New Coop/Run Build Day 1 Progress!!!

[Bock-Bock-Bagock]

So no soil? Just rocks and wood chips? I'm no expert but that sounds Iike a recipe for bumble foot?
And no they will not stop digging. Ever. You will have rocks mixed in with your wood chips.

Here is the ground I'm dealing with. Their current run sits on clay/rock. They have about 10" of wood chips on top of that. They dig down to the clay and stop there. Only one hole in the run currently. They wiggle around in that.
Problem I have is back in the day they used to throw thrash in the back yard and burn it. There was also a house on the plot previously. It burned down. They just bulldozed everything and left it. So there is tons of broken glass and household items in the ground. A lot exposed. I found a whole record the other day.
Currently I have enough space that the poop breaks down and the wood chips do a great job of capturing the funk. I get in with a rake once a month and mix it all about. Has been breaking down into dirt pretty quickly.
My thinking was, with crusher run, it would be a better base than the current rocks and clay. Partially because it prevents them from getting into broken glass and it's a flat uniform surface, not a bunch of lumpy rocks. So my thinking was where they do dig to that level they will stop there and it will be better on their feet.
Currently they will not dig beyond the clay rock. SO I assumed they would treat the crusher run the same.
That was my thinking at least.

 

[aart]

Once I get the run all built out it will be covered. I'm hoping to mitigate 99% of the rain on the spot. My current run is almost completely dry, even during the worst rain storm. Would you say the mix of water and poop building up underneath being the problem? I would imagine keeping it dry and mixing the substrate occasionally would mitigate this issue?

As long as there's no water running along the ground into the run.
Even just poop drying and crumbling down into the grael could become and issue.
Best to have some kind of organic bedding to help break down the poops.

 

[Bock-Bock-Bagock]

As long as there's no water running along the ground into the run.
Even just poop drying and crumbling down into the grael could become and issue.
Best to have some kind of organic bedding to help break down the poops.

I should probably clarify that when I say wood chips I mean mulch. I will have about a foot of mulch for the ground of the run. I keep saying wood chips and I think people might think I mean the little wood shavings.
Sorry for any confusion. I found Lowes has undyed hardwood mulch. It's been pretty good in my current run. I get in and rake it occasionally and it breaks down into a dirt. Eventually I clean that out and use for soil and start over with fresh mulch.

 

[KyCoop]

Too bad they don't make a magnet for glass. We found some odd things like a buried bungee cord our chicken yard but thankfully not glass.

 

[aart]

I should probably clarify that when I say wood chips I mean mulch. I will have about a foot of mulch for the ground of the run.

A foot is a lot!
I only use a few inches of this:

 

[Bock-Bock-Bagock]

Too bad they don't make a magnet for glass. We found some odd things like a buried bungee cord our chicken yard but thankfully not glass.

If someone could make a magnet for glass they would be a billionaire.

 

[Bock-Bock-Bagock]

A foot is a lot!
I only use a few inches of this:

Yeah. That's along the lines of what I'm using. They seem to really love it.