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How to remove strong ammonia smell in chicken house

O

old

Well-known Member
Location
Camdenton Missouri
I sealed up the chicken house a bit better so that my bitties stayed warmer but the negative to it is I now have a strong ammonia smell in the house. So how do I lower the smell. On a day like today I can open it up and let the air flow but most days this time of year that does not work.]
60 plus out right now but tomorrow it is suppose to be down in the 30s again so that house will be closed up with just a 18X18 exit,
Thanks
The good side to this is out of 20 or so hens I get 4-8 eggs per day
 
i dont know that you can, i tore down a old chicken house a couple of years ago that i know hadnt been used in 20 years and it still smelled. you might try mixing a bottle of peroxide, with the same amount of water and spraying it down. thats the formula for home made scent killer.
 
Get out your shovel and clean it out. We cleaned out once-a-week last winter and by the end of every week it was pretty strong again. This winter I took care of the problem by getting rid of the old girls. Young chicks will be back in there in a couple of months. Jim
 
If there is a noticeable ammonia smell you need to either deepen the bedding on the floor with new shavings or hay or whatever you use, or clean the coop out and put in new bedding. I have read that ammonia is harmful to the mucous membranes and respiratory systems of chickens but I do not know if it is true. Basically you need more fiber/carbon/inert sort of material to mix with the very hot chicken manure in order not to have ammonia in the air.
Zach
 

My 2 barns are a "bit" bigger - 4800 and 3600 hens. About the only thing I can do is turn on the fans. I also lay down Gypsum, which is supposed to tie up the ammonia, but turning on the fans works better.

To keep them warm, you need to crowd them. Could you give them less floor space and lower the ceiling? my birds have 1.75 square feet per bird. For 20 birds, that would be about a 6 foot by 6 foot building.
 
On our coop we put on a ridge vent for air circulation. A friend of mine is a roofing contractor and gave us some left over plastic ridge vent pieces. I also built a small coopola that we put plastic louver vents in. On the gable ends of the house we also have plastic louver vents, like a dryer vent almost, we leave open unless it gets real cold. Keeps the air movement above the level of the birds and their perch so they stay fairly warm.
 
You need to open the coop back up and let it breath. Your problem is you don"t have enough fresh air/ventilation for 20 chickens. Check out the pic below, that"s my coop, and the front is wide open year round. I get temps down into the single digits and the chickens have no problems with it at all. After all they are perfectly suited by nature to handle the cold. They don"t need any "Help" from you to keep warm.
Jack

http://www.backyardchickens.com/g/i/4740054/uploads/sort/display_order/
 
Old. My hens won't go out in the snow, but even at 25 degrees I still open the door, you need more ventilation in there, or start over with new litter. The cold dosent seem to bother the hens,but the ammonia can bother them. When hens roost at knight they tuck there heads under there wing, that way there combs don't freeze! Get more air in, or start with new litter, you may also try hydrated lime.
 
http://cdn.backyardchickens.com/a/a7/900x900px-LL-a7aa3ac3_55557_img_1347.jpeg

HERE's the pic.
Jack
 
Clean out the bedding, start over with new. THEN, toss "scratch grains" onto the floor every day. The chickens will mix it around, and it will "compost". The birds will get it mixed and air through it pretty good.
 
Put the chickens where you keep pigs and put pigs in where you have chickens. There is really no way to get the smell out except to remove the source and ventilate. A can of gas and a match.

Old, be careful with chicken poop. Last February I helped a neighbor convert part of his chicken coop into a hay storage. I never heard of histoplasmosis, but I almost killed me.

Then the meds were harder on me then the histo.
 
Listen to JackE below. You are making the most common mistake people make when they build poultry housing. They get so hung up on the "draft" idea that they kill all the ventilation. 30 degrees won't harm any bird sitting in the open air. Get down near zero and some single comb birds will get frostbite on the comb. Other than that they are pretty frost proof. In an ideal world I have a vent that runs the entire length of the building at floor level on the south side and about 8" in height. Then I have roof vents. Air, by convection, is pulled in at floor level as warm moist air goes out the roof vents. Dries the floor, removes odors, keeps the birds happy and healthy. This has been our best design in 40+ years of raising.
 
