The Best Chicken Coop Deodorizer

Do you need to keep your chicken coop smelling anything better than it is now? When the warmer humid months hit, there is no denying you own some chickens.

We’ve had three different coops for our chickens, and I’ve found that the best way to deodorize it is using sand in our current coop.

I shared an entire post on how we use sand in our coop and how you can get started too. We pasture raise our chickens- meaning they have a coop to go into at night, but then during the day, they can go wherever they want.

They have no fenced-in run. This means our chicken coop doesn’t have as much ventilation- but trust me, it’s got plenty of cracks and breeze from the cats and other rodents making their way in. Our barn is on gravel ground.

If you are new around here- I like to get things cheap. I’m not a fan of paying full price for things. So when I started without a new chicken coop in our new barn, I was motivated to keep it cleaner.

We can all laugh now three years later; the coop cleanouts go a few days longer than when we started.

I shared the PDZ Coop Refresher because it’s the first thing I found at our local farm store- Runnings. But the cost is expensive. And if you have more than 10 or so chickens, you realize you go through a bag quickly.

One 10 lb. bag is priced at $12.99 at our local store. Over on Amazon, it’s $17.95! So don’t grab it there!

What is a Sweet PDZ coop refresher? Well, it’s an organic powder you can sprinkle throughout your coop that will help capture and eliminate ammonia. You can read about it on their website here.

But I stopped using this.

Here is the best way to clear out the stink in your chicken coop for cheap!

I use sand in our coop, which alone has helped with the smell of ammonia a TON! Also, it’s super easy to clean out the coop fast each week. Yep, think of it like scooping out your cat box.

You can read how I clean out the chicken coop fast here.

Then I sprinkle in Diatomaceous Earth. We grab a big 25 lb bag at our local feed store. Tractor supply has reasonable prices for the food-grade kind too. Make sure you get a food grade. I haven’t noticed this to take any smell out, but it does absorb any wetness you may need to get rid of. I keep doing it for the benefit of pests.

Then I use Sweet PDZ Horse Stall Refresher from Tractor Supply. They run it on sale, so my stock-up price is usually $9.99 for a 25 lb. bag.

That ends up being $0.39 per lb. compared to $1.09 per lb of the Coop refresher.

I haven’t noticed any difference when it comes to one working better than the other. They seem the same to me.

I will also sprinkle in the baking soda from my goats that you know they refuse to touch because straw got into it. So I grab a big bag of baking soda from BJs. Any wholesale club has a reasonable price on this. Walmart sells a big bag, too, for a few more dollars than BJs.

When you are using sand in the coop, you do not need as much of the refresher.

I have put herbs in the nesting boxes to keep any flies out. I haven’t noticed if it really helped or not. I would use mint and lavender. We have this on our homestead, so I would never go out and buy it for that. Mint is supposed to keep bugs away, but I see plenty of bugs around my huge patch of mint out in the yard. But sometimes, it feels fun to throw some fresh herbs in for the ladies.

As always, be sure to remove all soiled bedding- sand before you put in your refreshers for the coop. I use this in the goat pens as well as the pig pens too.

I hope that helps you freshen up your chicken coop this year. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below?

More Chicken Tips:

• Ducks Vs. Chickens- Best Ones To Start With
• How to Raise Chickens for Maximum Egg Production
• What to do When Your Hen Turns Out to be a Rooster
• The Best Chicken Coop Deodorizer
• 5 Reasons a Small Chicken Coop Is Better For You