Help! Ideas to Maximize Run Addition?

[khind]

I feel like I've seen that posted by someone here too! Dang, if I could remember who...or find it. I'll look that up later today.

Meanwhile... A removable panel for that W wall of the coop would be awesome. The new run wall would be some 8' away, & I do wrap the run in plastic as you described in winter, but on 3 of the walls. I could wrap the W, S, & N walls, leaving the E wall with just ventilating cloth (to keep snow out).

And I *may* possibly be able to cut into that N wall more than just at the top... Maybe a little drop-down at the top (over their heads), and then further down, a larger, removable panel taken out that could be popped back in if necessary in the winter. I imagine I could secure those removable panels with a really heavy duty version of a few hook-&-eye type of things (I think that might be easy enough to muse on).

 

[khind]

I have that option. If you go to my coop page I show how we did it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-desert-oasis-updated-2-2020.75224/

Thanks! Checking it out now.

 

[khind]

My winter was like that -- rain and rain and more rain. That's one of the reasons we're not done with the Chicken Palace so that my chickens are living in a conglomeration of odd, rednecked housing.

All I can recommend is to increase the ventilation to the maximum possible without letting rain in and add dry organic material to soak up the wet. The coarsest material you can readily access to allow maximum airflow in the bedding. (Wish I could send you a bale of pine straw).

This is the tarp "porch" on my brooder -- it keeps the rain out of the wire wall without restricting airflow.

View attachment 2744433

Thank you. Gosh, I think I could make a tarp porch like that. I like it!

 

[3KillerBs]

Thank you. Gosh, I think I could make a tarp porch like that. I like it!

I don't guarantee it's stability in high winds, but it's worked well so far against moderate rain and light winds.

 

[khind]

My winter was like that -- rain and rain and more rain. That's one of the reasons we're not done with the Chicken Palace so that my chickens are living in a conglomeration of odd, rednecked housing.

All I can recommend is to increase the ventilation to the maximum possible without letting rain in and add dry organic material to soak up the wet. The coarsest material you can readily access to allow maximum airflow in the bedding. (Wish I could send you a bale of pine straw).

This is the tarp "porch" on my brooder -- it keeps the rain out of the wire wall without restricting airflow.

View attachment 2744433

I always thought "straw" was bad at resisting moisture and mold?
I do have large pine flakes I can add. i can get more large litter at a store.

 

[khind]

Got it.
And one thing I remember reading in a thread here is that if you rake deep litter too deeply, that's not good. I wonder if I may have done that - stirred up some of the lower layer that was supposed to stay put.

 

[khind]

Yes, all the rain this winter! That must have been so frustrating.
... and odd, rednecked housing is a great description for what I've got going over here! Lol.

 

[khind]

Our southeastern pines wouldn't grow in your area, but if you have a pine available that has long, flexible needles instead of short, stiff, spiky needles that would be the thing.



I personally would not use gravel anywhere chickens would be unless you have no other means of solving a serious mud problem. IIRC, this article shows some times when gravel is necessary: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-fix-a-muddy-run-chicken-coop.47807/

People with sand in the coop/run long-term are usually in a situation where they can keep it absolutely dry and they scoop it very frequently.

The problem with gravel is that the poop filters down into it where it cannot be cleaned out by any means and, unlike organic material, it doesn't compost either -- instead it rots and stinks any time it gets wet.

This is good information. I do find parts of it confusing though. I wish there were some pictures. The problem that I'm concerned about sounds like it's technically that immediate area right outside of the run... except that it extends further. But that doesn't seem to be covered in this information unless I'm not understanding it correctly. I'm not sure what the author means by raising up the run footing with boards, & I'm not sure if that would fit my situation. I've read it a couple times. However I am also finally able to caulk before the next round of rain, and so I've read it in between caulking this roof and taking a break. I might do better understanding it when I'm done.

 

[khind]

Well it hasn't rained yet today. It won't rain for another couple of hours. And with the place opened up some good news is that the smell that I smelled in the deep litter of the large run seems to be pretty much gone. Part of it might have been that they were stuck inside and I was working so hard and I wasn't able to stir things up & they were pretty much sitting still through the storms. But another part is, I think, the smell of the wet mud ground right outside the coop. And also the new run that only has some dirt right now because it's not built up or filled with litter yet, and the chickens have gone in there a number of times.
The mold, however, I can actually see in places on some of the "floorboards" of the run where it got very wet, but interestingly, this wood is a whole few inches under the level the run floor should be in those areas. (In other words, those edges the chickens dig up inside the run.)

 

[3KillerBs]

This is good information. I do find parts of it confusing though. I wish there were some pictures. The problem that I'm concerned about sounds like it's technically that immediate area right outside of the run... except that it extends further. But that doesn't seem to be covered in this information unless I'm not understanding it correctly. I'm not sure what the author means by raising up the run footing with boards, & I'm not sure if that would fit my situation. I've read it a couple times. However I am also finally able to caulk before the next round of rain, and so I've read it in between caulking this roof and taking a break. I might do better understanding it when I'm done.

I'm fortunately to have extremely well-drained ground.

I think that what raising the run footing means is to use boards (or maybe landscape ties?), to turn the run into a kind of giant raised bed -- like in the garden but the entire run.

Maybe?