Potential Covered Walk-In Run Site: Old Paving Stone Patio?

[TheFrogLady]

Greetings, everyone! I'm new to keeping chickens. We haven't picked up our chicks yet, but my husband and I have been scouting out potential sites for a covered walk-in chicken run. We will be using an Eglu Cube coop for five hens, so we want to build them a nice covered run with plenty of perches to compensate for the smaller coop size. We are in northeast Ohio.

This area of our yard is the most level spot available. It's approximately 8' x 20'. We'll cover at least 10 'x 6' of the space with a roofed run and then leave the rest fenced but open to the elements, with top and sides covered in wire to stop predators.

My concern is that the area is the site of an old concrete paving stone patio that was built sometime in the 1950s. The stones are covered in moss and have about 4" of dirt/rocks/weeds/grass growing between them. The pavers vary in size, but are roughly 2' square. There are 2 or 3 empty squares that are simply dirt--meant to be planting areas, I think, to contrast with the concrete pavers.

I'm hearing that concrete for chicken runs isn't the best idea because they need to scratch. But, as you can see, this isn't quite the same as a brand new concrete slab or patio. Nature started to take back this patio a long time ago. There is plenty of room to scratch between pavers, and we could pry up a few pavers to leave them some more dirt squares to enjoy.

Would this be a good site for our run?

 

[Presnell5]

I think that looks like a great site! You can pile some pavers to make little sitting areas or just leave them. They might like the unevenness of it. Later If it gets to wet or stinky just add shavings or sand

 

[TheFrogLady]

I think that looks like a great site! You can pile some pavers to make little sitting areas or just leave them. They might like the unevenness of it. Later If it gets to wet or stinky just add shavings or sand

Thanks so much for the advice! Since I've never done this before I keep second guessing myself on everything. It's good to get a little reassurance.

We thought the chickens might enjoy exploring the various textures in the area, too. We've got stumps, pavers, and various rocks that we plan to put in the run for them to jump around on. We'll cover part of the area with shavings or deep litter so they don't get as cold in the winter.

The site gets a bit wet now, but we're going to take down two trees to let it dry out more. There's a huge oak nearby that will keep it comfortable in the summer.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Should be fine, as the broken up concrete will allow for some drainage underneath your litter of choice.