Run flooring advice please

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.

I suppose the best litter for chickens is what you can get for free, or at a very low cost. Where I live, a small straw bale costs about $5.00. For $5.00 in gas money, I can get a trailer full of free wood chips.

Fresh straw is good, but I find that straw gets wet, moldy, and will smell bad. So when I used straw years ago, I was always cleaning it out and putting down fresh straw. If I got my straw for free, maybe that would have been OK. But like I said, we have to pay a pretty good price for a bale of straw where I live. When I found out about wood chips, and then found a free supply, I switched over to wood chips and never looked back. Like I said, I only clean out the wood chips maybe twice a year, compared to cleaning out straw every week. Wood chips just work out better for me, but I'd probably still be using straw if I got it for free and did not have free wood chips available.
 
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.

I have considered building a cattle panel greenhouse/shed and using that for a winter chicken run. In theory, the slope of the cattle panels should shed enough snow to prevent it from collapsing. But we can get over 24 inches of snow on a good storm, and the last thing I want to do at my age is going outside to brush off the covered chicken run. So that project is on my someday list, but not on the top of the list.
 
Thankyou and how often do you end up putting fresh woodchips down out of interest? guessing it'll vary depending on space, flock size etc

Yes, all that matters. I have 10 hens in a ~6X12 coop. I will fluff up the wood chips maybe once a month, and maybe add some more wood chips every other month or so. I mainly go by the smell. If I notice any ammonia smell, I'll fluff up the wood chips and/or add some fresh chips. The nose knows.

Most often, I just throw some chicken scratch down on areas that I want to fluff up and let the chickens do the work for me as they scratch up the chips to get to the chicken scratch. The only area that really gets any chicken poo is the area below the roost. If you have a good base of wood chips, the chickens will scratch that poo into the litter and it magically disappears. I only clean out my wood chips twice a year, and that is more than enough to keep things clean.
 
For odor and pest, I put down two things before I put down my straw, or wood chips. I have a old coffee can that I drilled 1/4" holes all in the lid, to make it like a giant salt shaker. I then use it to dust the entire area with barn lime, which neutralizes the smell. I then dust again with DE (diatomaceous earth) which helps with pest (flea, mites etc.) then I put down my covering, weather it is straw, wood chips etc. This really helps keeps the odor down for quite awhile. Both products are very cheap, and go along ways. I use this method in both my hen house, and the run, as well as in my goat barn, and the dog house.
 
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?
I'm mid north coast Australia. I've only lived here 1.5 years and the weather seems impossible to predict rain wise. My run does have a roof so is somewhat protected from the elements. Sawdust is my most free substrate (hubby has a carpentry joinery) but it's been suggested sawdust would be too fine. I may be able to get free woodchips if the local landscape supply has any going spare but I'd suspect they'd want to charge me for it. Is sawdust really that bad if it's free?

Thanks to @gtaus for the suggestion of putting mesh flooring down. That's something i might look into later down the track... for now i'm not too worried about one section of grass getting wrecked. When I'm no longer owning chickens (in many many years to come if ever), I reckon the grass will grow back quickly. Also once they're fully grown they'll have some free range time so will still get to enjoy the other grass still.
 
Sawdust is my most free substrate (hubby has a carpentry joinery) but it's been suggested sawdust would be too fine. I may be able to get free woodchips if the local landscape supply has any going spare but I'd suspect they'd want to charge me for it. Is sawdust really that bad if it's free?
Best way to find out: try it. Maybe it'll work in your set up, maybe it won't. Worst case scenario you shovel it out and try something else.

I would still have wood chips as the base material but if rain/water in the run isn't a huge issue, then you may not be as reliant on chips to provide drainage. :confused:
 
Thanks to @gtaus for the suggestion of putting mesh flooring down.

I was suggesting saving some of your grass by covering it with grazing frames. Not putting down mesh on the entire chicken run floor. I think that would be too expensive, depending on how big a run you have.

My run does have a roof so is somewhat protected from the elements. Sawdust is my most free substrate (hubby has a carpentry joinery) but it's been suggested sawdust would be too fine. I may be able to get free woodchips if the local landscape supply has any going spare but I'd suspect they'd want to charge me for it. Is sawdust really that bad if it's free?

I think the warning about sawdust and grass clippings was that if it gets all wet, it might turn into a mat. If you have your chicken run covered, then I suspect your sawdust and grass clippings would work just fine because they would not get soaking wet. In any case, I always say the best litter to use is what you can get for free. I would certainly use that sawdust, grass clippings, and leaves, etc... and see how it works out for you.

If I had free sawdust to use with my chickens, you bet I'd find a way to use it, too.

When I'm no longer owning chickens (in many many years to come if ever), I reckon the grass will grow back quickly.

You will probably have to reseed the ground with fresh grass seed, but it should grow back quickly with all that fertility leached into the soil. My chickens ate all the grass down to the roots and then ate the roots. So I expect I'll have to reseed that area if I ever stop using that area for my chicken run.
 
Wood chips just work out better for me, but I'd probably still be using straw if I got it for free and did not have free wood chips available.

Pine straw =/= straw.

Pine straw is the shed needles of the Longleaf and Loblolly pines that are native to the American Southeast. It's not as absorbent as some other beddings but it's resistant to packing/matting and breaks down slowly.

Here's a photo of my run:
0412211458_HDR.jpg


Sawdust is my most free substrate (hubby has a carpentry joinery) but it's been suggested sawdust would be too fine. I may be able to get free woodchips if the local landscape supply has any going spare but I'd suspect they'd want to charge me for it. Is sawdust really that bad if it's free?

If you have sawdust, try sawdust and see what happens. You can always change something that doesn't work. :)

IMO, a mixture of various materials and textures is better than one material alone.
 
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?
In a sheltered run would do as suggested pine chips.. I might add some Canadian Peat Moss to the mix.. slows ammonia. In an open air run, I've just used the dirt, or under wet conditions some straw to keep their footsies out of the mud.. which also entertains them scratching around looking for seeds. Such as in spring thaw.. or a monsoon season.. It gets worked in eventually.. I also run the tiller in the run to breakup the hardpan.. Chickens don't care once you start it. Then get underfoot digging in the tilled soil.. Do this before summer sun mixed with the straw creates a brick factory. Those little feet sure can pack it.. Better water absorption, no more puddles and a hobby for chickens. Every so often as in seasons, I'll dig shovel deep scoops of dirt out of the run and salt the garden with decomposed chicken poo black soil.. once glacial blow sand. When the run elevation exceeds the surrounding grade, due too buildup.
 
Is sawdust really that bad if it's free?
My only concern would be if any of the wood is treated with something.

I used to have a neighbor who had a friend who used sawdust for horse bedding. In the spring, the four of us would go get a trailer load for our gardens. (Making all kinds of $#!+ jokes, of course.) Wow, was that some good sh... um... mulch.

Here's a link to what @gtaus was talking about re: the mesh on the floor. It's called a grazing frame.

http://sustainablesimplicity.com/build-chicken-grazing-frame/
 

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