Ground Covering for Outdoor Run?

[Leahs Mom]

Haven't read the whole thread but I agree with deep litter. I don't use the leaves and grass clippings however. (They tend to cause more "slime" than dry wood shavings and chips.)

Often tree services will drop off wood chips free if you ask them to. I have a service that knows that I don't want any poison plants (like yew) and only from areas that haven't been sprayed with herbicides or other chemicals. I have them put them in a pile and don't use them until they "cure". I know they're ready when they have worms living in them - about 6-8 mos.

I use the chips in addition to the litter from inside the chicken house when it needs to be cleaned. I use wood SHAVINGS inside. So that makes wood CHIPS and wood SHAVINGS in the outdoor run.

Makes the most healthy ground you'll ever see. No impacted, slimy, disease-producing ground. No puddles in the rain. No stink. Healthy soil breaking down under full of worms that can be used for garden soil if you need to remove some.

@MrsAuberry00

 

[Leahs Mom]

Here are a few photos of the deep litter with Chips and Shavings.

If I go out and take a shovel the birds come running...I can turn over a bit and it's full of worms. (Of course they also scratch and get their own, but they get a huge bounty if I turn some!)

 

[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.

 

[mockingbird]

So start with a good layer of pine shavings and follow with hay? My husband uses a lawn tractor to mow and the clippings aren't collected so that's out. What else could I put in? We don't have a garden so that's out, or is pine and hay enough? I'm intrigued by the use of trays... or waterer is of the hanging variety so it's ALWAYS wet underneath and gets quite nasty. I dug out an area and put about three inches of landscape rock but, of course, dirt, sand, poo, and tossed feed have eventually made there way into the rock area and it's so hard to keep up with. The feeder does not hang and sits on the ground...would that pose any kind of problem using DLM?

Pine shavings and hay should be fine. If the litter starts getting wet or smelly add some fresh to the top.

 

[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.

 

[BabyGirl2]

I use the deep litter method. The run is uncovered and floods during heavy rains, but because their coop stays dry and is plenty large enough for them to run and fly around in I didn't worry. If it is suppose to rain I feed them in the coop, if it isn't suppose to rain it goes in the run, on the ground because they prefer to scratch in it. I also had my uncle throw his lawn leaves into the coop (it's on the ground with a dirt floor), and run. I use straw and not hay because an elderly friend at church said hay has bugs you don't want.
When it does rain heavily and begins to stink I put the chickens in their coop and lime the run wait a day or so and let them back out, it helps with the smell and bugs.

 

[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

 

[3riverschick]

As far as keeping water from coming in the open sides... you probably have a prevailing wind in your area. buy one of those long bamboo bamboo blinds. mount it on the side where the prevailing wind hits . then if it starts to rain just lower the bamboo shade. that'll cut enough of the rain to make a difference but still lets air through. After the storm is over , just pull the string and roll it back up again.
Karen

 

[MrsAuberry00]

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

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.