens happy and healthy takes lots of good ideas.- janet
Ive been reading about using sand in the coop and sifting it, any thoughts?
Sharman this is a great question. Unfortunately I do not have any first hand experience with using sand as a chicken coop base. In my area, most people use pine shavings or sawdust or straw. I imagine in some areas, sand might be more popular. I do know that it is a controversial choice as I have heard many chicken experts say that they don’t think it is good for the chickens because they might ingest too much of it. I don’t know how it is with odor control and staying dry either. Our area is very humid, so I would be afraid that any wet sand in the coop would be a problem. Wish I had more information for you on this topic.
Hi, I have nine chickens and l live in southern pa. I use the sand during the warmer months and I have no problems with odor or breaking of poop. Here is what I do. For my coop I lay 5 bags of sand, then each morning I go in and scoop out the poop. For the scoop I use a hay fork wrapped with a window screen ( which I attach with twisty ties) , as I scoop the poop the sand falls through and the poop stays ( think cat littler) , I also use a cat littler scoop wrapped with a screen to help push poop onto the larger sifter. Also, if you clean the coop everyday and lay DE on the floor, every few weeks, I find that the coop is dry and clean and smells nice. One more thing, sand dries out the poop, it also provides grit, and keeps the chickens cool in summer. The girls love it. In winter I use the deep little method for warmth. Hope this helps and good luck!
thanks for commenting. I appreciate your time. I still disagree on some of the points. Sand can harbor moisture and bacteria. Also, in most cases sand can cause more problems if used as a source of grit. Sand can cause impaction. I just don’t like it for chicken coop use. We are going to have to agree to disagree on this practice but I do appreciate you taking the time to write to me here. – Janet
I have to disagree with you there on the impaction, my girls have no problem pooping. And I have never had a problem with bacterial or moisture. This problem maybe do to not cleaning the coop everyday, thus giving the chicken manure time to ferment and bacteria time to grow. I tend to have more of an issue with the hay then sand. Warm regards, Theresa
We use pine shavings in our coop, but because we live in Arizona, our run is 100% sand. We’ve never had any issues with impaction.
Obviously it’s very dry here so we never worry about damp or muddy conditions.
Our coop has a roost board under it that gathers most of the poop. It get’s cleaned 2 times a year, But I think I’ll up that to 3-4 times a year now. The rest of the coop gets one yearly clean out.
I also wondered about using sand, as it’s everywhere and free.
Melissa, the same reason that sand might work well for you is exactly the reason it does not work well for me. Moisture is the biggest reason that chicken coops have the horrible ammonia odor. I think you might be able to use sand successfully where I usually do not recommend it to chicken owners in my area of the country
It has to be construction grade sand, not play sand, or you will have respiratory problems. The sand keeps them cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and their feet are always clean! We use sand and have never had a sick chicken, not to mention how fresh and clean the coop smells!
I am glad that your system works for you. Around here, sand would not be a good option. All things need to be considered when making these decisions. It is not a one size fits all choice.
What kind of sand?
I live in Scotland and this is my first year owning three ex battery hens. I put sand down, well my husband did, but now I have a smelly muddy puddle. My girls love it and eating sand hasn’t done them any harm but boy do they smell. So any advice please would be welcome.
Joanne
Hi Joanne and thank you for stopping by here. I emailed you with a longer response but you are correct in thinking that your three hens should not be so smelly. I usually believe that odor means wetness is present. I don’t find that sand dries out completely in our area and maybe that is true of your area too. That would cause a bad odor.
Re: Sand on the coop.
Tho it is a great ideal for Florida Chickens.
Not so much when it gets wet. the odor that builds is enough to make any human flop on the back and kick and scream.
Just think how the chickens feel.
I put 3″ of shell in the scratch yard. then dust it with lime once a month.
no issues with smell and it drains very fast.
Hope that helps.
Chuck Taylor
Zebra Estates
Chuck thanks for reinforcing what I and so many others have commented. I am still not using sand for chicken care
waooh.this blog is excellent i reading your article.i found it very informative blog.
