Coop run ground cover

[Chicken Egg 17]

Yes u are welcome any more questions about it I am happy to help

 

[kwcoop]

@Roada Red I watched the video. Will this work in my outside run area? It's not covered with a roof so it's open to the elements. I use poop boards covered with pine shavings inside my coop, but if this litter method would work in my outside run it would be nice.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

It should yes my run isn't covered either and people to me to try it in another thread and I mentioned to them that it's not covered so I guess

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Yes and when u clean the poop boards u could take the poop and just fling it in the run along with there bedding material

 

[kwcoop]

Well when I clean out the coop I take the poop out to my garden area and just dump it. We didn't have time to plant a garden last year but when we do it should be well fertilized.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Ok well how ever u do it just has to be something that decomposes so mostly anything that ranges from bedding from there coop old feed that fell on the ground egg shells tomatoes and stuff from ur garden and when ur garden is done for the year just pull out ur plants and throw them in there run

 

[Jensownzoo]

Basically the deep litter method is a big compost pile that is aerated and turned via chickens. I've got a least an acre to mow and roughly 3 acres of woods (for leaves to add to the mix), so this method seemed ideal to me. Plus, I'll be using deep bedding in the coop and during the yearly/twice yearly cleanout, I can just toss it out into the run as well.

I'm a bit excited about it as we have a heavy clay soil here, so I've been using raised beds to garden. Next year I expect I'll have a significant amout of nice fertile compost to till into the clay, which will let me expand.

 

[kwcoop]

Nice. I have plenty of leaves and grass clippings to use. So let's say I start off with pine shavings, straw, leaves, grass clippings. What are a few other things I might add to the mix? I have hardware cloth buried 10-12 inches down the sides of my run with 2x4s at ground level. So I can get 4-6 inches deep of whatever pretty easy.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Ok well I wish u good luck with the deep litter method u could even do that in ur coop if u want

 

[Jensownzoo]

Nice. I have plenty of leaves and grass clippings to use. So let's say I start off with pine shavings, straw, leaves, grass clippings. What are a few other things I might add to the mix? I have hardware cloth buried 10-12 inches down the sides of my run with 2x4s at ground level. So I can get 4-6 inches deep of whatever pretty easy.

Other than wood chips (free from a lot of tree trimmers) that would be the bulk of it, I would think. Vegetable scraps would likely get "recycled" by the chickens...their high-nitrogen droppings are going to be your main source of "green" material in the compost.