New Chicken coop

[JBirchall]

Part of my jobs to do this year is to beautify my chook pen because its becoming very worrying...

The first stage to my job is to even out the ground from where the chooks have been scratching in the dirt.
What is the best substance to put over the ground to fill in the holes and to make the chook pen more accessable (because at the moment we have 10 year olds feeding the chickens at night and it is very dangerous for them to be walking into the chook pen whilst it is all muddy and slippery and filled with holes).
I will only be covering half of the chooks area with a new substance as the other half of their pen is still lovely and luscious and green.

Also, the chickens have stopped scratching/laying in their given dirt bath, which is a new habit they seemed to have developed. What can i use to fill their dirt bathing area with to try and temp them to use that again rather then the normal ground?

Some help would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

[elmo]

How about sand?

 

[teach1rusl]

If you have holes from the chickens digging out dirt bathing areas, you can fill that back in with dirt, but they'll eventually just dig it out again most likely...lol. Sand does seem to be the most popular run filler. It's easy to work with and easy to clean. And you don't have to worry about a special dirt/dust bathing area. Most lay about 3 inches I think. Since you still have greenery on one side of your run, maybe you could just frame/section off the dirt part and fill that...leaving half (or whatever) as green for now.

 

[rebecky1305]

I read somewhere that a good way to do this is to put pea stone down, than cover with landscape cloth, then 3-4 inches of sand. The pea stone is for drainage, and the landscape cloth prevents the sand from washing away into the stone. This is what I am going to try.

 

[JBirchall]

Thanks so much for all your help. Ill let you know how it turns out!