I’ve had 5 chicken in my basement with pine shavings and DE for 9 weeks. I have never had an order. I just put them in their new coop and run with sand instead of pine shavings. I use a kitty litter scoop lined with a screen to daily pick up poop. I noticed that the poop still breaks up and goes in the sand. The problem that I’m having is the strong poop odor that I never had in the basement with the shavings. Thanks!
Thanks Susan. I’ve never used sand. I really like the shavings and DE powder for odor control
Sweet PDZ is a zeolite product commonly used to keep horse stalls clean. It neutralizes the urine and dampness. It is also used for chickens and other animals. Costs $10-20 for 40 lbs. Testimonies say it is an awesome product.
I use the deep litter in our coop, but my trick for controlling odor is to take the free used coffee grounds I get from Starbucks and sprinkle a bag in there every few weeks or so. Makes the coop smell like coffee. The hens don’t eat it, though some will dust bathe in it. The added benefit is I toss the whole mess into the compost pile in spring and fall, and the coffee grounds are a great addition.
Very interesting comment. I haven’t heard anything about using coffee grounds before. I will be looking into this trick. Appreciate you sharing with us. – Janet
We use sand in our hen house and a small garden rake covered with 1/4″ mesh fencing to clean the sand with. The urine is easily absorbed in the sand, and the feces clumps up almost like cat feces. It’s very easy to clean and it never smells in the hen house because we have ventilation all around the top perimeters of the house, along with the entry door for us to get in, and a large window for the girls to jump in and out of.
Sounds like a well thought out design! nice job. Thanks for sharing
I don’t have chickens, but I DO have a parakeet who used to get a bit stinky – UNTIL I added diatomaceous earth (DE) to his seed for insect control. No more teeny-tiny critters in his seed bin and his cage never gets an odor. The DE is good for him and people too! Excellent source of silica – a vital nutrient for all vertebrates.
this is great! thank you for taking time to share this here.
Agriculture lime is a great odor eliminator if you have a dirt floor and disinfecting with bleach and water 1:32 ratio and add a layer of gravel or lava rocks the gravel and rocks eliminate the chickens from walking in the mud
Russell, thank you. Those are very good suggestions too
We have an 8’x14′ run for our chickens. After hearing lots of peope say sand was the best bet for low odor, we hauled in a yard and a half. It may be due to our monsoons here in south Louisiana every afternoon but our coop run stinks! We use sweet PDZ in our roosting area and pine shavings on the floor in the “hen house” and the odor isnt bad. What should I do about the outside odor? Im tempted to haul all that nasty sand out and start fresh, but with what?? HElp!
hi Sand is not my favorite medium for chicken areas at all, for many of the reasons you stated. I know some people love it but I don’t get it at all. It would always be wet and messy where we live. I would scrape it up, if possible and use wood chips, mulch or bring in some fill dirt.
I agree with Janet. Sand is not a good choice. We use straw and are very happy with it. I manage the litter pretty much the same way Janet does and never have issue with smells. I don’t leave feed and water inside the coop which also helps – especially with flies. I would shovel out the sand and start over with shavings or straw. Sand can also freeze in the winter and offers no insulation like straw does.
Great post btw Janet! Loved the herbs and flower petal recommendation ;0)
Its been a well read post for sure! Thanks for stopping by, Lisa, I always love to hear from you.
Hi, I live in a small apartment and I keep my 6 month old hen and rooster in a secluded small area of my balcony. They stay there all day long on floor and sleep in a cardboard box at night. Their increasing amount of poop is becoming a concern for us. Any suggestions on how to take care of theirhygiene as the chicken area is always dirty and smelly?
I have to weigh in on this one. During the warmer months, I prefer a fine layer of lime on the floor and bottom of the nesting boxes. It prevents bugs and helps with odors. On top of that will be a layer of sand for absorption, then wood chip. I have found that a grain scoop makes easy work for clean up, also use a kitty litter scoop in the boxes.
I am glad you have a system that is working for you. I always say that different climates may require different systems for their own reasons. Thanks for commenting
I am totally green to chickens. I am converting my garden shed into a chicken coop. Can you give me some pointers on what all is needed in a chicken coop, what items I need to get started, the best type of chickens, that are good layers and are friendly. I will be having a fenced in area that the chickens will be protected that they can get outside of the coop. What type of feed, what do they need besides feed, I live in Missouri so the winters can get cold. Any and all pointers will be helpful!
