I have a dirt run, do I need to add any other materials for in the ground?

[BonnieBlue]

I use coarse wood chippings a couple few inches deep, never have to clean a thing because the chip decompose the poops.

How often do you have to add chips, and how big is your run?

 

[aart]

How often do you have to add chips, and how big is your run?

I usually add an inch or two layer each fall before the snow starts.
Run is 8 x 50', pics on My Coop page(link under my avatar).

 

[BonnieBlue]

I usually add an inch or two layer each fall before the snow starts.
Run is 8 x 50', pics on My Coop page(link under my avatar).

Thanks!

 

[rosemarythyme]

We live in Jacksonville Florida and we can get daily downpours that only last a few minutes and then a lot of time no rain at all. So our climate is hot and humid. As far as cleaning; once in a while would be nice, but I can clean every day which I am doing now(seeing they’re still in my house). Planning on moving them outside this weekend. Materials available would be, leaves, branches and I can also buy(which I’ll need to do until nature can provide). In the fall we get a lot of leaves, but I raked a couple of weeks ago, so I don’t have many left. Our Live Oak trees drop a lot of branches, so investing in a small mulcher could work for us.

Our run will be exposed to the weather and right now the run does not have a roof. I plan on adding a roof soon, but the 3 sides will always be exposed to the weather.

Deep litter might work well for you, so it's something you can gradually build up over time. If you can bag dried leaves in the fall and put them somewhere where they'll stay dry, that will provide you a lot of litter. Garden trimmings and weeds and short grass clippings can be added in spring and summer.

As far as the chips, as aart illustrated, you can't really buy bags of chunky wood chips - closest would either be coarse untreated mulch from a landscape supply, or maybe bags of pine bark nuggets if smaller amounts are needed? A tree trimming service might be able to hook you up with large piles if you have space to store it - in my area it's usually free but that's because we simply have an overabundance of wood. Or some communities have a city or county run chip pick up from doing things like road and electrical maintenance.

 

[perkolator]

IMO if they’re not free ranged and stay in the run for periods of time, they likely would benefit from an environment they can forage through for insects and worms etc. Deep litter and wood chips and organics will help provide that.

A nice base of wood chips will last a while and add chunkiness and help drainage + any organic matter added through the year - leaves, hay bale, shavings, occasional grass clippings, fresh green vegetation, veggie scraps, etc + water — that with chicken poop kinda makes a big compost pile that doesn’t stink like some setups. It’s also very spongy and drains well, and can accumulate to be higher than surrounding terrain, which might be good for some situations where your ground floods. Eventually you will have to keep adding more mulch, it depends on the type of mulch, how much volume and area, and many other factors, but you can tell when it could use more - but if it’s not thick enough initially the natural soil will mix in faster and make things denser. Later when it accumulates and decomposes you can harvest a rich humus from the bottom, for gardening purposes. Good luck!