I regret pea gravel, need advice.

[hayley3]

A little update!: I ended up taking out all the pea gravel and getting free wood chips from chipdrop, they sent me an abysmal amount that i’m currently giving away, but i’m hoping this will be a better system instead of the poop just sitting on the pea gravel until I hose it. I’ll try to throw scratch down for the chickens everyday so they stir it.
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I hate rocks...I've bought 2 homes that they landscaped with them...and they are just a big headache.

 

[duckmamaruu]

I hate rocks...I've bought 2 homes that they landscaped with them...and they are just a big headache.

I made paths with them! and the chickens throw the rocks onto the grass and it drives me crazy… next time i’m just doing wood chip paths

 

[Echelontheory101]

I'm new to chickens but not new to hot composting which is essentially what the deep litter method is, it *may* work just dumping the bedding ontop of the gravel depending on the gravel depth but you'd definitely have better results directly on the ground but I know moving gravel is a giant pain. If you feel it would be less work you can have topsoil delivered, dump that on top of the gravel and then start your deep bedding on top of that I've done that in the past, when I bought my house the previous owner had set the entire backyard to gravel with the intention of building a barn he never did, I wanted grass didn't want to move all the gravel, so I just covered it all in a like 1 inch layer of the cheapest topsoil and then put grass seed down and 1 to 2 years later it was a thick Green lawn just like the rest of the property so things will permeate through that gravel eventually if it's too much of a pain to move, it just might be a little bit slower to start

 

[hayley3]

I made paths with them! and the chickens throw the rocks onto the grass and it drives me crazy… next time i’m just doing wood chip paths

I put mulch around my trees that I planted for the chickens and they dig all that out too. LOL...so I have to put garden fencing around each tree and bush to keep that in there. I made them a raised bed garden because they tore mine up..they use it to dust bathe in now.

 

[hayley3]

I'm new to chickens but not new to hot composting which is essentially what the deep litter method is, it *may* work just dumping the bedding ontop of the gravel depending on the gravel depth but you'd definitely have better results directly on the ground but I know moving gravel is a giant pain. If you feel it would be less work you can have topsoil delivered, dump that on top of the gravel and then start your deep bedding on top of that I've done that in the past, when I bought my house the previous owner had set the entire backyard to gravel with the intention of building a barn he never did, I wanted grass didn't want to move all the gravel, so I just covered it all in a like 1 inch layer of the cheapest topsoil and then put grass seed down and 1 to 2 years later it was a thick Green lawn just like the rest of the property so things will permeate through that gravel eventually if it's too much of a pain to move, it just might be a little bit slower to start

That's interesting to know...my front flower bed which is those river pebbles, must have been there for ages because the ground under the rocks is so hard I can't plant anything.

 

[Echelontheory101]

That's interesting to know...my front flower bed which is those river pebbles, must have been there for ages because the ground under the rocks is so hard I can't plant anything.

Totally! I dont know if everything would grow through the rocks depending on how deep they are but grass and weeds have lots and strong roots so theyre good at breaking through gravel pavement compacted soil etc. Plants with delicate roots may have a hard time breaking through if you do the soil on top of rock method but its always worth a shot!