Mary, I am not just trying to sell you a book but the book I just wrote and published, Chickens From Scratch, really does answer a lot of the questions that a new chicken owner would have. I have sold chicks for many years and I also taught chicken care classes. The book can be purchased through my website https://timbercreekfarmer.com right on the front page there is a link to purchase the book. This is the best price for the actual paperback. The book is also available through Amazon if you prefer the Kindle edition. If you don’t want to go that route then the search bar on my website will lead you to many specific chicken raising articles. good luck with the new baby chicks. (I also recommend the magazine, Backyard Poultry and the online magazine too.)
What breed of chicken is that first dark brown one in your picture please?
That is a speckled sussex, Amy.
You mentioned fresh hay in your “sleeping bench”. Do your chickens not sleep on roosts? What is a sleeping bench please?
We originally built it as a row of nesting boxes. The hens never laid their eggs in these boxes. Eventually they started to use it as a roost. So I line it with straw or hay to catch the droppings. This is not something you would find in most chicken coops and I have taken the reference out of the post. Thanks for pointing it out
Do you know if walnut sawdust would be harmful to chickens?
You know what that is a really great question. I would have to look into it. We don’t because we buy pine shavings for the coop. In our stalls we use sawdust from the sawmill, but they don’t cut walnut when selling the sawdust to farms.
Would cedar chips be harmful to the chickens?
Ceder chips are potentially harmful to the chickens respiratory tract. Best to not use them
Cedar chips are not good for chickens! The odor is overpowering and could damage their respiratory system. I once tried to use it when I ran out of the regular chips and the girls all freaked out and ran into a corner and tried to claw their way out. Fortunately none were hurt, but I learned my lesson.
Glo you are correct but no where in the post did I state that anyone should use cedar chips. They are harmful to the respiratory tract.
thank you for posting this fabulous post! I’ve been thinking alot about cleaning our coop out. Are there any beddings you would reccomend? We have been having trouble with those darn maggots! Boy those little baby flies are annoying! We will spritz some peppermint estential oil in there. How do you kill maggots?
Hoping to hear from you!
-RILEY
If you are having that bad of a problem with flies, I would try using some diatomaceous earth powder. I clean out the coop completely then dust the coop with it. Protect your face with a mask or cloth so you don’t breath in too much of it and keep the chickens out while you are sprinkling the dust. It is a natural substance but chickens have sensitive respiratory tracts. Once the DE powder settles, spread dry pine shavings for bedding on top of the DE. Keeping moisture out of the coop will help. If you spill water, clean it up. Also, a fan may help with ventilation. I hope something here will help you. I know it is frustrating sometimes to do away with insect pests
I am wondering, do most of your coops have wooden floors or dirt? The house we just bought has a chicken coop, but is off of the ground and it has a wooden floor. All of my coops before were always just dirt floors…. I am having a horrible time keeping it clean. I am in Texas so we have about 90% humidity right now and the flies are driving us insane! My plan is to set it on the ground and cut the floor out of it, but until I can get some volunteers to help with that I really need to do something else…I guess I will tr the litter method with shavings??…
Hi Rachael Our coop does have a wooden floor but we coated it with a layer of concrete. It helps keep rodents from chewing in from below, even though it is up off the ground and if we need to hose it out, it won’t stay wet for long. Hope that was helpful – Janet
Rachel
I had my coop built up off the ground originally but last fall I had the wood floor removed and walls extended to ground level to make the coop bigger and we are paying dearly for that decision. We are in Colorado and with all the moisture we got this spring we had water in the coop and the deep litter method we had just held it there. We’ve had to remove all the litter, and turn the soil multiple times in an effort to dry the ground out. If I could go back to my previous coop set up, I would! Oh, and did I mention the smell and the flys? I’m still trying to resolve that problem.
Prior to the change we also used the deep litter with wood shavings and did not have this problem. Something to consider…..
We just built a coop with a concrete floor. Easy to clean and no major moisture issues with a thin layer of sand De and wood shavings.. My neighbor put concrete tiles in his old coop and with a thin layer of sand and then deep litter method he has no moisture issues anymore. No rodents either.
