Grass-less Dirty Chicken Run

[seminolewind]

I like sand but it's very heavy if you have to bring it in to the pen from a pile or such. This is why I like mulch. Nice and lighter. And bigger pieces for good drainage and poo vanishment.

Whatever you use make sure it provides good good drainage and doesn't mat down.

 

[Ascholten]

Depending on how big a coop you got, the number of girls, permanence of it etc, and if you DO have periods of heavy rainfall. You could even do kind of a simplified french drain to drag the water off to the side to evaporate away or go down a sewer or something in worse case.

Aaron

 

[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?

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I figured out a system
I've started taking up all the dead grass after mowing, and putting it in the run (along with some pine shavings, etc) and just replacing the pooped on parts! I'm also starting to let them free range more often, with supervision, so the run ground gets a break from the constant scratching. It looks much nicer, their feet don't get dirty anymore, and it smells a lot less! (I also sprinkle some lavender in there, so that helps).
Thanks peeps! (Haha, see what I did there?)
-jo

 

[SourRoses]

I had heard mower clippings can be toxic because of combustion emissions contamination...

 

[NatJ]

I had heard mower clippings can be toxic because of combustion emissions contamination...

Do you have a source for that?
I've read that emissions from lawn mower motors are bad for air quality, but I've never heard of them sticking to the grass clippings.

If the clippings are dry before they go in the run, the chickens' won't eat very much, so it shouldn't matter anyway.

 

[SourRoses]

Do you have a source for that?
I've read that emissions from lawn mower motors are bad for air quality, but I've never heard of them sticking to the grass clippings.

If the clippings are dry before they go in the run, the chickens' won't eat very much, so it shouldn't matter anyway.

In horse circles people commonly warn of the dangers.
I'm on lots of horse groups, here's an example...

"Is it okay to let my horse graze on my front lawn?"
"Is it okay to give my horse grass clippings?"

"No! Not if you used a gas mower! Combustion exhaust! A pasture cut with a drag behind a tractor (exhaust up high) is just fine though. If your lawn received rain after the gas mowing then it should be okay."

So, you asked for sources as though I claimed a solid fact. I worded my earlier post "I had heard" purposely to imply this was grapevine anecdote. It's one of those safety issues where it makes more sense to avoid the potential danger when there isn't a solid gain to be had from taking chances.
Chickens may not eat much of the mower clippings, but I would think pecking through it could be equally problematic.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I have a covered run. I use course dry wood chips from my property and give then a stir every couple of days, or toss a handful of scratch grain and let the chickens mix things up.
I tried grass clippings once. Well, we had a lot of rain and the grass got damp for a week. I enddd up raking it and the remaining wood chips out as it smelled musty.

 

[RoyalChick]

Make sure water drains away and is not pooling in the run. If it is, then often digging some ditches and berms can help that. Go outside when it is raining and watch where the water runs.
Then, when you are sure you don’t have a drainage issue cover the floor of the run with some kind of litter. I am lazy so I don’t scoop poop. I just chick in loads of dead leaves. They are free and chickens love them. When the chickens have destroyed those, chuck in some more!

 

[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

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you? Climate matters.

If 3 POL pullets managed to destroy all the grass in just a couple weeks I have to suspect that either their run is quite small or that you live in a difficult climate.

Here are the usual guidelines for chickens' space needs.

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:

• 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
• 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
• 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
• 1/4 of a nest box,
• And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.

If you show us photos of your coop and run we can help you figure out what's going on and how best to fix it.

That said, all but truly pasture-sized runs will almost certainly end up needing some kind of litter in them.

Any sort of dry organic material will work, though different ones have different pros and cons.

Some common options are:

• Wood chips
• Wood shavings
• Straw
• Dry leaves
• Grass clippings/other yard and garden waste

Less common/regionally available options include pine straw, rice hulls, ground corncobs, and undoubtedly others that I'm not aware of.

Basically, any compost "brown" will work.

Personally, I like a mix of different materials because I think that using a mix gives me the advantages of many of them while minimizes the drawbacks.