Bedding Placements

[Lady Cluckingham]

Warning, I get paranoid about stuff I don't understand

Just a bit of back story first.

When we had hens (before Mr.Fox and my dog came to visit) we had hay down pretty much everywherel our chicken run is made out of chicken white so plenty of ventilation and a perch cage area to be locked up in at night. And an old elevated dog kennel for eggs to be payed in.

I was wondering wether chickens prefer and/or is better for them to have hay or pine chipping down everywhere, or in one area down by the perch place or have grass half bedding.

Also, if I lock my hens up at night will they now to lay their eggs in th edit kennel where the hay/chippings are? My brother and I had chickens a few years ago when I was younger and just knew what they ate,drank ect.

Thanks!

I attached some pics, don't worry no chickens are going to be in there anytime soon until we clean it up and made spick and span in Cluckingham Palace!

 

[Welshies]

Chicken wire is not safe.
You can use any bedding. If you want them to lay somewhere they need a nest box.

 

[chickencheeper]

The nesting box for the chickens should be inside the coop, the coop should be covered in pine shavings to collect droppings keep the chickens healthy

 

[chickencheeper]

Warning, I get paranoid about stuff I don't understand

Just a bit of back story first.

When we had hens (before Mr.Fox and my dog came to visit) we had hay down pretty much everywherel our chicken run is made out of chicken white so plenty of ventilation and a perch cage area to be locked up in at night. And an old elevated dog kennel for eggs to be payed in.

I was wondering wether chickens prefer and/or is better for them to have hay or pine chipping down everywhere, or in one area down by the perch place or have grass half bedding.

Also, if I lock my hens up at night will they now to lay their eggs in th edit kennel where the hay/chippings are? My brother and I had chickens a few years ago when I was younger and just knew what they ate,drank ect.

Thanks!

I attached some pics, don't worry no chickens are going to be in there anytime soon until we clean it up and made spick and span in Cluckingham Palace!

Also, when it comes time for them to lay (18-40 weeks) then put fake ceramic eggs in the box, you can get them on amazon. If the are less than 18 weeks then cover the nest box up or remove it completely so they don’t start sleeping etc in there

 

[Welshies]

And don't feed lay feed until they begin laying. Or don't at all.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I was wondering wether chickens prefer and/or is better for them to have hay or pine chipping down everywhere, or in one area down by the perch place or have grass half bedding.


Many people will tell you that whatever they do is the best and that is what you should do, but the problem with that is we all do different things and they generally work. Some people put hay, wood shavings, wood chips, straw, grass clippings, dried leaves, garden wastes and debris, sand, or something else all over the run and/or coop. Others leave the run dirt and use bedding in the coop only. Others will do something else and it will usually work or they would not do it.

I don’t know how big that area is compared to the number of chickens you will have. I’d guess your chicken density will be high enough they will soon eat everything growing in there and turn the soil to pure dirt, nothing green growing at all. Your chickens will love playing in that dirt, taking dust baths and scratching around. If you cover it with any kind of bedding they will love scratching around in that. Unless you build a divider they will scratch anything you put in there to cover the entire area. They do love to scratch. As long as that area drains fairly well so it does not constantly stay wet they should do very well no matter what the run floor is made from. The health issue is whether it is wet or dry, the covering isn’t that important.


Also, if I lock my hens up at night will they now to lay their eggs in th edit kennel where the hay/chippings are?

I wish I knew. They will lay wherever they want to. We can influence that some by putting fake eggs (I use gold balls) in the nests we want them to use but that doesn’t always work. Also leaving them locked up where the nests are until they lay will kind of force them to lay somewhere in that area, hopefully the nests but not always. Most of us have nests in the coop but some have separate nests. How well that works depends a lot on how we manage them. Sometimes hens lay first thing in the morning. If they are still locked in the coop they may have to lay in there and make a nest in there. If they can get to a nest somewhere else they can use that but a lot of us leave them locked up too late for that to work. So a lot of that depends on how you manage them.