Chicken Run Foundation Over Hardware Cloth

[FarmerGirl101]

Thank you for that link! We are about a month out from our typical first snow and this was on my list of things to research. As for your dirt suggestion, we have acres and acres of that so I can easily line it with dirt. My girls have never experienced dirt outside their dirt bath. So I am not certain what their behaviors will be just yet, but I in no way wish to cause them harm by not lining the run properly.

Of course! I thought that would be very useful given the numerous articles linked.

Perfect, you can always switch the dirt every once in a while then. We refresh ours every other year (they free range so it is less important for us). You can always play around with it with adding different mulch amounts. Just as long as they have a spot to take a dust bath.

 

[Sefirothe]

Since you said you get snow....

You are gonna want to brace up the roof of your run.

 

[FunClucks]

Oh boy...my girls don't like to be handled (I got them as young hens, not chicks or pullets) unless its later in evening and now I have to add clipping nails to my list. LOL. I like your composting suggestion. We do have an active compost pile that I put their spent pine shavings in that I pull from the coop. I didn't think to add the wood chips to it too. And YES, wood chips are plentiful around here.

A note about rain - address keeping the water out of the coop now - it's the perfect time. I got some 6" wide coiled aluminum edging like for flower beds I think, and pounded that a couple inches into my hard clay ground around the entire coop. Most water hits that and flows around my run instead of through it. There was one corner that I didn't think would be an issue so I didn't do it. Guess where the rain enters every time it rains? Also consider French drains, berms, overhangs on your tarp or roof, really any way to direct the water. It's really important to get this sorted before your chickens have to live in it, and find the hard way it's unsuccessful. You want them to be standing in dry wood chips while the ground outside the run is soggy.

There's some folks on here that made a rotating drum out of wire mesh, and managed to remove the large wood chips from their composted dirt - chips go back in the run, dirt goes in the garden. I thought that was brilliant.

You can go out at night after dark, or at dusk when they're on the roost, and using a red headlamp, wrap each of them in a bath towel, shove them under your arm like a football, and cut nails. They can't see the red light but you can, so they stay calm. A helper with a flashlight works too. You'll want some styptic powder (Quikstop), as inevitably you'll quick them at some point. Very much like dog nails, I use a dog nail clipper or a dremel.

 

[CrookedCoopAz]

Since you said you get snow....

You are gonna want to brace up the roof of your run.

View attachment 4217894

The most we get usually is a few inches in a storm, but if I got more than a few I can see this happening. THIS IS GOOD TO KNOW!!! I will show my hubs this picture. Thank you for the heads up.

 

[CrookedCoopAz]

A note about rain - address keeping the water out of the coop now - it's the perfect time. I got some 6" wide coiled aluminum edging like for flower beds I think, and pounded that a couple inches into my hard clay ground around the entire coop. Most water hits that and flows around my run instead of through it. There was one corner that I didn't think would be an issue so I didn't do it. Guess where the rain enters every time it rains? Also consider French drains, berms, overhangs on your tarp or roof, really any way to direct the water. It's really important to get this sorted before your chickens have to live in it, and find the hard way it's unsuccessful. You want them to be standing in dry wood chips while the ground outside the run is soggy.

There's some folks on here that made a rotating drum out of wire mesh, and managed to remove the large wood chips from their composted dirt - chips go back in the run, dirt goes in the garden. I thought that was brilliant.

You can go out at night after dark, or at dusk when they're on the roost, and using a red headlamp, wrap each of them in a bath towel, shove them under your arm like a football, and cut nails. They can't see the red light but you can, so they stay calm. A helper with a flashlight works too. You'll want some styptic powder (Quikstop), as inevitably you'll quick them at some point. Very much like dog nails, I use a dog nail clipper or a dremel.

Their main coop, my photo on the left will be completely enclosed this weekend. We've had quite a few monsoons with sideways rain and it did get their shavings wet. I would go out a few times during the day and turn it over so everything dried. We are coming into our wintery drizzle season so enclosing it was high priority. We will be using the clear pvc sheets on the walls of the coop. As for the run... we didn't plan to wall that up at all. Today we had quite a bit of rain and at your suggestion, I watched how it drained. The slope of the pad the coup and run are both on deflects the water around both thankfully. The roof situation I will have to rethink since another poster showed what happened with snow.

Thank you for the red light advice! I think we have a few headlamps with that option and Ill give that a try this evening when I go out to doctor up a hen with a pecking sore.