Ground Covering for Outdoor Run?

[GardenTillers44]

Forgot to mention one of the things we addressed after the site selection for our coop and run a couple years ago was the drainage. Southeastern Ohio is hilly, and gets a fair amount of rain, especially this year. The water was streaming into the run and pooling in the low spots, and of course, the girls treated it like their own personal mud spa. So we regouped this spring and graded the area with some builders sand left over from a patio project, added the roof and hung retractible sun shade material on the sides. We can flip up the sun shade on nice days for increased ventilation. The sun shade is not waterproof, but deflects the rain and snow well enough to keep the run dry. We have been working with this arrangement since early spring and so far so good, even with one of the rainiest summers on record. Yeah, chickens can be hard sometimes and probably more work to keep them clean and healthy than you might anticipate at the start. We love 'em though and they are a satisfying part of our lives.

 

[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.

 

[MrsAuberry00]

Last questions: I'm assuming I should shovel out the disgusting, smelly layer of junk before I put down the pine shavings and whatever else I'm able to affordably find to use? And how do you "stir" it?

 

[MrsAuberry00]

Argh. The Chicken Chick indicates that with the dlm, the litter should remain as dry as possible. If it's in my run and it rains, it's not going to be dry, like, at all. So I'd have to stand in there and stir the crap so it could air out. The link is here: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/10/the-deep-litter-method-of-waste.html

Again, argh.

 

[kitkat5505]

Is your run covered? We have a roof over ours and only a little rain gets in, though the sprinklers get part of it too. It doesn't stay wet long.

I don't really have to "stir" mine, the chickens scratching does that.

As for the food and water, here is ours. We have very little food waste and no water mess.

 

[MrsAuberry00]

Is your run covered? We have a roof over ours and only a little rain gets in, though the sprinklers get part of it too. It doesn't stay wet long.

I don't really have to "stir" mine, the chickens scratching does that.

As for the food and water, here is ours. We have very little food waste and no water mess.
View attachment 1093367

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.

 

[Margie Mae]

I'm new to the chicken keeping world and am still working things out. Right now I've been putting dried leaves from around the yard in half of the run for them. I do mix in some green from trimmed bushes. I leave it in for a week to catch the mess while they scratch around in it. The clean out goes in the compost. Bonus is that some of the yard is getting cleaned up as I change it out. The other half of the run is a dust bath area and a area left as just dirt because it gets pretty damp from the misters going on almost daily with the summer heat.

 

[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

 

[GardenTillers44]

"MrsAuberry00: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."

We had the same problem with water pooling in the run. As I mentioned, we ended up grading it with sand to get even runoff and I added a roof (with a 7 degree tilt for drainage) a few weeks ago. We used some sun shade material and shade panels scavanged from another project to cover the sides. The sun shade can be lifted and hooked to the links in the dog run to give extra ventilation and light. We had 11 inches of rain over 3 days a couple weeks ago and it was dry, so all the additions had a good test. I used 2x4's and corrugated polylite from Lowe's for the roof. You need to use the special screws with gaskets to attach the polylite or you will have a lot of small leaks from the perforations. We had another 1.75" yesterday...still nice and dry. Only problem is it has been too wet to mow for weeks.
I would think seriously about skimming off a couple inches of the soil/poop/food mix and grade in some sand and raise/level to allow proper drainage. Don't worry about mixing in your mulch ingredients, the chickens will do that for you.

 

[Folly's place]

I have most of my feeders hanging up, and the waterers are up on blocks. My run now has a real roof, and it's so much better! In winter, no snow, wonderful!
Remember to only give them clippings and shrubs that are not toxic, because in the run, anything will be eaten. Mary