Floor materials

[CocoPopz]

I live in the uk, this winter it's been very wet and muddy, my run is just mud, silkies don't like that very much, do you think it's worth putting balk down in the run and will that allow grass to grow? I also want a material down in my shed, it gets very wet in there, from their poo, I have 20 in total and the shed has just enough room to perch so you can imagine the amount of poo overnight, I want something down so I can easily collect their poo and it stay bone dry in there as I have no leaks. I also want to make them a dust bathing area outside under my shed as it a lifted one, what dusting material is best? Could I just put good compost in their. What I've collected over the years from my horses, it's very rich and full of bugs, I'm guessing this will dry out on not stay as moist, or does moist matter when bathing? Or any advise, I'm also going to add lise powder to their it's bath

 

[Monguire]

I have found coarse construction or river sand to be excellent in my coop and covered run. It is soooo dry and dusty that I actually contemplate lightly watering it occasionally to make it more comfortable for ME to be out there. The key is likely the covered run (smoke gray polycarb roof). I doubt I would be so happy with sand when exposed to the elements though it would still leech the moisture away faster than a hard-pack "soil" like the Virginia red clay I have to deal with here in the Colonies. Additionally, sand is easy to scoop poop from. I will grab the appropriate kitty-litter scoop once every couple weeks and yank the worst offenders from the sand. I find for the most part that most of the poo just dessicates and breaks down on its own as a natural function of the chooks tilling the ground looking for goodies.

A poop board might be a good addition for your coop if you have room under the roost. Mine is 18" wide, 1" deep and about 4" below the roosts. I fill this with SweetPDZ or StallDry for the ammonia-eating characteristics but it could just as easily be filled with sand to aid with poo removal. This poop board gets scooped every 2-3 days. Both sand and SweetPDZ/StallDry are fine for composting.

 

[RonP]

Do a search on deep litter.

I started my run with 18" of free wood chips.

 

[leilanio]

There is an excellent thread on DLM (deep litter method) and Poop Boards. We completely changed our design because of the plethora of posts confirming this is definitely the way to go. We have a local feed store that sells the Sweet PDZ and we will use it on the poop boards since it does help to neutralize the smell from the ammonia... You should be able to find a wealth of info on that one thread alone (it says warning: graphic pictures on it). Good luck!