Dirt in Run?

[arrowti]

Our birds have a large run so it's a combination of dirt and grass and forested area with bushes. However I've seen from experience that they're just fine on dirt.

 

[aart]

I use natural sand in my coop and run. Just scoop it with a kitty litter scoop. Easy, works great and provides grit slso. My chickens ate mostly free range and only have eight in there. I haven't had to completely out my sand and it has been in there 2 ro 3 years.

What is your climate/location?

 

[Melissa Sakata]

I ha

A rototiller sounds like a good idea once in awhile. When I rake mine out I noticed I'm loosing quite a bit of dirt. We rake the coop out about every 2 or 3 weeks. They free range a ton in our yard so it doesn't get too bad. A 50lb bag of kids sand is about $5 so if I throw some down I don't think it would hurt? Maybe add some DE? I'm a new chicken owner but this site has helped a ton. I'm always reading new things.

I have sand in my chicken coop, and that cleans out really fast, but my small run is half sand and the other side is just loose dirt. They have a chunnel that adds to the square footage, but when I am home they have the whole back yard to themselves. When I have them locked into the run and chunnel, I rake it daily. I hate flies. Don't put play sand in. Use the builders sand which has different sizes of sand.

This is the inside of my little coop. It has linoleum on the bottom with the sand on top. I spread DE for the smell and to kill mites & other unmentionables.

 

[luvmigirls]

I use DLM. My coop's run is raised off the ground and has a wooden board floor (scrap) and its sides go up about 6 to 7 inches..I clean the ccoop about twice a year completely. I add new shavings about once. Month. When new pine shavings are needed, I sprinkled some DE and spray LAB over the old existing flakes before putting an half inch of new pine shavings on top.

Never mite or bug problems. Actually looks very cleandand presentable.

 

[dunnmom]

I switched to sand. I read a bunch of articles that warned about some dangers of using sand. In the end I decided to take my chances, but used the recommended construction sand. They seem to enjoy it for dust bathing and we have had less flies. I'd say it cut the flies by about 50% or so. Not bad. The chickens stay cleaner. The only problem we've had is having to wash eggs that got laid in the sand before one of my pullets figured out the nest box.

 

[DianaMallory]

When we built our run it is on a slope so, we don't have to worry about water pooling in it. We still covered and it is also on dirt I have had a hard time getting grass to grow in that area due to the moss. I use the deep litter method in my coop, with poo boards. I was changing the litter about every 6 months. I take all my used litter and put it in the run. It is never mucky in the run. And the girls love to scratch and peck through the old litter. I had 2 years of old litter in the run and cleaned it out this year. And of coarse we had major rain fall after it was cleaned and even with the run being covered it still got wet, mucky and smelly. I spread DE through the run and coop.
This was taken after the run was cleaned and the coop had just been cleaned out. I have a couple bails of straw for the girls to play with, a dust bath, a couple of perches. The old litter went from the run to the compost pile.
This was taken right before the run was cleaned out after 2 years of build up. You can see the build up of litter up against the back wall.

 

[DianaMallory]

I ha
I have sand in my chicken coop, and that cleans out really fast, but my small run is half sand and the other side is just loose dirt. They have a chunnel that adds to the square footage, but when I am home they have the whole back yard to themselves. When I have them locked into the run and chunnel, I rake it daily. I hate flies. Don't put play sand in. Use the builders sand which has different sizes of sand.



This is the inside of my little coop. It has linoleum on the bottom with the sand on top. I spread DE for the smell and to kill mites & other unmentionables.

I tried the sand and didn't care for it. I am in Ohio and I have to bag it in and it was just to heavy to deal with. And I didn't like the smell. I switched to Sweet PDZ. and poo boards. now I use pine shavings in the coop. Lighter and easier for me to deal with.

 

[9d84runner]

I ha
I have sand in my chicken coop, and that cleans out really fast, but my small run is half sand and the other side is just loose dirt. They have a chunnel that adds to the square footage, but when I am home they have the whole back yard to themselves. When I have them locked into the run and chunnel, I rake it daily. I hate flies. Don't put play sand in. Use the builders sand which has different sizes of sand.



This is the inside of my little coop. It has linoleum on the bottom with the sand on top. I spread DE for the smell and to kill mites & other unmentionables.

I like that! I don't clean my coop out everyday though... So many options!

 

[Little Fuzzy]

Yea I'm losing the dirt in my run also, I don't know where it goes. My floor is all dirt and I don't rake that much out. The chickens dirt bathe in there now there are huge depressions and my stepping stones stick up like Stone Henge HA HA. To buy dirt at the garden store means Top soil, I think they put a bunch of stuff in that. Maybe I'll try the sand. Is bulk sand at the gravel store OK, or should I buy Kids play sand?

 

[9d84runner]

This is my coop and run. I'm thinking of throwing some sand into the run. I know overtime it will turn into dirt and I did see a post somewhere that someone has 1/2 dirt and 1/2 sand. Good idea or bad idea? I attached a picture of my coop and run. Don't mind the paint, my 4 year old helped me paint it and we got paint for like $1 at Home Depot.