Ground Covering for Outdoor Run?

[mockingbird]

I use DLM in my run which is completely open to the elements. I throw all the used straw litter from the coop in along with lawn clippings, weeds, and any other food scraps and whole grains for the chickens. I feed them right on the ground (note I do not use pellet feed or crumble which would disintegrate.) Anything not eaten by the chickens is churned into an odor free compost which the chickens dig through for bugs and sprouted grains. It should be noted that my chickens free range in a much larger area for some of the day and are not dependent solely on what is in the run for feed.

About twice I year I clear out the run and use the compost as a top dressing for fruit trees and bushes and start over again.

 

[paintedChix]

What I have found in the rain and humidity we've had here in NC is that when it's wet enough to have water on top of it or it starts smelling nasty, it isn't deep enough to allow the wet to drain.

I don't stir it up - I just put the new "litter materials" on top. I do different types and sizes of materials - so that the run bedding can breath on it's own as it decomposes. If it's truly a matted mess - I MIGHT take a pitch fork and not move it but drive it all the way down to the cross piece (above the tines), and wiggle the fork back and forth several feet. Then move it and do again. This aerates the mess and allows water to drain as well. The birds move around the loose materials. I just dump the materials in the center of the pen - and they take care of it.

These are small pens that we used for a year +. Right now they aren't in use and they have grown lovely green forests of weeds that we will NOT remove (this time, like we did the first time because we didn't know about DLM) when we start using them again (after rebuilding them larger/taller w/ actual runs). I've never actually measured the pens, they may be 8x8 or 10x10. We didn't use the 1st two as they didn't have any type of roof on them and I didn't put one on... The 3rd one done had a wire roof and the last one has a metal roof.



Here are the pics of the two pens occupied and right after the materials were put in.




Then this run and "country coop" (the coop is directly on the ground and we use DLM materials in it, too). Before chickens came from their temp qtrs at a friends' farm and later in the fall while installing fresh litter material.

 

[paintedChix]

This post is very picture heavy. I'm not sure if I need to apologize in advance?

We also have our hooped coops on sand. They were meant to be tractors and pulled to new locations on a regular basis (fresh grass). They are nothing fancy. They are now semi permanently placed (they can still be moved if we so desire) and will probably make some changes so that we don't need to move them at all again...

They are only 8x8 - tarped over the top and parts of the back and sides but not all the way down. I used feed bags as a wall to prevent the rain/snow from entering the coop by the barn & cardboard to block the other coops. The chickens have alternating free range times when we are out in the pony pasture. Its' not always daily anymore or unsupervised as we had dogs dig under our pasture fences and destroy the 22 birds we had slated for processing and I don't want to lose anymore. The birds always found cover from the hawks while free ranging, but not the marauding dogs (our 6 dogs are up by the house in chain link fencing when not in the house or with us - a mixture of breeds & sizes from 12# to 75#).




This pic shows some of the litter in May 2016 in the coop above. The 2nd pic also shows the shredded paper we use in the coops/runs.



These two coops are behind the barn along a pen that we've had a variety of ponies in the last two years. The coops were actually set on top of manure/hay left by the ponies when we moved the portable pens over - that helped start the DLM in these 2 coops. I don't have any pics of the coops again until later 2016...



The 2 coops above weren't occupied for a while when the other birds were all wiped out (Dec 2015), then i got some bantams that went in the one in front (Sept) and put older birds from 2016 (Aug) in the rear coop (birds/coop - above). The grass had grown up nicely and with 5 bantams lasted about 7 weeks before it was all gone in that 8x8 space... Then we started adding materials again. Then in May 2017 w/ the cardboard starting to disintegrate into the DLM, too. It did a great job of blocking the weather for these little girls & guy!! In Feb 2017, I added 4 LF pullets to this bunch.



