Is this acceptable in the run?

[Ittybittyschmidtie]

You'll need to provide plenty of shade, for sure. If you lived in the desert sand would make more sense, but in your climate maybe not. Sand has to be kept dry all the time pretty much in order to work well is my understanding. Great for covered runs, not so great unless it's your native soil in an uncovered run. Never used it myself, we get too much wet weather where I'm at and wood chips are cheaper.

I’m going to look into wood chips. I believe we have a pile somewhere a couple towns over for free

 

[Ittybittyschmidtie]

Look into wood chips from a tree service or the city dump (where the tree service dumps their mulched wood). My sister used the site below and had them within the same day. Minimum/no cost.

https://getchipdrop.com/

Also PLEASE give your chickens a minimum of 15 square feet per chicken outside if you possibly can, especially if you want to keep a rooster. You will avoid so many bad behaviors starting that way. Once some of them start, they're nearly impossible to get rid of, and your chickens will be miserable. Miserable chickens lay smaller eggs. No joke, I relocated two of my lowest hens to my new coop and all of a sudden those two plus many of the remaining lower pecking order hens in the original coop started laying larger eggs. They were so much less stressed!

Just set up my first delivery thank you! husbands gunna kill me

 

[rosemarythyme]

Ooo okay so pine shavings on the run floor works the same as in the coop?

x2 on wood chips. For deep litter you really want a mix of organic matter (dried leaves, dried grass, garden trimmings, etc), with wood chips being an ideal base for drainage and aeration.

I have zero experience with sand. It would not do well in my environment as we get plenty of rain and even roofing a run would not prevent rain and ground water from dampening the sand and making it difficult to clean.

 

[FunClucks]

Just set up my first delivery thank you! husbands gunna kill me

Show him the math. X bags of shavings from TSC at $5 each to do the entire run (those things compress a lot, you'll need more than what the bag says it covers) or X for the entire run worth of wood chips. It's an order of magnitude difference. And if you get more than you need, they can wait for a year or so in your yard. You can tarp them or not as you prefer. Mine have an open air covered coop/run combo, and the wood chips simulate a forest floor. I have scads of ventilation, so I don't mind if they're starting to compost. The chickens love the bugs and worms that brings. They dry out pretty quick once in the run since it's covered. I water them every week or so to keep down the dust and help things decompose. And the chickens hunting Scratch through it helps keep it turned.

 

[Ittybittyschmidtie]

Show him the math. X bags of shavings from TSC at $5 each to do the entire run (those things compress a lot, you'll need more than what the bag says it covers) or X for the entire run worth of wood chips. It's an order of magnitude difference. And if you get more than you need, they can wait for a year or so in your yard. You can tarp them or not as you prefer. Mine have an open air covered coop/run combo, and the wood chips simulate a forest floor. I have scads of ventilation, so I don't mind if they're starting to compost. The chickens love the bugs and worms that brings. They dry out pretty quick once in the run since it's covered. I water them every week or so to keep down the dust and help things decompose. And the chickens hunting Scratch through it helps keep it turned.

thank you! I’m very excited to try this out
Hey extra perk is adding wood chips to the gardens as well right

 

[Ittybittyschmidtie]

Show him the math. X bags of shavings from TSC at $5 each to do the entire run (those things compress a lot, you'll need more than what the bag says it covers) or X for the entire run worth of wood chips. It's an order of magnitude difference. And if you get more than you need, they can wait for a year or so in your yard. You can tarp them or not as you prefer. Mine have an open air covered coop/run combo, and the wood chips simulate a forest floor. I have scads of ventilation, so I don't mind if they're starting to compost. The chickens love the bugs and worms that brings. They dry out pretty quick once in the run since it's covered. I water them every week or so to keep down the dust and help things decompose. And the chickens hunting Scratch through it helps keep it turned.

So can I use the wood chips in the coop too? Or just stick to pine shavings?

 

[FunClucks]

thank you! I’m very excited to try this out
Hey extra perk is adding wood chips to the gardens as well right

Add in your extra leaves in the fall, and your grass clippings (that haven't got bird poop on them), and the chickens will be in heaven. They will make their own dust baths in your dirt floor run - they love to dig. [Mine keep trying to dig out from the perimeter under the apron into the yard, I've got to put more landscaping bricks down inside the run to stop them.] Any random insect or worm or flying thing that wanders into the run is fair game. My 3 month chicks demolished a budding ant colony last week. I have 1/2" hardware cloth over everything, so we don't get snakes or mice or rats (that I know about...).

There are a few types of wood you should stay away from - cedar and black walnut for sure, search this forum, there's lists on here of wood types that the chickens may be allergic to. See what grows in your area. If they're dropping the chips off they should know what kind of wood chips they are because they just cut down the tree, but it pays to ask, and go up the management chain until you get an answer.

Also, if you see chicken "bedding" in the stores made of used coffee grounds, that's IMO a horrid idea. Folks have had their chicks poisoned from the caffeine remnants found in the used coffee grounds. I wouldn't risk those. They're touted as organic or something, but really, just a very bad idea with deceptive marketing, IMO.

 

[FunClucks]

So can I use the wood chips in the coop too? Or just stick to pine shavings?

You can use wood chips in the coop if desired. Be aware that they will need to dry out and stay dry if they are in the coop. They can dry out in the coop, it may take a month or two to totally dry out, so make sure you have a lot of coop ventilation for sure during that time. You don't want the chickens to be breathing mold fumes, and you don't want the moisture to linger in the bedding and grow mold. So the drier the better prior to putting it in there, IMO. There is a difference between "Deep Litter", which you do in the run, which is a slow compositing method requiring periodic rain (watering), and "Deep Bedding", which is where you have a non-dirt floor coop that must stay dry. There's great Articles and a number of Threads on this Forum about each method, I'd recommend you read about those and the differences between the two. With deep bedding, you change all the bedding in the coop out at a set frequency (6 months or more, many do a year or so), and put it all in your compost, and then fresh chips/bedding in the coop. 6-12" of bedding are needed, or there's different methods. It will compost as hot compost in your compost bins once you add water after a year of absorbing and drying out the chicken poo. Folks also use dropping boards to make their deep bedding last longer before changeout - I'd look into those as well.

I'm in the south (North Alabama) where we have a long rainy, wet season, plenty of humidity and blazing hot temperatures at the same time. Maybe 3-4 months of "winter", and 1-3 days of snow (a few inches total). Freezing temps for maybe a few months, but like a few degrees below freezing for a few hours in the middle of the night is "winter" here. The primary risks to my chickens are overheating in the summer and having wet feet (bumblefoot). So they need plenty of shade while still having enough light to lay, lots of ventilation and as much breeze as they can get, and a dry run. I keep them in a covered hoop coop year round, with both ends open and the clear tarp edges flared out to catch as much breeze as possible. It's an "open-air" combo coop/run, on a dirt floor, so I do deep litter.

 

[RojoMarz]

That looks awesome!! That’s pretty much the design I intend on doing and with the extra bottom part in case of sick or broody hens

Suggestion based upon my experience, especially if your poop board is long. Put the door in the middle, not at one end. I find myself having to crawl into the brooder or use a broom to shoo the chickies from the far back corner.

 

[rosemarythyme]

So can I use the wood chips in the coop too? Or just stick to pine shavings?

You can use chips in the coop. Really depends on how you plan to manage poop and how you plan on managing litter. I mainly use them because they're free, but they're not ideal to pick poops out of for composting purposes.