Bare Earth

[City Farmer Jim]

Good morning all, we have survived hurricane Hanna and the tornadoes that came with her. The question of the day is what is the best ground cover for the run ? We would set and watch the first 5 of our 10 girl flock scratch and forage as the pecked and ate then they started on the green leafy stuff and were just eating the taller grass then the short green ground cover then we let them into the big 2700 sqft run and the process started all over again. The littles were introduced memorable day and were VORACIOUS, EATING everything that wasn't nailed down and some stuff that was. So being educated adults keeping chickens we put down straw(no crop issues..apparently they don't like to eat straw)so the plant life would return.. WRONG that just gave them even more reason to scratch for what ever was under the straw. The BIG RUN started to become decimated also...the educated adults we are we tried hay in the big run to slow down the muddy mess it is becoming with 10 girls scratching and eating everything in sight. WRONG that doesn't work either HELP is there a practical solution for this or are we the only chicken keepers with muddy bare earth runs.

 

[Neco]

I've always just put my runs on bare ground and left it that way. It becomes rich dirt that they like to scratch around and dust bathe in it. I do let them out a couple times a week when I am out there to watch over them so they can enjoy fresh grass and such.

 

[3KillerBs]

Unless you have VERY few chickens in a VERY large run the chickens will always eventually destroy ever speck of green in the run and leave bare dirt exposed to the elements.

Thus you either need to give them some kind of litter in the run to cover the bare dirt or you need to create a set of subdivided pens to rotate them through and plant pasture for them as each pen cycles through the destruction.

I'm a fan of the Deep Litter Method for the run. You put down a mix of various "Compost Brown" materials -- wood chips, wood shavings, straw, pine straw, fall leaves, whathaveyou -- and add more any time it seems to be looking dirty or you notice an odor. The litter, which needs ground contact and moisture (not sogginess), will react with the manure -- digesting both into garden gold.

It never *has to* be cleaned unless the pile gets inconveniently tall or you want compost for the garden.

 

[Neco]

I've never used any sort of litter in my pens so you don't "need" to do anything. Just plain old dirt and I shovel it out every once and a great while. It doesn't really get muddy either my bird stay in their barn when it's rainy.

 

[3KillerBs]

I've never used any sort of litter in my pens so you don't "need" to do anything. Just plain old dirt and I shovel it out every once and a great while. It doesn't really get muddy either my bird stay in their barn when it's rainy.

There will eventually be a point where the soil in the run is so heavily saturated with chicken manure that it can no longer break down any more poop because all the natural "brown" material has already reacted with the "green" manure.

 

[Folly's place]

Mud is not good!
If there's a problem with drainage, fix that, with French drains or whatever it takes.
Then, I think that having deep litter, as described, is the best way to go. Keep adding stuff, and have great garden compost, a win all around.
Mary

 

[Neco]

"There will eventually be a point where the soil in the run is so heavily saturated with chicken manure that it can no longer break down any more poop because all the natural "brown" material has already reacted with the "green" manure."

I've ever had that happen in the 18+ years my birds have been kept in the same runs. They are still just good dirt.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

Thank you who have replied so quickly..we appreciate the input. We are going to go with the deep litter method and use the "compost" it creates to make more raised garden beds. Our goal is to be partially self sustainable with chickens, eggs, and veggies from the gardens sounds like a WIN WIN to us.

 

[City Farmer Jim]

We did the subdivision of the runs but it takes SO long for the scorched earth to recover to somewhat green...deep litter seems to be the best solution for us.

 

[paintedChix]

Here are the many things I've added to our coop/pens.

DLM

And here are two pics of our wood chip mulch sitting in our front yard. We take from that to put into coops and pens. These bantams are free ranging...