Chicken Run

[can't get enough chicken]

I was wondering what people used for the ground of their run? Also what do you use as roofing for your run? If you have pictures for roofing or even the ground of your run I would love to see them because when it rained my run turned into mud!!! HELP!!! Is sand okay?

 

[wonachickencooptoday]

I was just going to ask the same question- I have muddy dirt in my run and was wondering If shredded tree clippings were ok ?? Thank you.

 

[can't get enough chicken]

I had 4 inched of mulch in my run and it just turned into mud. It did not work out to well!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

can't get enough chicken :

I had 4 inched of mulch in my run and it just turned into mud. It did not work out to well!

Sand. Sand. Sand! We've had sand in our run for nearly 2 years now. It's fabulous for drainage and for odor control. Acts a lot like kitty litter. In fact, I clean it out w/ a kitty litter coop once or twice a day to keep things tidy. The girls love it in the warmer weather for dustbathing and it's the best thing for drainage purposes. Our coop abuts wetlands and we wouldn't use anything else.

Highly recommend it!

Here you can see it in action:

and the location relative to the slope of our hill:

 

[7L Farm]

The soil where I live in Texas is sandy loam. I love it because when we get rain the run looks as clean as the day I built it. The rain filters the sand.I just built a new coop & run. This time I'm gonna put some gravel down first & top it off with sand.

 

[can't get enough chicken]

Do I have to make sure that the mud is dry before I put sand on? Also how many inches of sand do you use? What is the size of the gravel and what is the coursness of the sand? Thanks for the pictures and help!

 

[wonachickencooptoday]

Alpha chick, what a gorgeous coup, run and chickens. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Pharm Girl]

I use a combo of sand and playground wood chips. Works great and we're from the land of WET. Inside the covered run I use sand and top it off with straw. They poop on the straw and I rake it off every few weeks leaving the sand underneath. It works so well!

 

[MamaChic21]

I don't want to steal anyone's thread and please pardon my ignorance, but does stand get frozen ? We live in NJ and have really cold winters. I put pine cheaps and hay in the run and it's all fronzen now.

 

[Moxiechick]

Right now, we are using snow.

We had just finished our run in the fall and the girls haven't had enough time to totally demolish the grass yet. There was one area getting muddy, so as a short term solution, we spread pine needles in that area. We have plenty of pine needles in another part of our property, they're free, and all natural. If we get to the point where the pine needles aren't enough, we'll be putting in sand.