Grass-less Dirty Chicken Run

[GreenieBeaner]

Hi!
I have 3, 21 week old hens, (I'm a first time chicken owner) and within the first 2 weeks of them being in their coop and run, they destroyed and ate up all the grass! All that's left is feathers, dirt, and chicken poop. I try to let them out every day to free range for a bit, but I'm worried it's not enough. (Plus, their feet get all dirty when they go back to the run, and it doesn't smell all that great either!!) What do I do? Should I try to free range them more, and give the run floor a break? The coop is right next to my house, so predators aren't a big issue, but it's still a worry I have.
Should I get another attachment run and lock them out of the old one until the grass comes back?
It's really embarrassing to have people come and see the chickens since it looks so gross, and stinks, too.
If you managed to get through all that reading (lol), could you help me? Any suggestions?

 

[DobieLover]

Hi!
I have 3, 21 week old hens, (I'm a first time chicken owner) and within the first 2 weeks of them being in their coop and run, they destroyed and ate up all the grass! All that's left is feathers, dirt, and chicken poop. I try to let them out every day to free range for a bit, but I'm worried it's not enough. (Plus, their feet get all dirty when they go back to the run, and it doesn't smell all that great either!!) What do I do? Should I try to free range them more, and give the run floor a break? The coop is right next to my house, so predators aren't a big issue, but it's still a worry I have.
Should I get another attachment run and lock them out of the old one until the grass comes back?
It's really embarrassing to have people come and see the chickens since it looks so gross, and stinks, too.
If you managed to get through all that reading (lol), could you help me? Any suggestions?

Please post pictures of your setup.

As the others have mentioned, grass does not last long in an area of high population density and/or less than ideal growing conditions with the stress of constantly scratching chickens.

You need to provide the flock with 15 sq ft of space in the run per bird. I personally like wood chips as they have a variety of sizes, drain well and are organic so they slowly decompose with the poop load. I never clean my run.

In addition to good litter for the run, you should also provide areas of full shade and rain/snow protection, things to perch on like branches, old wood chair, pallets, whatever you have handy.

This is how mine is currently setup.

 

[SourRoses]

It's impossible to keep grass in a chicken run
I'm fond of sand since we have it naturally here and it helps dry out the poo for easy raking.
A lot of folks use deep litter and rarely need to clean. Whatever works for you.

 

[seminolewind]

I have really good luck with that shredded mulch. My pen is covered with it. Yes it needs replenishing about yearly. It is carefree. I don't notice an odor from it and the poop just magically disappears! Makes a pen look good.

 

[3KillerBs]

Do know up front though, even though you provided your 20 hens with 5 or 6 individualized nesting boxes to accommodate all their egg laying needs in comfort, they will all fight over box 3, left corner to lay their eggs in

And then the broody in box 2 will drive them all out so she can change boxes to sit on the larger clutch.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I have 19 chickens and 7 ducks. My grass, too, is gone. I use deep litter now with soil, pine shavings, leaves, and chipped branches.

I plan to make grazing boxes to get some green growing in their yard. In the past, I've rotated potted plants in and our if their run.

 

[SmiYa0126]

I clean up poo every morning, but then free range the rest of the day. In the winter I don't free range as much I clean up poo twice a day or more. I use mulch, leaves, straw, some pine shavings for their litter. Only rarely have poop stuck to their feet . If your run is covered you could try deep litter, if you don't have good drainage you'd need to clean up after them, and also put some litter down.

 

[Ascholten]

I have a chicken tractor and what you describe sounds about par. It goes in phases.
You move it, in a week the grass is pretty torn up, in two weeks it's muddy, poopy, a lot of flies and probably not much grass left at all. it might even be smelling a bit too at this point. At about 4 weeks is when the magic stats though.

I put pine shavings in the 'inside' part of it as a poop grabber and nesting box material and roost floor. Inevitably they kick this out and all over when they root around, and when I pluck poo out in the morning. It gets kicked into the grassy (or what once was grassy).

about the 4 week mark you will notice that pine shavings have mixed fairly well into the 'dirt' now, and it's back to looking like dirt. The plants are all gone, the roots are pretty much tore up, in fact they may even have bowls carved out for dust baths in here. This little 'microcosym' has kind of balanced out now and is doing what nature intended. It's composting on it's own. Any new poop, quickly gets absorbed by the ground 'dirt' which has the consistancy of loose dirt now, the flies are gone, and the stink is miminal.

Keep it dry, in other words don't put your coop where this area is going to be subject to standing water if you get a good rain, and maybe every few weeks you can scrape some of the excess out, making sure to still leave ample loose stuff to handle new stuff and it'll run for months this way.,

at this point it's like a deep litter operation but yes, the first 3 to 4 weeks it can get a bit ugly. If the smell just gets too unbearable, you can throw some pine mulch on it to cover it up / tame it down until it gets going on it's own fully.

Aaron

Although I do not have to, it would take care of itself if I left it to be, I clean poop every morning. This gives me a chance to see how they are doing, and get a look and see if there are any potential problems brewing that I need to take care of. Besides the 5 gallon buckets of poop, add one or two of those to an IBC of compost,let it set a week and you have a tote full of magic dirt for growing just about anything you would ever want.

 

[Ascholten]

Do know up front though, even though you provided your 20 hens with 5 or 6 individualized nesting boxes to accommodate all their egg laying needs in comfort, they will all fight over box 3, left corner to lay their eggs in

If I may add to 3B's comments, most people eventually have to do 'something' with the run bottoms. Sooner or later you will need to remove all the stuff that's built up over time. Rare is the coop where it just magically, is not a problem. Most people compost it, use it for other gardening needs, or sell / barter it with others who will. Almost nobody just bags it up and throws it in the trash.

With that being said, having a varied mix to begin with on the bottom. Green / Brown compost material, just makes it really, Ready to go out of the box. Shovel it out and you can immediately use it in your flower beds, veggie rows, whatever, with minimal extra work needed to 'make' it ready. Little time savers mean a lot in the life of a gardener !

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Be careful on the grass. The exhaust fumes .. only if the mowers muffler is pointing down INTO the cutting area. Not many do. Even then, the fumes volatize away soon anyways. That is how they 'decontaminate' dirt that has been contaminated with petroleum and it's products. Leave it lay in a field so the 'bad stuff' evaporates away. If you are that worried about your fresh cut grass, then let it set a day or two. You really should anyways mower fumes or not. it WILL get moldy on the bottom if you stack it any height, that's just how it decomposes. If it's constantly getting wet, it will get musty and nasty and matty. Grass clippings may not be the best thing solo for ground cover. Now mixing them with regular mulch or leaves, you got yourself some garden gold there.

At the farm I volunteer, we take ALL our greens (its all edible that's our motif) and just throw them whole into the run, that is their food and everything. We also feed them regular feed, but not nearly as much this way. the chickens over the weeks will dig and scratch through all the leaves from the 1001 fruits and veggies, eat what they want, this bring in tons of worms, hey they love compost too yanno So the chickens are constantly digging and scratching looking for worms, this keeps everything churned up and well aerated. Every few months we shoo them and bring in the tractor and just scrape a few inches off the top, drag that out and that goes straight into the mulch to be mixed with new plants to sell pile. We end up dragging out super rich compost thats well fluffed, pood in, scrabbled in, dug thrugh, worm casted in. It works out well.

Another idea ill never get to. Video a tote from empty to filling to filled to mulching to flipping to sucking tea out to mixing to planting... show how grass decomposes. Alone it's a pain in the grass, IF you got them available, mix 50 / 50 with leaves and it's pretty much good to go on completion.

Aaron