First rain and wet litter; What do I do???

[winekntrychicks]

The wet litter is in the run. Do I let the girls out into it? Will it be safe? Will they get sick (cocci) What about the rest of the winter? Please advise. New to raising chickie girls

 

[bluie]

If you are going to use litter in the run, you might want to cover it. It is going to take a while for it to dry out, and if you have days of rain in a row.... Lots of people here, myself included, use sand in the run. It dries out fast and its easy to rake out the poops to keep it clean.

 

[winekntrychicks]

hmmmm good to know. When we first put the girls in their new home they would not go into the run so I spread down litter. They were raised on it, thats all they knew. At that point I was/ and still am learning. Once the litter was down out they shot like little bullets. Any ideas on what type of sand I should ask for???

 

[bheila]

I have been told that you should use arena sand, like for horses. Hope this helps. I'm in the same process as you.

 

[bluie]

I just buy play sand from Home Depot. I think just about any sand will do, although I have heard that beach sand is not good because of too much salt, and possible disease organisms from sea gulls.

 

[lilchick]

Once the grass is gone their run becomes bare dirt.
I go to Lowes and get the broken bags of mulch for .50 cents each!
Even the bags with small holes could be discounted.. They do not tell you this so you just to say that other Lowes discounts them and they should too.
A few bags of these put down is cheap and works great!
Keeps their feet dry and they love to scratch in it.

 

[GopherBoyFarms]

mine are out free ranging all day, but on days when its wet (the runn is all dirt) I spread straw or grass clippings all over. It's great, they love to scratch in it and then in a month I will rack it all up and put it in the compost pile and start all over. We havent even go through a bale of straw yet in 6 months!

I also sprinkle DE on the straw in the chicken yard, kinda helps dry up the mud and poo and keeps bugs out of the area and off the flock.

 

[playswithfowl]

For the sand do you just buy bags of it at a time? Or are there usually places that sell it in large amounts?

 

[winekntrychicks]

any other ideas??

 

[cmom]

I wouldn't use litter. I would use sand, mulch, or small gravel. There are some threads that discuss this. We have a peanut farm down the road and one of our friends goes over and gets a trailer load of composted peanut shells. They work wonderfully.