Hi,
We have 5 chickens, they have chicken coops where they can lay eggs, the chicken coop is covered with small fence where chicken can walk and do their thing, the ground is where they can walk and poop, is a mixture of soil and sand, every morning I clean their poop on the ground by covering the poop with soil and tilling the soil by hand at the same time. I think it help because there’s no flies roaming around their coop and no smell at all.
I Change shavings inside chicken coop every week but I worry about the soil where chicken walk and do their thing (the soil that been fenced), does the soil with many poops creates bacteria that will harm the chicken?
If the feces load is high, I would recommend taking some out from time to time and replacing with some new compost dirt. It takes about a year for compost to be ready if made with chicken manure
Tried and true….I’ll be learning till my journey is over (In Christ)=>. But something that I’ve tried and seems to work well is dusting diatomaceous earth over poop piles. It helps to control the stench. In my five decades of life I’ve never known till now how much use there is from DE. But the food grade also is awesome for adding to their food; ‘helps their digestive process. That’s all for now. Thanks for all the tips.
Yes DE powder is pretty awesome stuff to have around. Thanks for commenting on the post.
Hi..This summer, i removed all of the hay out of my coop and brought in sand that i dug up out in my yard. In my nesting boxes I placed a plastic dish pan with wood chips for my girls to lay their eggs in..If the nesting box gets dirty, I can empty it easily and wash the pan and refill it with wood chips…The girls love them…I sift the sand every few days to keep it clean..Their food pail is hanging from a cord from the ceiling, so it does not sit on the floor. Its up about a foot. I live in michigan so it gets cold. i have a red heat light hanging from the ceiling, which heats the coop and gives them light. I let the girls out each morning to roam around my farm.
We live in a very cold area where in the winter, we have to have a 7 quart waterer inside the chicken house. It is too cold for the turkeys and chickens to go outside and their water would freeze otherwise. We are having a hard time keeping their bedding dry – we use shavings. Every second or third day we are having to add more shavings because of the smell. Any ideas on what we can do better to keep the smell down and stop the moisture problem? Taking out the 2 waterers isn’t an option.
Thanks!
Hi Mischa I have a couple of thoughts for you. Can you set the waterer down inside a small wading pool or something large enough to hold the waterer and keep the water from sloshing out and getting the bedding wet. The water is what is causing the smell. It is always the moisture. Dry bedding and the chicken manure will break down with very little odor.
I inherited a flock of chickens (9) when we bought our current home about 4 months ago. I use pine shavings in the coop and that is not a problem, but the yard outside the coop has become very muddy and my poor girls have muddy feet walking around it that. I do let them free range for several hours a day, but when I am not home I keep them fenced in their yard and it is muddy with the rainy weather. Do you have any recommendations? If I put wood chips down how would I clean the poop? seems like it would just mix with the wood and mud.
Hi Yes I understand I have the same problem. This post might offer you some ideas. And yes the poop gets mixed in with the wood chips but it all can be scraped out and put in the compost heap together. I do that every once in a while. It does help with the mud
How often to you change the wood chips? and do you use pine chips?
Noting the smell in a coop I once had, the hensthen had little protection from the rain. Having now a run covered by a 6ft by 8ft polycarbonate clad greenhouse, only one long side is open and has I/2ins square mesh, this faces the rear of our house. On watching the antics of the hens, it is a bit like watching tropical fish. We have 4 happy hens who love to scratch and a mostly dry dirt floor. The downside is mucky eggs, so perhaps sharp sand will mean no need for them to be washed? Here’s hoping!
I have a DE filter for our pool, and it is very dangerous to breath in the powder as it gets caked in lungs. Is this a good idea for chickens?
the DE Powder used in pools is not the same quality as the food grade DE powder used in livestock care. In any case, dusts should be applied to the coop while the chickens are out, and the dust allowed to settle before allowing them back in. Use proper safety equipment to keep from inhaling the dust yourself, too.
Our chicken house was flooded twice in one week. Now the ammonia smell is horrible. How can I get rid of the smell??
You need to follow the steps outlined in the post, completely clean out and let it dry. Put down a stall deodorizing product such as Saturday Lime, or stall Dry. Any residual moist areas will retain the odor when wet.