My son-in law raises turkeys. 9500 in per building. He has 4 buildings 60x528 ft.. When they go to market after 5 months, he uses Alum spread on top of the litter to knock the odor down after it is cleaned and ready for the next batch. Gets it from a local supplier in 100 lb. bags.
 
I am having the same issue. I have two vents that are 6 by 12 inches towards the top of my 6 by 8 foot coop, one on north side(closed in winter) and one on south(left open all the time). I recently sealed there little chicken door shut, used to be cracked open even at night just a little like a quarter to half an inch. Even that little bit I believe let the air circulate better. Since I sealed it the smell has become quite strong. Now I just clean it out once a week. I only have 6 chickens but they seem quite happy and we get 6 eggs a day from them. SHON
 
I do try to clean it out from time to time but I sealed it up to help keep the water from freezing at night and do have a heat lamp in there so they produce better. Guess I'll just have to open a windrow on the warmer days
 
Others are right . You don't need to worry about them getting cold. Farmers had thousands on small places in the 50-60-70's in SD in sub zero temps. Leave the windows open.
Build a small wood box , about 8x8x4. Cut 5 inch hole in the top. Put a 75 watt bulb in there. Set your Smaller waterer on top.
I kept up to twenty homers in a loft with a screen floor, and two entry exit windows. It was 10 below zero in there sometimes. As soon as March they started breeding again.
6 eggs per day from 20 chickens, means your are paying about 1.30 in feed per day for those 6 eggs. You should get 3/4 egg per day per chicken, or 15 per day.
How old are those layers?
 
Mine is a dirt floor and all of the south side is open and covered with chicken wire. Never clean it, well almost never. I do have to dig some out now and then or I can't get the door open as the floor get's pretty high. No issue with smell unless it rains and they track a bunch of water in with them. Dry again the next day. If it get's cold (cold here is mid 20's maybe overnight one or two nights a season) then I put out a couple of clamp lamps with 60w bulbs. They will get close to is if they are cold just like the chicks do. A few years ago we had a cold snap and I was concerned and checked on them late. Not a one of them by the lamp, all up roosting just like it was 70 degrees. If I was you, I would open it back up and let it and them breathe.
 
Its a never ending battle. all the guys around here use fans, One cousin has 34,000 hens in 2 houses another has over 120,000 broilers in 3 houses, from time of placement in houses to slaughter 35-37 days and the colonel serves them to you. We have 81,000 turkeys in 3 houses,and these are not big operations, and there are hundreds of producers in our area.Hens produce enough heat to keep them warm, there are heaters if it goes below freezing to protect the water systems,turkeys get heat 90 degress for the first 6 weeks and then cut back and broilers are heated all the time, 87 when little and mid 70s otherwise. Takes lots of propane to keep them warm and ventilated.
 
If your chickens can not take 30 deg you need to get new chickens.

Fully feathered chickens in a properly sized house will generate enough heat to keep them warm to 0 or below. The main thing is to keep them dry and out of the wind.
Open the house up in the daytime to let it air out.
 
Old the others have it nailed. You need ventilation. The hydrated lime helps but will not stop the ammonia. The ammonia is very harmful to the respiratory systems of the birds and YOU. Make your self some tilting window vents that way there is not a draft at floor level. You just tilt the top of the window in. Just open them during the day. The close it up mid afternoon. This will keep the ammonia levels down and should keep your water from freezing at night.

For the real cold days/nights we always just set some old hurricane Kerosene lanterns on the floor. They gave off enough heat to keep the chickens happy. We did not have plumbed water in the chicken house so we just dumped the waterers out at night when it got real cold. Then just filled them the next morning.
 
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