Substrate for pen

[aart]

Do you have room for a whole pile?

This is the number one consideration.

 

[Knighstar679]

They'll break down faster, but they will be better for the chickens than the dyed mulch.

The goal is to kinda do what @aart had said to keep adding to it and not really have to clean out much. But hopefully control some of the muddy mess that the ducks made the pen into. As the stuff breaks down I think the composted stuff would be a great dirt.

 

[Knighstar679]

One, how big an area do you need to fill, and how deep??

I recommend Leaf Litter if you can get it free from your property. Check with services like ChipDrop, and barring that, assuming you are buying quantity, check with local materials suppliers like these guys, or these guys, and these guys.

and if you are really, REALLY lucky, your city works or county works department might do something like this. Looks like Seneca county has done so in the past [I think, my internet is $#!+, and the page won't load on my cell phone right now]

The first pen I am filling is 20ish by 30 with an 8x8 house in the one corner.

yes Seneca county does the free mulch thing but didn’t do it last year do to the pandemic. So I am not sure they are going to do it this year or not.

only material I have in property right now is lots of sticks which are not very helpful as that helped create some of the problems in the area I have them in. As the dirt washed away from the sticks and left sticks as the dirt washed to a few lower areas

 

[rosemarythyme]

I was wondering could I use a course pine flake mixed with horse pine pellets? I can acquire those easily enough and they cost about the same as mulch.

They'll break down faster, but they will be better for the chickens than the dyed mulch.

x2. Wood shavings work fine for a lot of people. For me, wood shavings outside would never work - I get a lot of rain, the run is uncovered, and shavings just get wet and sit there, not allowing water to drain through quickly. And cost is a factor too, my run litter is all free and sourced from whatever I can gather from my yard (which includes branches and stumps that get chipped).

That said, your run is 20x30? That is a LOT of bagged product to buy. If you can get the mulch available from the county, that would be a better option both in terms of cost and drainage.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

20x30 at just 6" deep is roughly 11 cu yd, that's a truck load in my area.

 

[aart]

yes Seneca county does the free mulch thing but didn’t do it last year do to the pandemic. So I am not sure they are going to do it this year or not.

Do they dump a load on your property or do you go get what you can carry?
I'd call them and ask.

20x30 at just 6" deep is roughly 11 cu yd, that's a truck load in my area.

Yeah, but it doesn't need to be that deep and that much fresh chippings piled into run all at once can cause problems.

 

[Knighstar679]

Do they dump a load on your property or do you go get what you can carry?
I'd call them and ask.


Yeah, but it doesn't need to be that deep and that much fresh chippings piled into run all at once can cause problems.

It is limited to two truck beds per address in the county. You provide the truck. No delivery available. I plan to look into it when they do it. But it happens in may or at least it did two years ago.

I planned on starting with a thin1/2 of pellets and then adding pine shavings to the top. Being as I use the pine pellets for my duck houses I can take that and put it outside every time I clean it out. So it would be slowly added too depth wise that way. That is actually how I started doing the pen is i took the duck house clean up and put it out on the muddy pen and just built it up in the bad areas that they drilled huge holes in.

Eventually (the next month or two weather permitting) the whole chicken pen will be covered in tarps. WIth the duck pens covered in shade cloth. and tarps mixed.

 

[SwampFlock]

Where are you located?

Sand only works when kept perfectly dry. Because the dried poop filters down into the sand instead of reacting to form compost the way it does with an organic litter the moment it gets wet it will rot and stink.

The coops I'm trying this will be in a smallish barn totally out of the weather. For these coops I'm also going to have a pull-out poop drawer under the roosts and they will have an outside run area as well. Also gonna put in a ton of forced air ventilation from the coops to the outside. We'll see!

 

[Knighstar679]

Here is what one of my smaller pens looks like with the pine pellets and larger pine flake.
I think it looks pretty descent.

this will be happening to my actual pen that I am going to put the chickens in.

 

[aart]

Here is what one of my smaller pens looks like with the pine pellets and larger pine flake.
I think it looks pretty descent.

Was that all just put down....or has it been there awhile?