Northern Georgia run ground cover

[Tnate]

Hi Y'all,
We were chicken less for years. Now in northern Ga and prepping chicken coop n run.
We very successfully used sand up north in coop and Run. Run was partially metal roofed...we eventually plan to do same partial roof on this set up.
Will sand be too hot in the mean time? Half the roof will be tarped.
Also anyone have bare vinyl flooring in coop?...reading it's toxic.
Glad to be be back in BYC!

 

[RubelliteRose]

Welcome back to BYC!

We have a lot of rain and humidity here in SE Virginia (I assume GA is similar) and we ended up ripping out our covered sand run at the end of year 2 with chickens. Even scooping poop every day, it became a nasty stinky wet mess. We replaced it with a deep litter mix of wood chips and used pine shavings like our other run and love it.
We have inexpensive no VOC vinyl flooring in our coops, but cover it in a thick layer of pine shavings. The vinyl allows us to easily clean out the coop (once a year or so) while the pine shavings give a cushy landing area when they jump down from the roost. The coop without a poop board has the poop scooped daily from the shavings while the coop with a poop board never has the shavings scooped - only the poop board is scooped.

 

[Tnate]

We are actually pretty mountainous here with of course humid summers...seasonal rain varies.
The ground right now is basic Ga. red clay.
We plan on spreading the top soil we discovered while leveling and clearing the area for coop/run over clay. I loved the ease of sand up north and actually summers are not much different.

 

[mossyoakpro]

Welcome back!! I'm south of you below Macon but I use sand in my run...to me it's great! I scoop and rake daily and once a week put down a thin coating of barn lime and rake it in. My coop is pretty close to my house so having a smell is not good...I also at the advise of the fine folks on here installed poop boards when I built my coop and that is a total game changer!! I can usually clean my entire coop/run in less than 30 minutes per day.

Good luck!! Their are some very good folks on here with tons of knowledge so don't hesitate to lean on them like I did when I started my journey!!

 

[Lor]

Welcome back!! I'm south of you below Macon but I use sand in my run...to me it's great! I scoop and rake daily and once a week put down a thin coating of barn lime and rake it in.

Is there a particular barn lime you use?

 

[mossyoakpro]

Is there a particular barn lime you use?

I use that brand from Tractor Supply...it's in a brown bag, Waukesha(sp) Shur-tred, I put mine in a couple of 5 gallon buckets with lids to keep it dry and just take a big plastic cup full when I spread it in the run. I just put a light dusting on top then rake it in to mix it with the sand....so far, so good and zero smell.

 

[Lor]

I use that brand from Tractor Supply...it's in a brown bag, Waukesha(sp) Shur-tred, I put mine in a couple of 5 gallon buckets with lids to keep it dry and just take a big plastic cup full when I spread it in the run. I just put a light dusting on top then rake it in to mix it with the sand....so far, so good and zero smell.

Thanks! Pretty inexpensive too.

 

[mossyoakpro]

Thanks! Pretty inexpensive too.

It sure is and that 50# lasts a long time the way I use it.

 

[Lor]

Hi Y'all,
We were chicken less for years. Now in northern Ga and prepping chicken coop n run.
We very successfully used sand up north in coop and Run. Run was partially metal roofed...we eventually plan to do same partial roof on this set up.
Will sand be too hot in the mean time? Half the roof will be tarped.
Also anyone have bare vinyl flooring in coop?...reading it's toxic.
Glad to be be back in BYC!

We are in South Carolina and use sand in the coop and run. It's a fully covered run though.
At times in the summer we dampen it because it gets too dry and dusty. Not sure how well that would work in an open run.

 

[mossyoakpro]

We are in South Carolina and use sand in the coop and run. It's a fully covered run though.
At times in the summer we dampen it because it gets too dry and dusty. Not sure how well that would work in an open run.

That's a great idea!! I may have to pick me up a small pump sprayer to use to wet mine a little in the heat of the summer!!