Floor material for the outdoor run?

[Summer98]

What is the best material for the outdoor run? We currently have black dirt and it has a tin roof overhead. Should I add sand, gravel, or more black dirt?

 

[yyz0yyz0]

I plan on putting three large sandbox type structures in my run area.

One will be filled with compostable materials for the girls to dig through and help break down. Another will be filled with wood ashes, DE and some fine sand for dustbathing. The last will be put in there before the girls and it will be covered with HW cloth, the plan is that the existing grass(which will disappear from the rest of the run) will be able to grow up through the HW cloth so the girls can eat it but not scratch it up. They will have a supply of green material to eat without being able to kill it all.

the rest of the run will just be dirt after then have cleared it of grass and weeds.

 

[mos68x]

I'll trade you some red dirt for some of your black dirt lol, dirt will be just fine, but be sure to have something outside with sand or hardwood ash for them to dust off in to prevent critters from nesting on them.

 

[putty]

sand is easy to clean with a kitty litter scoop

 

[akovia]

A covered run is perfect for letting them peck on dirt, and tossing in your garden and table scraps (no meat IMO) and fall leaves and straw. This turns your run into an extraordinarily healthful composting system, which benefits your chickens and your garden without letting "poop scoop" ever enter into your vocabulary

! This book is chock full of good info about this, and other flock management subjects: http://www.amazon.com/The-Small-Sca...ie=UTF8&qid=1342278844&sr=8-1&keywords=ussery

Cheers

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

Black dirt is fine for chickens. Dirt is dirt. I wouldn't add gravel, because chickens love to dig for bugs.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Put down a few inches of woodshavings and leaf litter and they will be very content scratching through the run looking for bugs and grubs. This will keep odors down to a minimum.

Keep adding to the litter throughout the year and each spring you can empty out the run and put this material in the garden....it will be the best compost.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

sand is easy to clean with a kitty litter scoop

I used to do this. However, I got tired of using the time I could have been enjoying my chickens scooping poop.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

I would personally add something in there that is more of a bedding if I were going to. Wood shavings, straw, ect. The gravel could be really hard on the chickens feet. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be on gravel barefoot all day. Dirt or sand would be fine, though.

 

[chickenbythesea]

we put pine shavings in the run... it absorbes water and when it dries out it's fluffy and the hens love to scratch through it and obviously it decomposes.