Question about adding new soil to run

[floralchick]

I have a lovely large coop with a 14' x 10' fully enclosed run. I live in Sedona Arizona, so it's basically hard packed red dirt with lots of vines and a few rose bushes in there, and I though about adding a few bags of organic soil to the run to make is "softer" for the girls. Is that a good or bad idea? Afraid of whatever would be in the soil, even organic. Thank you!

 

[nminusyplusm]

Do you garden? Or do your neighbors? I think deep litter is the way to go.

I use it in the desert. The way I started was by digging out some of the native dirt (I went 24" down, but 12" is fine) then adding a mix of whatever organic matter you can get (I began with straw but threw in pine needles, leaves, kitchen scraps, pine shavings, yard waste etc. as it became available). And I added water to keep the bottom layer moist.

Now their run has a nice smelling fluffy bed of compost that I just add to when needed. I never clean it out. I just take finished compost from the bottom when I want it.

 

[rebrascora]

If you bring soil in from another area it may have strains of coccidia in it that your chickens do not have resistance to, so you may see an outbreak of coccidiosis if you do this, although in a dry climate like I assume you have, it may not be a problem.

I would entirely agree with @nminusyplusm though and encourage you to deep litter. It makes the earth so much healthier (which can also make the hens healthier) and you get the benefit of compost for the garden and your girls will love raking through it to find bugs etc. It takes a bit of experimenting to figure out what components work best in your climate, so don't expect to get it right first time, but keep experimenting with a mix of different litter materials. I use a mixture of dry autumn leaves, chopped hedge/tree cuttings, straw, grass cuttings, spent bedding and manure from my horses stables etc. Once you look around for materials, it is amazing what you can find for free that will dramatically improve the soil structure and composition. I agree that breaking the current surface up with a pick or garden fork first will be an important step before starting to add litter.
Good luck with it.

 

[Deb T]

I just moved. I had such a problem with rodents digging into the run even though we had a perimeter with hardware cloth around it.... That my husband insisted on hardware cloth entirety under the run. That meant that that had to put soil on top. I chose construction sand. I was thinking about putting DLM o top of that. Would that help?

 

[nminusyplusm]

I just moved. I had such a problem with rodents digging into the run even though we had a perimeter with hardware cloth around it.... That my husband insisted on hardware cloth entirety under the run. That meant that that had to put soil on top. I chose construction sand. I was thinking about putting DLM o top of that. Would that help?

Help with what? And yes, you can build upwards with DL instead of digging down, I just think down is easier especially in the desert.