Bedding Falls Through Harware Cloth Need Suggestions Please

[chuckzoo]

My hardware cloth is 5/8 " and my two chickens scatch the wood shaving and they fall through the hardware cloth. I don't want to put wood strips around the run as when it rains a I may have a swimming pool in there! I have tried 6" fine mesh around the perimeter but it is too flimsy and collapses under the weight of the wood shavings. Does anyone have an idea how to remedy the problem?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
Use larger wood chips/shavings, or hay/straw.

 

[flakey chick]

I use shade cloth on top of my hardware cloth. That way I can put down shavings in the winter months and have good ventilation in the summer. I have also used old bed sheets. I like the shade cloth better.

 

[patandchickens]

Wood with gaps. Either put the wood on top of a 1/2" (or so) thick layer of something reasonably permeable -- folded/rolled scraps of windowscreen work, but I'm sure a lot of other things would too -- or cut a bunch of little notches in the lower edge of the wood.

However, it would probably work better overall if you used something other than shavings in the run. Shavings tend to blow/float away quite readily and hold moisture to become soggy (=>smelly, flyey, nasty). Something inorganic like sand or gravel, or something coarser like wood chippings, will give you a better effect in most cases.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[sillybirds]

I agree with Pat regarding the use of gravel. I don't think you'd necessarily have to fill the whole run with it. What I did was to pour a rim of 3/4 inch gravel around inside edges of our run. I don't use wood shavings in our run, but I didn't want dirt to wash out given the incline our run is built on.