Adding to the flooring in my run

[jblumsack]

I would like to add a layer of something to my chicken run. Right now it is the ground dirt. I was thinking loam but unsure if that is best and if it is what kind. I want it to be as natural as possible so not chips or straw. Thanks!

 

[DobieLover]

I would like to add a layer of something to my chicken run. Right now it is the ground dirt. I was thinking loam but unsure if that is best and if it is what kind. I want it to be as natural as possible so not chips or straw. Thanks!

Wood chips from your local Highway department or aged wood chips from an arborist are natural. You wouldn't want to put down dyed, bagged chips.

Loam is just fortified dirt so you wouldn't really be offering a good high carbon content, well draining substrate to slowly compost the chicken poop.
The chickens love to dust bathe in wood chips and dig around in it looking for bugs.

 

[3KillerBs]

Chickens are creatures of the forest floor so a layer of dry, organic material such as wood chips, straw, pine straw, dried leaves, etc. is the most natural possible environment for them.

There is nothing my chickens love more than when I rake up a fresh load of pine straw and leaf litter for them (I'm not currently using wood chips because I have to put this run back to lawn once the new Chicken Palace has been completed.

 

[perkolator]

I want it to be as natural as possible so not chips or straw.

Curious what’s not natural enough with dry grass stems and broken up tree branches to use on the ground in your coop?

You could go out to forage some leaves under trees, break up a bunch of twiggy material into fines, or gather dry grasses from a field by hand

What’s more unnatural to me is all of us humans containing birds in glorified cages, then moving materials from another location to ours, just to simulate nature. Just saying.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Curious what’s not natural enough with dry grass stems and broken up tree branches to use on the ground in your coop?

You could go out to forage some leaves under trees, break up a bunch of twiggy material into fines, or gather dry grasses from a field by hand

x2. Not only natural, but if you do that way, it's cost effective, environmentally friendly, and good for the ground and the chickens.

I pay nothing for my litter in the run (440 sq ft) as everything is sourced from my yard. Wood chips from downed branches, dried grass from the lawn, dried leaves from the tree, trimmings from the veggie garden. No risk of added chemicals, mystery fertilizers, etc. The resulting deep litter provides drainage, controls mud, controls odor, helps compost down the chicken poop, and provides the chickens with plenty of "stuff" to satisfy their foraging instincts with. As a gardener I can sift out some of the broken down litter to amend planter beds and pots. It's really a win-win.

 

[blackdog043]

There's nothing more natural, than natural material!
Wood chips, yard/garden waste, pine straw, branches/twigs, a good mixture of different material to keep things loose. This also makes a great dust bath and chicken scratching run. The poop dries out, breaks down and you have no bad smells. If it starts to smell, just add more stuff.

 

[SimTam]

I'd also look at what's under the dirt, I've buried heaps of fruit, sticks, logs and re-located a heap of worms and dirt bugs from a fertile area of the yard into the run

Kind of going for a whole ecosystem in the subsoil layer.

 

[raingarden]

Not dirt, no chips or straw, but natural. That leaves leaf litter and sand.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Not dirt, no chips or straw, but natural. That leaves leaf litter and sand.

Sand is probably "natural" to your location, but completely absent here, unless you're talking about the bottom of the creek bed.

Strictly leaf litter for me = insufficient drainage and mud/odor starting to build up over time. I know, I tried it.