Northern Georgia run ground cover

[mossyoakpro]

I should mention that I have very few birds (3 now, previously 4) so that would make a difference. I rake out the poop once a week. We are absolutely not a dry climate though!

Especially this week!! I'm thinking the rain forest may be drier!!

 

[Captain13]

We had over 6 inches of rain in two days. It’s wet here but has cleared off. If I find a good alternative to sand, I may try it. The sand is working fine and even with the rain, the run isn’t smelling bad. My run doesn’t have a roof and that’s why I didn’t go with chips. If they don’t mold and mildew, I may try them at some point. I can get all I won’t for free from a friend of mine that has a tree service. Pine straw stays pretty wet here so I’m afraid to try it. It is Georgia and I have a good supply of it here on the farm.

 

[mossyoakpro]

We had over 6 inches of rain in two days. It’s wet here but has cleared off. If I find a good alternative to sand, I may try it. The sand is working fine and even with the rain, the run isn’t smelling bad. My run doesn’t have a roof and that’s why I didn’t go with chips. If they don’t mold and mildew, I may try them at some point. I can get all I won’t for free from a friend of mine that has a tree service. Pine straw stays pretty wet here so I’m afraid to try it. It is Georgia and I have a good supply of it here on the farm.

Mine has a roof but the run off side seeps up into the sand on the slope side....not terrible but it will get a little damp, especially after the monsoon we just had. The uphill side stays dry fortunately so they are not on wet sand all day. I've raked mine a few times in the last couple of days just to keep it aerated and hopefully the sun will make an appearance today. Fingers crossed....

 

[speckledhen]

I used vinyl tiles in coops years ago and they end up torn to pieces by rakes and chicken feet scratching. The best floor we ever had was using oil based Oops paint and coating that floor, lasted for years and still going, though the building is no longer a coop. Allthis was oil based paint on the discount shelf. It really worked great in this former bantam coop, but it does take awhile to dry in high humidity and to air out if it has any smell at all-if you don't allow that to completey air out so the smell dissipates, you'll have sneezing chickens, LOL.

 

[sandburRanch]

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!

Sand is used to raise baby quail

 

[Feliciaschickens]

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.

I live in Indiana and have a small run area. At first it was just dirt, but the rain of course made it turn to mud, so I put wood shavings over the dirt and would clean them often. Then I saw sand worked for a lot of people so I put sand over it this summer. It was great at first and they loved it for dust bathing. But now with all the rain we have had this fall I think it mixed into the dirt underneath and is just mud again! Also with the rain it smells terrible from the poop. Feels impossible to clean. I rake it often and put down DE and horse stall refresher. I ordered coop refresher to try that and hoping it helps with the smell better than the horse stall refresher did. I am wondering if I should go back to shavings.

 

[Tnate]

I live in Indiana and have a small run area. At first it was just dirt, but the rain of course made it turn to mud, so I put wood shavings over the dirt and would clean them often. Then I saw sand worked for a lot of people so I put sand over it this summer. It was great at first and they loved it for dust bathing. But now with all the rain we have had this fall I think it mixed into the dirt underneath and is just mud again! Also with the rain it smells terrible from the poop. Feels impossible to clean. I rake it often and put down DE and horse stall refresher. I ordered coop refresher to try that and hoping it helps with the smell better than the horse stall refresher did. I am wondering if I should go back to shavings.

Since I posted this thread I have mixed in semi expanded (mix with water) pine pellets with the sand. It works great. The run is 'covered' but a hard rain blows in easily. I add it pine pellet just along the outside edge and it does a great job of absorbing the rain. I then eventually mix it in throughly throughout the run. No odor...except sawdust smell.

 

[Feliciaschickens]

Since I posted this thread I have mixed in semi expanded (mix with water) pine pellets with the sand. It works great. The run is 'covered' but a hard rain blows in easily. I add it pine pellet just along the outside edge and it does a great job of absorbing the rain. I then eventually mix it in throughly throughout the run. No odor...except sawdust smell.

Interesting, do you take it out and add more when it gets dirty or just add more as needed?

 

[Tnate]

Interesting, do you take it out and add more when it gets dirty or just add more as needed?

Just add more. I soak about 1/2 a bag in just enough water to expand it ..about once a month and lightly rake it in. I now use it in the nest boxes too.