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Some Useful Tips to Keep Flies Away From Your Chicken Coop

25 16:31:01

When you raise chickens or any other domestic pets, flies are bound to hover around them and their living area. Still, you can take some precautions to reduce their number or even try to eradicate them, so that you can minimize the risks of diseases and infections they carry. Like most insects, flies love moist, warm and odorous surroundings and you would need different approaches or ideas for different flies and hence you will need to employ multi-spiked plan to drive them out! We shall talk about them one by one here.

 

Sand as floor covering

Use sand for run ground covering if you want the driest coop. Using sand as chicken coop litter - or bedding for that matter, though they will not sleep on the sand - will ensure that sand absorbs all the moisture from chickens' droppings and any water spill. The sand will also suppress the odor quickly and make poop cleaning easier.

Clean the poop

First thing in the morning, remember to remove the overnight chicken droppings collected in the coop overnight. Using a dropping board will make your job of cleaning the smelly poop much easier, as you can scrape it off into your compost pile.

Growing aromatic plants

Growing aromatic pants like basil, mint, rosemary and lavender, will ward off flies as they all are natural fly repellents.

Alternatively, you might think of growing some carnivorous plants that polish off insects!

Add herbs inside the coop

Do not forget to add some fresh or dried herbs inside the coop and on the nest boxes too. This is a good way of dispelling the poop smell and keeping the flies away.

Ensure the place is dry

Pooling or stagnant water around the coop is a strict "no-no". Flies happily breed in moist places. Introduce quick drainage facility wherever needed.

Sprucing it up after snacks

If you give your chickens some sweet snacks - so that they are able to withstand the summer heat -, make sure that there are no tell-tale syrupy signs that will instantly lure the flies. Clean up the area thoroughly and discard the remnants into your compost pile.

Introduce fly predators

They are tiny wasp like insects that do not hurt human beings but eat fly larva and this action prevents hatching and formation of adult flies. All that you have to do is scatter them in all manure areas. You will need only a few minutes but you would have successfully warded off the flies. These fly predators work fine in the case of other pet animals too. Millions of livestock owners have depended heavily on them for decades now.

Vertical manure composting

Do not compost your manure in a wide area. Instead, try composting your manure in a vertical pile so that the temperature inside the compost goes up leading to faster decomposition. BY doing so, you are also curtailing odor-emitting surface. Also, to increase the temperature of the compost further, try covering it with black plastic sheet. Flies prefer it warm and not hot, so they will keep away from your compost. Keep your compost pile away from your coop.

Fans inside the coop

Install fans inside the chicken coop to facilitate air flow. Flies will not be able to fight the air turbulence and will not enter the coop. Many coop owners claim that air fresheners having vanilla fragrance also drive away flies.