I have found that using fermented feeds has drastically reduced any flies lingering in my coop and in the yard~I"ve not seen a single fly this year~in the coop or in our home. They do not seem attracted to the feces, though butterflies still do. My dog won't eat the
chicken feces any longer either, so the act of fermentation must increase the uptake of protein and thus remove it from the end product. My dog used to hoover up any
chicken poop he could~which was convenient to us and also cut down on the fly population~but now there must not be any benefit, nutritionally speaking, for him to do so.
This may sound crazy but folks on Backyard
Chickens swear by it, I have tried it in my home and it actually works~ vanilla car deodorizer...the kind shaped like a tree(other kinds seem to have no effect)...will deter flies from the coop. Some have even put them on their goat's horns and it provided the same relief! Worth a shot and are cheap. Keep them changed out and fresh and they seem to work very well. We were plagued by flies in my last home and that was before I got into fermented feeds....the little yellow
trees was more effective than anything else I've ever seen. I even had swarms of flies in my truck and the yellow tree took care of it within a few days time...no more flies as long as I kept a fresh one in my truck.
Deep litter makes a big difference also. Turning the feces under the roosts into the litter each day keeps them inaccessible to flies and they provide no attractant.
