Sand/fine gravel base with mulch topping for chicken run?

[LonesomeMountainMomma]

I am new to backyard chickens and have had my two Easter Egger pullets for 2 weeks, they are 9 weeks old. They are not free range and live full time in their coop/run. Half of the coop is covered and half is not. Their coop and run have to be in the forest behind our house so we installed a 1/2 inch hardware mesh "floor" to their run to prevent digging predators like foxes. The coop sits on soil and I've been using Cypress mulch as the flooring. The chickens seem to love it but they are scratching down to the mesh wire in some areas. I laid about 3 inches of mulch. I am completely overwhelmed with the research and options for run flooring and decided to see what folks thoughts are. I am considering doing a "base" 1-2 inch layer of sand/fine gravel then 3 inches of Cypress mulch on top - would that be better for overall run comfortability?

 

[rosemarythyme]

If there's wire under the run you likely need to build up the litter even deeper, like 8" or more. Any reason the wire can't be removed from underneath and flared outward for a predator apron?

Personally I'd stick with all mulch or other organic matter, but I harvest soil from my litter so not having gravel and such mixed in is a concern for me. If that isn't a concern for you, maybe a mix of materials would work fine.

 

[DobieLover]

Sand and mulch would be fine but anything larger than sand with just get scratched up and mixed in with the mulch and that won't be comfortable.
I agree with @rosemarythyme. It would be far better to have a predator apron than have to bury a hardware cloth floor under a huge layer of mulch.

 

[LonesomeMountainMomma]

Thank you your replies! We put a ton of work into securing the hardware cloth to the floor thinking we were doing something extra smart but it is truly proving to be a bit problematic. We are going to look into removing the mesh wiring and using a skirt approach instead so the girls have access to the dirt under the mulch. In the meantime I am at least going to add another few inches of mulch before we can work on the coop. This site is filled with such wonderful helpful people!

 

[perkolator]

I think you're fine, just add more material over the top so it's deeper.

I have a HC floor under my 1st run - to compensate digging, I excavated out about 4-6" of dirt, laid the HC, put the dirt back, then put another 8+" of mulch over the top. Only seen them reach the HC in one or two areas that I know were shallower than the rest. I added fence pickets on the lower walls to help contain the bedding from coming out the HC and from pushing up against it.

Good luck!

 

[Witchychickens]

I am new to backyard chickens and have had my two Easter Egger pullets for 2 weeks, they are 9 weeks old. They are not free range and live full time in their coop/run. Half of the coop is covered and half is not. Their coop and run have to be in the forest behind our house so we installed a 1/2 inch hardware mesh "floor" to their run to prevent digging predators like foxes. The coop sits on soil and I've been using Cypress mulch as the flooring. The chickens seem to love it but they are scratching down to the mesh wire in some areas. I laid about 3 inches of mulch. I am completely overwhelmed with the research and options for run flooring and decided to see what folks thoughts are. I am considering doing a "base" 1-2 inch layer of sand/fine gravel then 3 inches of Cypress mulch on top - would that be better for overall run comfortability?

Just wondering how big your run is? I’m planning HWC under the whole run too and was planning to dig it in about 6-8 inches and hope they won’t dig it up. My run is 9x11 so I’ll have to attach the pieces/seams to each other somehow and my brain isn’t braining how to attach them, other than a crap ton of zip ties which don’t sound safe.