Run flooring advice please

[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.

 

[Sally PB]

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.

The poop is the (very close) second (to eggs) reason that I got chickens. My run is covered, so the ground there is quite dry. After the grass was gone, I added lots (and lots and lots) of fall leaves, and those are nicely shredded now.

Our coop and run will be moved to its summer place in a couple of months. I plan to rake up the mulch that they've made for me to put in my garden.

The summer spot had a very nice mixture of dried grass, old bedding, and poop that I raked up this spring. I let it sit all winter, and it has made the best potting soil mixture I've ever had.

 

[linguini]

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.

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?

 

[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/

 

[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.

 

[gtaus]

The poop is the (very close) second (to eggs) reason that I got chickens. My run is covered, so the ground there is quite dry. After the grass was gone, I added lots (and lots and lots) of fall leaves, and those are nicely shredded now.

Our coop and run will be moved to its summer place in a couple of months. I plan to rake up the mulch that they've made for me to put in my garden.

The summer spot had a very nice mixture of dried grass, old bedding, and poop that I raked up this spring. I let it sit all winter, and it has made the best potting soil mixture I've ever had.

I would think that if a chicken run was covered, that would change up a lot of the suggestions given to OP. In that case, the sawdust and grass clippings would probably work just fine.

I have thought that a covered run, or even a partially covered run, would have lots of advantages. However, I live in snow country and any covered run would have to be built to withstand a good snow load. That's just money I am not willing to invest. In the end, I turned my chicken run into a composting system and the rainfall on the litter just is a bonus for me.

 

[gtaus]

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, if you take a look at the link of pics provided by @aart, you will see some grazing frames in use. If you still have grass in your run, that is one way to protect some patches of natural grass from being ripped out.

Another way to get wood chips is buying a chipper for the house. I have a big gas powered chipper that is rather expensive, but for wood chips for the chickens I actually prefer to use my smaller SunJoe 14 amp electric wood chipper. The main problem with chipping wood at home is that it takes a lot more time. However, I have lots of trees on my property and I find it easier to pick up fallen branches, tree trimmings, and such and just chip them up with the electric chipper. Better use of the material than burning everything in a pile.

 

[3KillerBs]

Where, in general, are you located?

Since the area where the chickens currently are has to go back to lawn after we move them to the new coop, I'm using pine straw rather than wood chips. Here in the southeastern US pine straw is free for the raking in my yard (or, if I should ever run out, in my SILs' yards), or inexpensive to buy.

Do you have any such locally-available material?

 

[Sally PB]

I would think that if a chicken run was covered, that would change up a lot of the suggestions given to OP. In that case, the sawdust and grass clippings would probably work just fine.

I have thought that a covered run, or even a partially covered run, would have lots of advantages. However, I live in snow country and any covered run would have to be built to withstand a good snow load. That's just money I am not willing to invest. In the end, I turned my chicken run into a composting system and the rainfall on the litter just is a bonus for me.

Ah. I hadn't thought about the dryness changing the dynamics of how material breaks down. This is a very good point.

Just for info, and I don't mean to derail the thread, but I'll describe my run roof. It withstood snow just fine this winter, BUT it was a much below average snowfall here.

My 8x10 run is built on the metal tube frame that was a green house. The peak is probably 6.5-7 feet high, going down to about 4.5 feet at the wall, so it's a pretty good slope. Over that is chicken wire, zip tied in place. Over that are two heavy duty tarps. I can easily broom off any snow accumulation with a push broom. The heaviest was probably 6-ish inches of fairly damp snow. There was some sag between the metal poles, but I never had any worries of it not holding up.

Cost was just the 3 rolls of chicken wire and 2 tarps.

 

[rosemarythyme]

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?

As others noted, tree trimming companies can drop off truckloads of chips (in some areas for the price of gas, or as I have a company that does service for me, I can get them completely free if they're in the area) and some communities also have free wood chips from utility/maintenance work available for pick up. There's a service called chipdrop that can help hook you up with local tree companies.

Many bagged sold mulches are dyed, and not sure what they use to dye it.