Is concrete bad?

[Emmastemarie_1]

@Sally PB has given you very good advice above.

You'll want a good, thick layer of wood chips and other dry, organic material -- there's not much chickens love more than a thick layer of dead leaves if you can get a bag full from a friend. Or you could give them a straw bale with one tie cut so that they can enjoy tearing it apart.

And yes, some kind of dust bath will be necessary. Be sure to use topsoil rather than potting soil because all forms of potting soil contain assorted additives that won't necessarily be good for the birds.

If I fill the coop with sand and give them dust baths, do you think the pavement will be fine? Because the run is pretty big…

 

[rosemarythyme]

That still doesn't address how hard the pavement will be on their feet. Think of how it;d feel if you had to stand on concrete with bare feet all day, vs grass, straw, or anything softer and more forgiving.

 

[Emmastemarie_1]

That still doesn't address how hard the pavement will be on their feet. Think of how it;d feel if you had to stand on concrete with bare feet all day, vs grass, straw, or anything softer and more forgiving.

Ok, thank you! I will put sand on the whole run

 

[3KillerBs]

If I fill the coop with sand and give them dust baths, do you think the pavement will be fine? Because the run is pretty big…

The run will still need litter.

You haven't said where you are, but if it's hot and sunny there, well, have you ever burned your feet on hot sand on the beach?

 

[Emmastemarie_1]

The run will still need litter.

You haven't said where you are, but if it's hot and sunny there, well, have you ever burned your feet on hot sand on the beach?

Yes it only gets to 90’s here in northern Cali (SF Bay Area) and we have a tree right above it where it will give leaves for litter but that takes time so for the time being I will put some straw or something for them. Thank you so much for the info!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm puzzled. In another thread you said you didn't have a run for them, just the coop, and they can't free range because of cats and dogs that would kill them. What are you calling a run in this thread? I'm just confused now.

 

[Emmastemarie_1]

I'm puzzled. In another thread you said you didn't have a run for them, just the coop, and they can't free range because of cats and dogs that would kill them. What are you calling a run in this thread? I'm just confused now.

This was an old idea, sorry to confuse you. We were going to use the front of the shed as a run (and cats don’t kill chickens and the dogs couldn’t get in there) but now we are going to change things up

 

[BigBlueHen53]

This was an old idea, sorry to confuse you. We were going to use the front of the shed as a run (and cats don’t kill chickens and the dogs couldn’t get in there) but now we are going to change things up

Ah. Sounds good.