ground maintenance in a chicken run?

[CliffB]

I'm curious. What kind of wood chips do you use?

I used the mulch from a tree service. They give it to you free just scoop yourself. Unfortunately the mulch held water too much for my tastes and i was over run with flies. Went back to pine straw and no problem since.

 

[BDutch]

Thank you all for your advice and comment. I do have a run thats gets wet too after heavy rainfall, especially in autumn.

A month ago i added clean sand on top but this was not enough to keep it fresh and dry.

Last week I made a few deep holes (over 3 feet) , worked through a layer of heavy clay and put river pebbles in for draining. This seems to help quit well.

Now the top layer is getting smelly again from the poops that wash into the sand. My plan is to put the leaves in that start to fall from our trees now. These are mostly fruit trees and the leaves turn into compost very quick. Would it be better to put e.g. oak tree leaves in?

 

[TalkALittle]

I used the mulch from a tree service. They give it to you free just scoop yourself. Unfortunately the mulch held water too much for my tastes and i was over run with flies. Went back to pine straw and no problem since.

Just curious, how deep did you layer the mulch? In an open run or covered? There are so many variables when it comes to runs. It's helpful to know under what conditions you got your results.

 

[CliffB]

Open run 5-6" deep. Normally I run pine straw anywhere from .5-6" deep and it's so much less odor and maintenance. And way less flies.

 

[NewbieChickster]

How much sand per square foot food you say? I have a 12X12 foot run/pen I just built and I put their store bought coop inside it. I need to cover the top and will eventually box some of it in, but the floor is my main concern.

 

[Daox13]

How much sand per square foot food you say? I have a 12X12 foot run/pen I just built and I put their store bought coop inside it. I need to cover the top and will eventually box some of it in, but the floor is my main concern.

I'm gonna be Debbie Downer. To each their own but I thought I would warn you before you go out and buy the sand. Sand from what I have heard always seems like a great choice at first because it stays dry and provides great drainage, easy to take care of and rake. I have heard that you can sift it like a litter box and it stays without smell.... but then you see a post about 7-8 pages into the thread and its the same person complaining about a horrid smell... they try everything and eventually have to scoop it all out and because it doesn't compost they end of having to haul it away to the local dump or finding a way to discard of the toxic mess.

here is my way of thinking about it, yes you can maintain it like a litter box, but you don't still have the same litter in that litter box from a year ago do you? no, because after awhile it stops working to contain the smell and once it switches over to that dark side it starts to degrade rapidly. particles of the poop mix in with the sand and once wet it is basically a stinky soup. yes it may dry out quickly but at some point that ratio is going to be too high and you are going to be forced to remove it.

so my suggestion, is to not do sand.... you are more than welcome to and I don't want to rain on your parade... at one time I got really excited when I first started reading about it and was almost going to use it but I kept reading and after seeing so many failures I realized it wasn't for me.

Deep litter is what everyone recommends and I THINK I may go that way but not sure yet, I wish I could recommend another suggestion for you but my only suggestion right now is NOT to do sand. climate and location also has a lot to do with how quickly you will have to replace it but keep in mind no matter where you are you still change the litter in your cat box and that would apply to your chicken run.

 

[junkman56]

This is my first time raising chickens, my run is 6' wide and 16' long 7' ft. tall, the top is covered with a arched tarp, that gives me ventilation up at the top on the ends, I plan on replacing the tarp roof with a metal roof this spring. 3 sides are covered with clear greenhouse tarps, the door is not covered,and under the coop is blocked off with straw for the winter. I am starting the deep litter method, so far I have about 4 to 6 inches of pine needles and leaves and some grass clippings down on the run floor. I hope this works for me, I have collected two large trash bags of pine needles so far to continue adding throughout the winter, I will collect leaves also. but as far as grass clippings, the season is over for that, any suggestions for nitrogen.

thanks

 

[mobius]

That looks lovely, junkman56! As far as nitrogen, I think my chickens poo enough and mix things around that it works just fine! I added the pine shavings and poo from the coop when doing winter-prep coop clean-out. It all got distributed by my composter chickens immediately. Here is mine: