Outdoor Pen/Run Floor ideas needed

[Rick&Chris]

It will all break down and you shouldn't need to clean anything out, ever.
At least that's how it works here.

Getting under the coop could be a problem for other reasons,
like a broody or injured bird, eggs laid under there, etc.
It looks pretty low, too low to hands and knees it.
Is there an access door anywhere?

No access door, but we could easily add one, if needed. My daughter is small - she can fit under there (LOL) - I think I could, too, in an emergency situation ... army crawl! I’ll upload inside pics tomorrow when it’s light outside.

 

[Rick&Chris]

It will all break down and you shouldn't need to clean anything out, ever.
At least that's how it works here.

Getting under the coop could be a problem for other reasons,
like a broody or injured bird, eggs laid under there, etc.
It looks pretty low, too low to hands and knees it.
Is there an access door anywhere?

And ... should I turn it with a pitch fork once we get a base started, or just let the girls do the work?

 

[aart]

And ... should I turn it with a pitch fork once we get a base started, or just let the girls do the work?

Nah, they'll keep it mixed up...can toss a bit of scratch grains in there to help that part.
I do relocate some once in awhile due to my run having a bit of a slope and it can migrate downslope both by torrential rains and the birds.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

Got it from a shed distributor near us. Did you want their name/number? Cost a small fortune! I’m embarrassed to say - I love all the homemade ones, but we didn’t have the time to build one or convert a shed. We wanted an “animal enclosure”, too, so that we didn’t have issues with the Twp.

No, that's OK...... if it wasn't for the chicken pen that was already here from the past owner, I don't think I would have ventured into the chicken world. The cost is too extravagant when you factor everything in, whether building one yourself or like in your case shelling out a small fortune for a nice coop. And in my case, my chicken breed aren't egg-layers so I can't even recoup a bit of the cost that comes with chicken keeping so I just raise them for the fun of it and, yeah, not gonna eat my chickens either so......

 

[rosemarythyme]

These are all great ideas, thank you! So you add un-dyed wood chips and add more on top? How often do you do a 100% change? My real issue will be underneath the enclosed coop (7’x6’) is very hard to reach.

My chips come from my own trees so they're completely untreated. If you need to buy chips then yes, make sure they're not dyed. Ideally you want chips in a variety of sizes, so you get very coarse pieces in there, and you want to age the chips a year or so (I did 6 months at first, couldn't wait any longer).

I've never done a full change out of the bedding. I remove the most broken down portions for use in my garden beds. Last year I removed maybe 1/8th of what was there.

And I agree with aart, an access door to the rear of the under coop portion is a good idea for a variety of reasons.

And ... should I turn it with a pitch fork once we get a base started, or just let the girls do the work?

I actually do use a rake every once in a while to break parts of it up, as between humans walking around and the rain, the certain areas get matted down more than others, and I want the litter to remain loose for drainage.

 

[Relleoms]

I’ve had great success with various sizes of pine bark mulch. I also have a dust bath filled with peat moss, so when the shake it also mixes with the mulch.

 

[Chicken crossing the road]

I’m using the deep litter method, it’s working good so far.
I used a hardware cloth to line the bottom I bent it up and tied into the wall so nothing could dig in from below.
I cover the HWC with sand then wood chip mix free from my town tranfer , I also found some straw there and mixed a little in, then leaves. I have more material on hand for the winter if I need to add more.
So far I just go in and fluff things up and redistribute, the birds do a lot of turning but tend to pile things up in spots.
The poop disappears using this method and I don’t have to clean up (mix around) but say every other week. I doing similar in my coop with pine shavings. I’ll clean heavy spots maybe and the board that covers the nest box then mix what’s on the flooor in ( if the girls haven’t already) done.

 

[blackdog043]

@Rick&Chris Are you in Upper Bucks by chance? Lapp's Landscape Products in Sellersville has a huge pile of tree trimming mulch in the back. Our son gets it there for his run, they give it to him free, but he only gets a yard or two at a time. I also use deep litter, it works great, no smell or flies. You might want to put an wire apron around the whole thing to keep digging predators out. Also put hasp locks on your doors and the nest box, to keep raccoons out. You have a nice looking coop, who built it for you, in case I know anyone up there looking for one? I know it cost a few dollars, but it looks well built and will last a long time.

I grew up in Central Bucks and moved to Upper Bucks(for 18 years) after I got married, Now we live in NC(13 years)

 

[bajabirdbrain]

Rick & Chris: Your coop/run is lovely, you have lucky birds. I built ours a year and a half ago and is 10x30 overall with the coop being 10x6 and is maybe 2 ft off the ground. We foolishly thought we could keep the grass green and healthy in the run but quickly found out that the girls ate every blade of grass. Up until a few months ago our run was just hard dirt. BB uses a small plastic kitty litter scoop/sifter and a plastic 2 lb coffee can and scoops up the poop at least once per day. She has the sense of smell of a blood hound and we NEVER had odor! We have a kid's plastic swimming pool filled with woodash and peat moss for dust bathing. Girls also have at times dug a hole or two for bathing. We have recently been adding sand to fill in some depressions in the run but nothing major.

Our run is covered with corrugate plastic roofing material and when we experience heavy rain I put up plastic shower curtains that I have bought at a Dollar Tree and re-enforced corners with duct tape and added grommets. We use snap rings to quickly put them up and they are located on the windward sides of the run. So far this has worked out very well.

As far as getting under the coop, we would have to crawl under but so far we have had no need to do this. With no smell and no visual inspection I can't say if there is much poop under there or not???

So, this has worked fine for us, so far. In retrospect there is very little if anything we would do over. Hopefully your decisions will give you the same results. BB

 

[Rick&Chris]

Thank you everybody for your advice! Appreciate all of your expertise and knowledge.

We are going to do a hardware cloth skirt around the outside perimeter of the coop. We were going to attach to the outside/bottom and have a 2’ apron all the way around. They are completely enclosed/locked in the sleep area at night, so if anybody gets into the pen area they would not have access to my girls.

Here are inside pics of the coop. Eventually I would like to do a raised poop board with the sand/PDZ mixture - so that I can utilize floor space for other things such as food and cleaning supplies.

The nesting boxes are currently blocked off as my girls are 3 1/2 months old.

We purchased this coop at CountryTyme sheds on Bethlehem Pike, Ed was our salesman if anybody is interested. Make sure you mention my name!