Run flooring advice please

[Emily26]

Hey hey, more questions from a new chicky owner. I've got a walk-in run and coop. I originally assumed I was fine to leave the run floor as the grass it sits on but now I'm not sure.... Should I be putting something down on top of the grass too?

 

[DobieLover]

Hey hey, more questions from a new chicky owner. I've got a walk-in run and coop. I originally assumed I was fine to leave the run floor as the grass it sits on but now I'm not sure.... Should I be putting something down on top of the grass too?

The flock will put to waste the grass in short order.
I like a thick layer of wood chips. It drains well, slowly decomposes with the poop and makes a great substrate for digging holes for dust baths and scratching in.

 

[rosemarythyme]

No, sawdust is too fine and grass clippings + sawdust, if they ever get wet, would just turn into a big wet mat.

Wood chips (ideally chunky, aged, and in a mixture of sizes) do two things: provide drainage, and provide aeration, both of which are key to keeping the flooring fairly dry and keeping odor down.

The grass clippings could be a good mix in, in moderation, with the chips. Sawdust might be too fine to use for anything in a run, really, though maybe very small amounts mixed in would be ok, if you need to use it up.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yeah, the amount of augmenting needed will vary from set up to set up. Like for me, I stopped actively adding any chips to the run for about 2 years (the only chips added were used ones from the coop), and that was fine up until last winter when the run started getting muddy again, so I added a bunch to the worst areas, and it re-stabilized very quickly.

Basically if it starts to become muddy, sticky, smelly... it probably needs more chips. Otherwise grass clippings, weeds, garden trimmings, dried leaves, pine needles, etc. are all typical good mix ins to help with the composting action to break down poop inside the litter.

 

[gtaus]

Hey hey, more questions from a new chicky owner. I've got a walk-in run and coop. I originally assumed I was fine to leave the run floor as the grass it sits on but now I'm not sure.... Should I be putting something down on top of the grass too?

Given time, the chickens will rip up all that grass down to the bare dirt, then will dig into the dirt for dust baths....

If you still have some good grass in your chicken run, might I suggest you build some grazing frames right now and put them over some of your existing grass. A grazing frame can be made out of 2x4's or 2x6's. You tack some hardware cloth on top of the frame so the grass can grow through it and the chickens can stand on it and eat the grass.

Like others have mentioned, I too use wood chips as the base of my chicken run. But I also throw just about everything else organic into the run, making my chicken run a chicken run composting system in place. I collect my grass clippings in my mower bins and dump the clippings in the run. The chickens will eat some of the grass clippings and the rest just becomes part of the compost. In the fall, I dump loads of leaves in the chicken run and the chickens love it. Garden weeds get thrown into the chicken run. Kitchen scraps are great treats and I throw them in the run, bones and all.

I have even thrown out shredded paper, newspapers, and cardboard into the run. It just magically gets turned into compost.

Someone mentioned that grass clippings and sawdust would turn into a big wet mat. In general, I would agree with that if you only used grass clippings and sawdust. But, it you throw in wood chips, leaves, etc.... then you will be making good compost and it will be more like a sponge than a wet mat. I put my materials down in layers, like a lasagna garden, and have not had any problems. If you pile up the grass clippings, they can get wet and turn anaerobic - which smells pretty bad. If you spread the grass clippings out and let them dry, then put another layer of sawdust on top, you would probably be OK. Save all the leaves you can to mix into the chicken run. If you can find some free wood chips, I think they are the best.

If you are into gardening, then there are a lot of threads here on turning your chicken run into a composting system. Some of us have chickens primarily to make chicken compost for our gardens, and the eggs are just a bonus. My chicken run is about 18 inches deep of all kinds of organic material. I understand some people might not like the looks of such a run, but to me, it's black gold sitting there in the run waiting to be harvested whenever I want some.

 

[aart]

Where do you get the natural, untreated wood chips?

From a tree trimmer.
Best to have a large space to store a truck load.

More pics here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/albums/runs.7427859/

 

[Emily26]

You're a fountain of knowledge, thanks so much for letting me quiz you

 

[rosemarythyme]

You're a fountain of knowledge, thanks so much for letting me quiz you

Haha best of luck. Unfortunately I found out the hard way that when grass is gone, something has to take its place. The mud in our grass-stripped run got so bad that it literally pulled the boots off my feet, and it was so stinky!

Took a few months to stabilize it with wood chips intially (as we didn't have time to wait for the pile to age, we did thin layers, a bit at a time) but now it's much improved, to the point that the chicken run drains faster than the surrounding lawn and landscaping after rains and even flooding.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Leave it grass for now, and let them enjoy it. They'll kill it for you.

I also use wood chips as the base of my run (deep litter). If that's something you're considering, best to get wood chips now, so they can sit and age until you're ready to use them.

 

[gtaus]

Where do you get the natural, untreated wood chips?

Our landscape crew told us the mulch we purchase typically are treated with chemicals, is that true?

I get free wood chips from our local county landfill. The arborists have to pay to dump the wood chips out at the landfill, but we can take as much wood chips as we want for free. I usually get a couple trailers full of wood chips each year. Those chips are all natural, ground up trees, without any chemicals or dyes added.

Dear Wife likes the store bought bagged wood mulch that is dyed red for her flower gardens. I suspect that those bags of mulch are probably sprayed with some kind of chemical to kill any bugs, maybe also heated in a kiln before they get dyed. I really don't know. But I would not use the dyed wood chip mulch in bags in either my garden or the chicken run because I don't know how they have been treated. Also, depending on the brand, you might find that the bagged wood mulch has garbage in it. I have found bits of metal and plastic in some bagged mulch. I would not put it past some companies to shred old chemically treated pallets and then dye the wood chips. I think that your landscape crew is probably correct with bagged wood chips being treated with chemicals.

Since buying bagged wood mulch can get to be expensive, I have worked out a compromise with Dear Wife. We now put down a thick layer of free wood chips for the mulch and cover it with a thinner layer of the bagged, dyed red mulch for the look she desires. It took a while to convince her of that money saving idea, but in the end she agreed that only the top of the mulch needed to be that red mulch. I actually prefer a natural wood chip'/mulch color, but life is easier for me if she gets what she wants for her flower beds.