How do you keep your run perfect?

[Lady of McCamley]

Wood chip, wood chip, love it. The stuff that tree trimmers have, often for free. I live in the rain capital of the US, it rained pretty much EVERY day this winter, and my run always looks and smells pretty darn good.

Sand seems like it would work okay in a dry climate, but here it would pretty much be a soupy mess all winter.

I agree, I'm sure the hens prefer a run that has a bit more "interest"!

x2
I live in the Portland area...we get all the rain that missed Washington.

I looked into sand, but we have clay soil. We tried amending it with sand once. We got cement...the Portland kind of cement.

I had friends who tried sand, and they hated it. It stagnated into a sloppy, smelly, mess.

In my clay soil with lots of rain, pine shavings or finer wood chip shavings work the best.

For the coop houses, I purchase the pine shavings. When I clean I dump them into the enclosed runs. For the outside runs, we get the free wood chips from a tree cutter that takes time to grind them finer.

In rain, wood chips are hands down the way to go. Straw molds. Sand stagnates. But the wood chips absorb and compost beautifully. I don't clean my runs...I call up my gardening friends who come running with buckets and shovels. (There's a bit of Tom Sawyer in my soul).

As to the original photo...I agree...too sterile.

I also believe you make the zen garden, place the chickens, snap the photo, then take the chickens away and put them in their real run. It's a photo shoot set up.

I also deep litter in the runs with the pine shavings...so if things are messy, and some company is coming, a fresh layer of finer pine shaving over the top of the mess immediately cuts any smell and makes things look nice, and I haven't had to scrape or scoop (remember my friends do that for me periodically...deep litter is wonderful for that!)

LofMc

 

[RAsChickens]

Haha! I'm a MAJOR neat freak and I'm one of those people that cannot relax until everything is in its place. For example, I cannot stand to be in my bedroom unless the bed is perfectly made! Is anyone else like this with everything including chickens?

 

[PennyM]

I started out with mulched leaves from last season (the area was my old garden area and we were trying to amend the soil because we have clay also). After a couple of rainy days and the chickens digging, it became kind of a mud pit so my sister and I put down the finely shredded pine shavings. The chickens kept eating it though so we went with the bigger pine shavings. I love the deep litter method, less work I think. We do have sand on the coop floor because my sister likes it. I prefer the pine shavings!

 

[PennyM]

Haha! I'm a MAJOR neat freak and I'm one of those people that cannot relax until everything is in its place. For example, I cannot stand to be in my bedroom unless the bed is perfectly made! Is anyone else like this with everything including chickens?

My bedroom is neat, the bed is made but in the living room, I have magazine piles but they are neat piles! Now my chicken run, after I put fresh shavings down and have it all neatly raked it's all I can do not to follow the chickens and even out where they have dug areas to lay down in! (I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only one who names my chickens, lol!)

 

[aart]

Haha! I'm a MAJOR neat freak and I'm one of those people that cannot relax until everything is in its place. For example, I cannot stand to be in my bedroom unless the bed is perfectly made! Is anyone else like this with everything including chickens?

I am just about the exact opposite...as long as certain things are hygienic and work areas are semi-functional everything else can be a chaotic piled up mess.
Basically I'm a semi-hoarding slob.
Not sure chickens are good for neat freaks....might freak them out.

I learned about the pulverized poop saturated sand in the brooder...nasty.
Even PDZ mixed in doesn't quell the stink after a time, still use it in brooder but they are not in there for long and I re-use the sand mix on the poop board in the coop.

As for run bedding...I have fairly sandy soil that drains pretty fast, good thing because my land funnels runoff right thru the run, nothing to be done about it without major land carving that's not gonna happen. But after the chooks bared it of vegetation it stunk bad during rains and snow melt season. Adding just a bit of dry leaves and/or straw and/or dry grass clippings the stink was immediately reduced... almost eliminated..for a short time. So after 3 years I finally got the ticket with some aged tree trimmings stashed by a buddy, a couple inches of this mix(and a mix of size-shape-material is what's best) and my run is no longer stinky ever(except for the freshly dropped cecals-which nothing can 'cure'). No picking up poops(not that I ever would anyway) they pretty much disappear pretty quickly. I do add dry grass('hay') and leaves and some straw and the dry shavings from inside the coop when I replace them once or twice a year.

Wow! That turned into quite the blather...sorry...so here's pic of my pseudo forest floor mix for the run bedding.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I too have a run where water runs through with a big rain, at least the outer pen. The chickens have been in this area for 24 years. I put sand in twice about 8 years ago, only in the inner pen which was their only pen back then. It worked quite well, but has gradually mixed in. I till it every year so it drains better. My outer pen that runs in front & down one side is the one that I get stones & sticks piled at the end by the end of winter. I shovel out these items each year & go from there. Hoping to put sand in both pens this summer. It really helped with drainage for me. Still waiting for DH to get a load of sand to install a new above ground pool & some for me. It is June and I am still waiting.......

 

[Cindy in PA]

I put straw in if it gets really wet or snowy in the winter. People use to say no on stuff in the run because it would mold etc. Doesn't anyone have a problem with that when they put wood chips or straw in their run?

 

[lastco]

We don't have major rain issues in central NC. Sometimes we do get several rainy days at a time, and my whole yard gets quite soggy. Hurricane season can be a bit much sometimes with all that stuff rolling in off the coast.

@Cindy in PA If it's really muddy, I put straw down. Mostly so that I won't make it any muddier when I'm walking around out there. I rake my runs regularly, so I don't know about long term results/issues.

 

[aart]

I put straw in if it gets really wet or snowy in the winter. People use to say no on stuff in the run because it would mold etc. Doesn't anyone have a problem with that when they put wood chips or straw in their run?

I find that if you don't pile any one thing too deeply, mold will not be an issue.
That's where a mix of stuff is good, keeps some air pockets open.
I toss a thin layer of straw on the snow shoveled areas often, to get them out onto it and to keep me from slipping.
Always good to keep an eye on the added bedding to make sure you don't have a sodden and packed slime factory forming.

 

[RAsChickens]

I have a roof over mine because I live right outside Seattle, and it rains a ton!