Do you put hay in your outdoor run?

[LauraG]

I am in the middle of constructing the coop. (well my boyfriend is and I play the foreman...)

Do you all put hay down in the outdoor part of your run? or just leave it dirt?

If you do put hay, what kind? Will they eat the hay?

I'm so confused.....

 

[patandchickens]

Check out my 'fix a muddy run' page (link in .sig below) - despite the title I think you'll find it has some of the info you are looking for.

I put spare hay, raked leaves, cut weeds, nontoxic garden weedings, etc etc into my runs -- BUT the runs are fully roofed and wetness is not a problem. In many cases this would not work so well with a run that got rained on or had drainage issues.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[LauraG]

Wonderful Pat, I thank you
Blessings,
Laura

 

[ksct]

3+ inches of sand. no mud. dries quick. doesn't smell when wet and dries out quicker, leaving less time for bugs IE flies.
Just a suggestion. helped us. Plus wet hay is hard to remove and they don't like it much. I find they don't eat the straw, they just like to search for bugs in it.

 

[CA_Banana_Farmer]

Quote:
Great links you posted They really helped me thanks. Im also in the begining stages of placing a coop.

Greg

 

[robin416]

No, to hay. Hay molds which can be toxic to chickens.

You would find in the long run that it created an awful mess, straw too. The sand mentioned is an awesome way to go. I had sand in my old pens and no matter how much rain we got I never had to don hip boots to wade through the mud and water puddles. One other benefit of sand is that the birds love it and it helps a ton with keeping mites at bay.