Gravel in chicken run?

[whitneyj09]

I am preparing to get 3-5 chickens for the first time this spring (very excited!), and am working to prepare a run. I have the perfect space between my garage and my fence, which is just an empty gravel area. (Think, "Toy" or RV parking spot).

The whole area is newly covered in your run of the mill, whole rounded stone driveway gravel, about the size of a quarter on average. Sort of looks like small river rock. Can I just leave the rock in the chicken run? Would they try to eat it? Would it cause any problems with their feet? Will the chickens be unhappy about not having dirt readily accessable to scratch around in? Of course, I can shovel it out, but if I can avoid back-breaking labor, I will.

In case it matters, I live in Western Colorado, where we get just a little rain and lots and lots of sunshine. Oh, and we have fairly cold winters.

Thanks for the help and advise!

 

[quailman97]

Well its good for chickens to be able to scratch in the dirt to find worms and insects they enjoy it but at the same time rocks are good for them to eat it puts what people call grit in their crawl so i would say dig up 3/4 of the rock,hope this has been helpful and if it has hit that thumbs up button

 

[SobbaChickens]

You live at my house too?

You just explained the exact same spot my chicken coop will be going. I'm hoping and praying that I'll be able to actually let them out of the run so they can get to the grass but right now I don't know if the dogs will allow it, we'll see I guess.


Katie

 

[loveourbirds]

if the stones are say twice the size of a whole corn kernel, you might have some issues. bigger than that is great. a lot of people put gravel in their coops, its not an issue as long as the birds can scratch a little. the only drawback i can think of would be sooner or later you will have to shovel out some manure. the rock might make it a little harder.

 

[whitneyj09]

Thanks for the replies! I am going to remove the gravel and landscaping fabric underneath where the coop will go. Our soil here has plenty of small rocks and gravel in it, along with wormies and bugs to scratch around for. I am just not looking forward to shoveling it out of there!

 

[whitneyj09]

Update: I dug out a little foundation, then made a 2X6 wood frame with hardware cloth stapled to one side. I put the frame hardware cloth down (to prevent predators from digging in), then filled it back in with the dirt. So there is a natural mix of dirt and rock, worms and bugs can get in there, and it should be fairly simple to clean.

Thanks everyone for your help!