Run construction and maintenance

[Skunkie]

What are the chips from?

The chips are from some of our oaks that went down in big winds a couple of years ago. The stuff that was too big or too wonky to use in the fireplace got chipped and has been just sitting in a pile.

The leaves are from our oaks also, it’s a constant clean up battle around here.

 

[Skunkie]

For the hen house, I want to minimize the daily cleaning work so was interested in the deep bedding method. I can put a board across the inside at the bottom of the human door, to keep the bedding in. But the chicken door is a problem - it’s very low. So my plan is this:
1. Poop board under the roosts, with a raised edge and PDZ or similar on the board. Clean up poop daily as much as possible.
2. Wood shavings on the floor as deep as possible and turn it often. Since our climate is so dry I’m hoping it won’t have to be fully cleaned out very often. We put down some left over linoleum flooring on top of the wood floor that the coop came with.

Does this sound reasonable?
The chickens will probably spend most of their time out in the run since weather is not usually an issue here. If I feel comfortable about the security of the run, I may even let them stay out there at night, especially if we get any hot weather.

 

[Skunkie]

Gratuitous chick photo

 

[3KillerBs]

The chips are from some of our oaks that went down in big winds a couple of years ago. The stuff that was too big or too wonky to use in the fireplace got chipped and has been just sitting in a pile.

The leaves are from our oaks also, it’s a constant clean up battle around here.

Aged wood chips and an abundant supply of leaves -- it's hard to do better for your chicken substrate.

For the hen house, I want to minimize the daily cleaning work so was interested in the deep bedding method. I can put a board across the inside at the bottom of the human door, to keep the bedding in. But the chicken door is a problem - it’s very low. So my plan is this:
1. Poop board under the roosts, with a raised edge and PDZ or similar on the board. Clean up poop daily as much as possible.
2. Wood shavings on the floor as deep as possible and turn it often. Since our climate is so dry I’m hoping it won’t have to be fully cleaned out very often. We put down some left over linoleum flooring on top of the wood floor that the coop came with.

Does this sound reasonable?
The chickens will probably spend most of their time out in the run since weather is not usually an issue here. If I feel comfortable about the security of the run, I may even let them stay out there at night, especially if we get any hot weather.


View attachment 2744623

I don't put all the thickness of bedding down at once, just a few inches at a time.

Did you see my article? I usually get 8-12 weeks from mine before cleaning but I don't use a poop board.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

 

[Skunkie]

Did you see my article? I usually get 8-12 weeks from mine before cleaning but I don't use a poop board.

I did read that article - it was very helpful, thank you! I wanted to use the poop board since I probably can’t go very deep with the bedding on the floor. Do you think a mix of shavings and straw is better than just shavings? I plan on using straw in the nest boxes so will have some on hand.

 

[3KillerBs]

I did read that article - it was very helpful, thank you! I wanted to use the poop board since I probably can’t go very deep with the bedding on the floor. Do you think a mix of shavings and straw is better than just shavings? I plan on using straw in the nest boxes so will have some on hand.

I like a mix of materials because I think that the different textures resist packing and matting.

I'm not very fussy about my bedding. I often use shavings with some pine straw or lawn clippings mixed in. I have straw more now than I did with the first flock because broken bales are free if you can manage to load them at this farm store. I had more leaves in the mix for my first flock because I had more deciduous trees on that property.

 

[Chuckie chicken]

For the hen house, I want to minimize the daily cleaning work so was interested in the deep bedding method. I can put a board across the inside at the bottom of the human door, to keep the bedding in. But the chicken door is a problem - it’s very low. So my plan is this:
1. Poop board under the roosts, with a raised edge and PDZ or similar on the board. Clean up poop daily as much as possible.
2. Wood shavings on the floor as deep as possible and turn it often. Since our climate is so dry I’m hoping it won’t have to be fully cleaned out very often. We put down some left over linoleum flooring on top of the wood floor that the coop came with.

Does this sound reasonable?
The chickens will probably spend most of their time out in the run since weather is not usually an issue here. If I feel comfortable about the security of the run, I may even let them stay out there at night, especially if we get any hot weather.


View attachment 2744623

Looking from inside, you could move the door up fairly easily, cut 8" or 10" higher and put the piece you cut from the top on the bottom. A little tweak on the outside trim and voila. Or possibly build a box around it inside the coop to keep bedding from getting to it.

If you leave it the way it is and you use deep bedding, you'll hate yourself.

 

[Skunkie]

If you leave it the way it is and you use deep bedding, you'll hate yourself.

Haha! That’s what I was thinking too. Didn’t consider moving the door, probably more trouble than I want right now. But I was going to try to make some sort of barrier - it will be a littler more complicated than just a board across the bottom, like what I can do at the human door. But I think I can figure something out.

 

[WonkierZulu]

New to chicken keeping here. We are getting our coop ready for our 7 chicks and plan to get them moved in pretty soon. I was wondering if the deep litter method would be a good idea for the run. Our run is on dirt which is very sandy and loose. Also it is on a hillside so is terraced into three levels. It is in an area well shaded by large oaks and it has a corrugated roof of clear polycarbonate with UV protection. We are in coastal central California with mild temperatures and very, very little rain. We get a lot of coastal fog, sometimes it is drippy and other times dry.

I don’t have a current photo of the run with the roof and hardware cloth sides but I am attaching a photo of the run under construction to show the terraced dirt floor. It is 7.5’ x 12’. Would deep litter work here? And how is it done? I’ve searched a bit here on the forums but all I find is threads that turn into discussions on deep bedding with no description of how to do deep litter. (I do plan on deep bedding inside the hen house).

I know I’ll have more run and coop questions as we finish out this build. We purchased an OverEZ coop and are building the run with wood we’ve had laying around. We are working on improving the meager ventilation in the coop, you can see the cut away section above the pop door. I’m going to put hardware cloth over the windows and leave them open all the time. We’ve also added other ventilation holes that are not visible in these photos. I’ll add more photos in the next couple of days as I come up with more questions .



View attachment 2744190View attachment 2744192

I would paint the top of the nest box white. Over ez coop?

 

[Skunkie]

I would paint the top of the nest box white. Over ez coop?

Yes it’s an OverEZ. Why paint it white?