Run bedding options

[neo71665]

You want to stay as far away from sand as you can. I made that mistake early on. I have pine trees all over my property and personally wouldn't use that either. Pine straw compresses down and doesn't decompose as easy as other mediums.

Get some wood chips and put in there.

 

[AnnPann]

another vote for wood chips or mulch here, with leaves added in the fall (more for their entertainment than anything else) i have a lot of humidity and heavy downpours to contend with. mulch helps with mud, chickens love to scratch in it, it doesn’t pack down and i have no issues with smells or bugs. if i see a particularly gross fresh poop when i’m in there, i just kick some mulch over it so i don’t step in it. in 8 months, i’ve only had to add a couple of bags of fresh mulch (and that was because i reconfigured the run and had some bare spots).

 

[Ccort]

I use the pine pelleted horse bedding. I spread the pellets in the run & then mist them with warmer. They expand to about twice their & become a soft absorbent bedding. I scoop poops daily with a dog pooper picker upper & then rake thru it & any removed goes to the compost pile for Spring. I then sprinkle either Lime or Sweet PDZ over the pine bedding still in the run.

Why add lime?

 

[WIchickMama]

No scooping. I just add.
I was concerned at first that it would get to deep. It doesn't. As things decompose the height drops. The chickens scratching around seems to really speed things up.

I do the same thing, only scoop if needing add to a garden. Sometimes I do turn with a pitchfork, which is mainly just to encourage chickens to dig in a specific area.

I have had to trim chicken nails due to the softer medium they are on daily, but I only do it every 6 months

 

[Ccort]

I use deep litter but I do surface clean poops on a daily basis, more because I don't want to step in it, not because of sanitary concerns.

To me the best litter option is 1) appropriate for your environment and 2) cost effective for you. I see no reason to pay for run litter at all but I also live in an area that's abundant with plants/trees, so loading up on litter materials isn't a problem, and helps save me from having to send yard waste to the curb for commercial composting.

I'm in and out of the run a LOT and the way the poop sits on top of the pinestraw, it ends up all over me!
I'm thinking hemp bedding might be a good alternative, although also expensive.
I plan to add leaves but have come to realize I don't have a lot of extra material to add and do not have the space to store extra materials either.
I haven't tried daily scooping because they poop so much that it seems like once I'm done, I'll be right back where I'm started!

 

[Ccort]

another vote for wood chips or mulch here, with leaves added in the fall (more for their entertainment than anything else) i have a lot of humidity and heavy downpours to contend with. mulch helps with mud, chickens love to scratch in it, it doesn’t pack down and i have no issues with smells or bugs. if i see a particularly gross fresh poop when i’m in there, i just kick some mulch over it so i don’t step in it. in 8 months, i’ve only had to add a couple of bags of fresh mulch (and that was because i reconfigured the run and had some bare spots).

Thoughts on a mix of mulch and hemp? Plus this would be added to existing pinestraw.

 

[Ccort]

Do you guys ever scoop out all the old bedding then or just keep in there and wait for decomposition? Waiting to calrify, thank!

 

[AnnPann]

Thoughts on a mix of mulch and hemp? Plus this would be added to existing pinestraw.

I don’t have access to hemp where I live. at least without paying more in shipping than the product itself. would love to try it some day though.

i used pine straw as garden mulch 2 years ago, and while i liked it for moisture retention and how it looked, it provided too much shelter for bugs and never broke down. and was $$$. so i’ve avoided using it for the chicken run.

i prefer something that will compost well, as part of why i have chickens - for composting poop and using in my garden. this summer i removed some of the run bedding (hardwood mulch) to use as compost mulch on some of my vegetable plants. i won’t remove it again unless i need it for the garden next year. just keep adding/mixing.

 

[neo71665]

Do you guys ever scoop out all the old bedding then or just keep in there and wait for decomposition? Waiting to calrify, thank!

I don't remove it I use the deep litter method.

 

[Hedgeland Farms]

Pine shavings in run!
I have a 600sq foot run and I don't ever mess with the "floor" in it...just add shaving as needed.

I tend to clean their coop out abt 1x every 2 wks. So I add that bedding to the run, and fresh bedding to the coop.

Here the run floor