In August & September 2016, we had major rain events in which one dumped 9" of rain and then another dumped between 9-11" of rain. Then in October, Hurricane Mathew hit. During Hurricane Mathew we received 11" of rain in less than 24 hours - with a lot of wind. One of the tarps was ripped loose on one of the coops, and yep it got plenty wet. I didn't have fresh litter materials added yet, but the inside stayed pretty dry - the water soaking into the base that was there. We did have water running down around/past the 3 coops - we found out that all three (in slightly different areas of our pony pasture) are in slopping areas. Only have 2 pics of the coop by the barn. Totally didn't think of getting any 24 hours later when everything was pretty much dry!



and to demonstrate the amount of water we had flowing across this area.



and more DLM pics (far from the best). We don't have a fancy set up, but it does work for us. We are working on doing portable hot, poultry net fencing in this pasture - to help us with amending all this sand into good, loamy soil that will support good grass growth. Still a huge work in progress (we closed on this property right before Christmas 2014 and it was the end of January 2015 before we had all the birds & ponies here), but we are getting there!



There are many on BYC that have hooped, cattle panel runs instead of coops. They work with just wire over them, plastic or tarped and can also be covered in various solid materials as well. Many of the hooped cattle panels - whether used as coops or runs, use DLM w/ a variety of materials for the flooring.

 

[3riverschick]

I am sure this has been mentioned before... cover the run... just cover it. put a roof over the Run.
there's several inexpensive ways to do it. you can buy a used billboard canvas( Hellbender suggested that) is great idea and make a roof out of that. you can go and Craigslist and buy one of those 10 by 20 canopies .put that over your run.
what I did was I went to a garage sale and bought a hard-sided swimming pool . cut the fiberglass sides of the pool to fit and used them to make a roof over my run. worked great . cheap, inexpensive . paid $25 for the pool and then you can sell the the pool pump for enough to pay for the pool. so there's three ideas right there.
Best,
Karen

 

[MrsAuberry00]

UPDATE: I'm updating here since my time limit on updating my original post has expired. I started implementing the DLM today. I began with about 3-4" of glass clippings and pine shavings and I'll go from there.

 

[Legendchicken]

I toss clipped hay onto my run. Flies arent that bad unless it rains and the wed mud is exposed. Its been a rainy summer so far. If it gets dirty just toss more hay!

 

[GardenTillers44]

"MrsAuberry00: So start with a good layer of pine shavings and follow with hay?.....

We started with pine shavings since we have that in abundance. We have added chopped straw occasionally and trimmings from the gardens. It seems there are many organic materials you can add to the mulching process, as suggested by the other posters. The girls till it all in at their leisure. The feeder in a tray has not been a problem with the DLM. We'll move it occasionally to give that area a chance to breathe.
For our waterer, we use a 1 gallon "no spill" vacation pet waterer that we elevated on a stand of bricks and put the whole thing in a tray. They don't spill too much from a stationary waterer, not like they did when it was hanging.

 

[kitkat5505]

It's covered, but it's open on the sides and front, plus we discovered it sits at the bottom of a very subtle, unnoticed slope. Unnoticed until the first good rain after we placed the coop there and the chickens were standing in inches of water.

You might want to create an on ground drain near the coop. We had to do that near the slope to or walk-out basement. It's pretty simple.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.instructables.com/id/French-Drain-with-Dry-Well/?amp_page=true

 

[MrsAuberry00]

Adding dry isn't a problem...keeping it dry is a major issue. Right now I'm brainstorming ways to divert water around the run. I did look into the french drain, but my husband is DONE investing more money, so the financials fall on me now. Money's tight with me so I need low cost with high effectiveness.

 

[MrsAuberry00]

How about trenching around it, at least on the upward sloping side, to divert rainwater? And keep raising the level of the ground (mulch, bedding) inside the run, so it's higher than the surrounding area. Mary

That's one option I've looked into. Someone recommended using landscape edging in an arc around the front and sides to divert run-off. I've thought about landscaping the predator skirting so that might also be an option. Or a combination of both.