Run Floor Material

[JoeInPA]

I've been using straw in my covered 8'x8' run pretty much since I built it. I used it at the suggestion of my uncle who had chickens for several years. But honestly I've never been very happy with the straw. My main complaints are-

1.) It is messy. It gets everywhere. Outside the coop, on your shoes, etc.

2.) It gets damp and stays damp. Even though my run is covered, the soil beneath it is very saturated (as is all the soil around here) and we have very wet weather especially in the winter and spring months. The straw soaks up the moisture from the ground and holds onto it. The humidity in the air won't let it dry. Mix that in with some poop and it's an unsanitary mess IMO.

3.) It's a pain in the rear to clean out. I try to deep litter it as long as possible, but eventually it has to be raked out. When you rake it out it usually winds up all over the outside of the run and in the yard. It also has to be disposed of, and I dump it in the compost pile (really just my yard trimmings) but I don't use it. I don't have that much use for compost, I use maybe 1/2 a yard of it a year for various little things but I already have too much of it without adding the bedding.

4.) It's not convenient or cheap to buy. The closest place selling it is Tractor Supply and Tractor Supply is a half hour away.

5.) It's not easy to store. I keep the bale inside the run, and the chickens love to climb on it and pull it apart and dig on it until it hits just a loose pile of straw.

That said, given the very damp conditions I'm stuck with, does anyone have a better suggestion? I know a lot of people like sand, but I think it may also get very wet after a couple weeks. My thought was to remove all of the hay and use organic topsoil. I think it would dry out more easily and the chicken poop would decompose into the topsoil after a little while anyways. Thoughts?

 

[archeryrob]

We get loads from the tree trimmers and use those wood chips in it. You needs space for the truck to get in and a place to dump it, but free is nice. I used Excel tree service the last times and they had a 30 yard truck. Wow, that is a lot. The chickens love to dig in it and turn it over mixing the poop in better. My one run looks like several hand grenades when off in it from the cornish chickens digging.

 

[CatWhisperer]

If your run is always muddy you need to raise the level of the ground in the run to improve drainage. We sided our 6 year old run this year even though we’ve never had drainage problems. I’m sure we eventually will have to deep litter over it again like we used to. Another thing you could do is add a bunch of pea gravel and then put sand on top. This should also provide Goode drainage and easy to go through and scoop poop as necessary. I use this scoop to clean my poop boards with PDZ and my sanded run.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If your ground is always wet the litter will always be wet, so short of moving the entire set up, the best you can do is make it dry as possible.

I'd try a deep litter with a base of wood chips, built up several inches to allow it to at least surface dry, and then mix in some other materials such as dried leaves, dried grass, weed and garden trimmings, a little straw, whatever you have.

IMO plain top soil + water + chicken poop = a muddy stinky mess.

 

[Papmike]

Hey Joe,
I agree with archeryrob on the chips. Tree service's are usually looking for places to get rid of chips so they don't have a disposal fee.

Are there any sawmill nearby? You can generally pick up small loads of sawdust/chips for almost nothing as well. Remove chip/manure after two years as a partially composted soil amendment.

 

[JoeInPA]

The wood chips sound like a good option. Every two years sounds a lot better than every few months like I've been changing the straw.
I intend on rebuilding my run in the spring, and building the sides up is in the plan.

The wet weather is just something I have to work around. I swear it never used to rain this much here. But with some of the heavy storms we have had in the past couple years the soil just became saturated and has never really dried out. My lawn is a muddy mess. I can't even move the coop to drier area because there aren't any. And my property isn't even as bad as some of my neighbors.

 

[UrbanHenKW123]

This has been really good to read. In Ontario we have the same kind of winters. Snow - rain - snow - rain and I've also been using straw. I had sand at first and once the winter hit the sand got all wet and froze so I couldnt sift out the droppings. So i just threw some straw in there to get me through the winter. I've been digging out the top layer once a week and replenishing with new stuff until the spring and I think I'm switching to wood chips too so it can just compost in there.

 

[TheWriteChick]

Great thread. I live in the Pacific Northwest and the winter rains leave part of my run a nasty mess - naturally it's the part by the gate where I have to walk. I've put down some pea gravel just to keep my and my chickens' feet from being in the mud, so I think I'll just add a bit more and then some mulch/wood chips on top! The part of the run that drains better (weirdly lower in elevation than the part that gets ucky) has mulch and they love to dig through it. I may just have to continually add mulch to the ucky part as it seems to migrate down to the drier section.