Anyone use mulch in their run?

[HilltopFarm]

I had a small amount of leftover mulch and I put it in the run this afternoon and the chickens all loved it, they scratched through the whole pile. Does anyone else use mulch??

 

[Rogue Rooster]

I put all my mowing clippings from our very large yard in the run. Now it's about 8" deep and the chickens love it.

I occasionally will rake them into pile, just to give them something to do.

Our clippings have lots of leaves, sticks and bark chips in them along with lots of bugs. They are standing at the door to the pen waiting for to come over with the mower.
In the fall I will put the run duff in the garden and suck up and chop the leaves and put them in the run. The chopped leaves will keep the run from getting to muddy in the Oregon winters

 

[chookchick]

I use woodchip, from tree-trimming companies. It has been great, and a God send in this heat, because I can hose it down and it keeps the moisture and stays cool. I can't imagine why mulch (bark mulch?) would not work as well. Stay away from dyed stuff--has chemicals in the dye. Oh, and leaves are also great.

 

[mcnamarm]

I put a bale of straw in their yard a while ago, and they have obligingly spread it all around. I've been sprinkling and misting one corner of their yard, hoping to lower the temp by evapo-transpiration, if nothing else, but I noticed one of my Buff Orps making a little nest-like hole in the straw, and I bet it helped cool her off a little. I plan to use the straw on my garden this fall, and will give them another bale to play with.

 

[Cherrypie]

Quote:
Soaking the wood chips is a great idea!!

 

[pattycake]

I do -- wood chip mulch. They love scratching through it, and the poop just mysteriously disappears beneath it!

I also add whatever I have: grass clippings, straw, leaves, etc. It all just *poof* disappears beneath the wood chips!

 

[The Zoo]

straw works great in winter to help with all the rain - when I clean it out every weekend we put it on the veg garden - happy chickens and happy garden!

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

I've got a chipper now. It does 20:1 and makes a very fine mulch that the chickens love digging in. Every so often we rake it up int a pile and let it decompose to add to the garden. I've also been known throw a few grey (not glossy) newpapers into the chipper and it makes a very absorbent bedding material for the coops, chicks.