I have a small backyard coop. The covered run is 8x4. We are in the process of building an extended run but in the meantime I am tying to figure out how to maintain this run. 4 feet of it has the coop on top and is near impossible for me to access. It is sitting on top of grass which is now pretty much turned to dirt. I'm not sure how I should be maintaining it. In the 4x4 coop I have Sweet PDZ covering the entire floor as it makes it easy to daily clean. In the run I don't have anything besides the dirt. My two chickens are having a ball digging around in the dirt and I see very little poo in the run. Is it okay to leave it like this or should I have some other type of covering like sand or pine chips? And even if I did I'm not sure how I would get in there to clean regularly as it is such tight quarters. Maybe DLM would be best?? I'm sure I'm overthinking this....just don't want to make any newbie mistakes
You are overthinking it. but it is not uncommon. You are new and want the BEST for your 2 chickens. I , in your situation would ether leave it dirt, or add some sand to area. Use course sand for best results. I suspect that chicken math will infect you soon. You are already in the process of enlarging your run. These are all too well known symptoms. Post pix of your 2 and soon of the new additions. WISHING YOU BEST p.s. I also started out with 2, that was 18 years ago. Now I have 8, ALL PETS ONLY
I would go deep litter, and then you don't have to worry about it. Put in some leaves, pine straw, shavings, garden leftovers, small sticks, pine cones or what ever you have on hand. Give the chickens something to dig through and help reduce the slimmy mess that happens when rain, dirt and chicken poo meet. Just make sure you have a variety of litter, that way it doesn't pack down.
x2 Minimum maintenance needed doing DLM in the run. In the small coop, put down some pine shavings, use a poop board under the roost, just dump out the poop board daily to compost.
