Bedding - Is Hay OK?

[tvtaber]

Quote:
Any thoughts on this? Gravel or road base does not seem very pleasant to walk on all day.

 

[Mr_Jeff]

Why pay a premium for hay? It's meant to be food, not bedding. A little elbow grease and forethought is about the only way to do something about where water will collect.

 

[Omran]

Quote:
Any thoughts on this? Gravel or road base does not seem very pleasant to walk on all day.

Well I think you are wright,but someone told me about that and he said that his chicken are ok with it,but I just thought about the very fine gravel which almost look a little bigger than rice,I think that might be good.My run has only dirt but I have no problem with mud because it drains very very good.
but thank you for mentioning that to me.

 

[bbRedMom]

I am sooooo doing the sand thing this weekend! That is a great idea!

 

[TheNewMrsEvans]

The whole yard is sand at our place, but where we lived before in red clay was yucky. My dad put down extra pea gravel from the road. Wonderful stuff, and it's round, no sore feet.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Do they try to eat it?

 

[TheNewMrsEvans]

Gee...mine didn't...it was pretty big (like a garbanzo bean). I never had any problems. They scratched down to the dirt in some places I'd have to rake it over, but no real problems. If they would eat it in their run, then they would eat it off of all of our driveways while they were out pecking! (Maybe that was why they were so fat! No JK!

)

 

[Stella1964]

Quote:
I didn't say there was water collecting, only that they've destroyed the grass and all that's left is mud. the run is actually very well drained...it's on a slope. The area remains wet because there's no grass to soak it up and we've had rain virtually every day since May!