Right now, the ground of my run is gravel, which I know is going to be imposssible to clean and compost. I was thinking sand? Then shavings? Suggestions?
After reading a lot of posts on this website and also in the "Raising chicken for dummies" book, it was pretty clear to me that sand was the best choice. I laid sand down a couple weeks ago and I am loving it. I just rake it and then try to use a kitty litter scoop to get a lot of droppings. I'm still trying to perfect the kitty litter scooper idea, but even if I don't, I love having sand in the run.
I haven't much experience with chickens, but in commercial landscaping... what if instead of trying to scrape up all the gravel, you put down a good, overlapping layer of landscape cloth to isolate the sand from gravel when sand is laid over top? Landscape cloth is specified (aka silt fabric???) for drainage applications, so if you have room for the height of all this, it would save having to scrap up gravel and make for better drainage. Just a thought in passing.
I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude. I have seen this question asked over and over and I'm still confused by it. I've only been raising chickens for 2 years now so maybe I'ved missed something I should be doing. My run is just plain ol' dirt. North Carolina red clay dirt. At one time it was covered with grass but that lasted about a month. Now it's dusty red dirt/clay with bits of chicken poop, a few half eaten tomatoes, squash, and peppers and the litter shoveled from the coop last spring (most of that has washed to one corner where they dig for worms) My run doesn't have a cover. It's too dang big. 40x80ft. When it rains, it washes away the poop. If it rains really hard, it washes everything down to the back corner where they dig worms (neighbors trees back at that corner look fabulous!) Am I missing something? Again, I'm not trying to be rude, I just don't understand.
