Chicken Run Trouble

[Busterchicken]

Ok, so i was thinking about putting a roof and fixing up my chicken coop. I had just recently put my chickens in a run, they used to free range, until one day, i came home, and my father built them a run! Boy, was i mad. It was small, no door, no access to the chickens, and no substrate, just concrete. So i was thinking about fixing it today, the big storm that we had in new york didn't stop until today. So, would one of those, wavy, plastic, transparent roofs at Home Depot be able to support feet of snow during our harsh winters, or would the snow just slip off? The floor of the coop is just muddy, dirty concrete for now, that is what i'm concerned about. If i were to put sand, i would have to take out all the little chickie poopies every day right? But soil would get muddy and smelly with chicken poop and if it were to get wet. Will a fifty fifty mixture take care of the small and poop cleaning? I'm really lazy, i don't want to clean chicken poop out of a run. What do i do?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I cover part of the run (the part that's concrete) with the wavy stuff but galvanized rather than plastic. The covered part gets straw or dried grass and I change it out every week or two depending on how many chickens are in there.

 

[Folly's place]

My run is concrete and it works fine. I add shavings, some fresh, and some from the coop, and shovel it out as necessary. Mine is eight feet high, so easy to walk in and manage. Those fiberglass panels will work great as long as the framing and roof slope are done correctly with wind and snow load in mind. They do deteriorate over time (20years or so) but all materials have a lifetime. Mary

 

[Busterchicken]

Thanks for the replies, but is there a substrate that can maintenance-less

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Over concrete, I doubt it. Chickens, unless they are totally free range day and night, require maintenance. As animals, they defecate. If you can train them to use a toilet, that would work. Dogs aren't maintenance free and they don't feed you breakfast.

 

[Busterchicken]

Would soil break down some manure or would it just end up as a smelly, muddy mess?

 

[AkChris]

I'm pretty new to chickens but from what I understand a deep litter method is probably the least amount of maintenance. It might not work quite as well over concrete (you might have to clean a bit more often). I'm planning to use it for my run...which I hope to get finished this weekend. There are lots of threads on here about using deep litter in all types of situations so do a search and you should find all the info you need.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I only use deep litter in buildings and one has a concrete floor. It works fine in there. I wouldn't do it in a run unless you have enough roofing to keep it dry. If you can keep it dry, go for it.