or
It does give you some ideas for cutting cost. I didn't see anything "new".
I think that it is some of the methods that are discussed are being used by some of us here.
Balfour method. creating a compost pile in the run and using paddocks.
I am interested in this method. I was going to do paddocks when I was planning on my run and coop. I sectioned off my garden into two and then added the coop and run. I ended up with three sections. one for my garden one for the coop and run and one that I would the grass grow in. Everything is connected by pop doors. It worked for awhile. plant the garden close the pop door to this section. let the chickens eat anything they could reach through the fence.In the fall open the pop door and let them do the clean up. Grass growing section didn't go that well. worked for awhile but then between the drought and chickens scratching grass didn't make it.
I tried to do the grass part too but with the same results as you're having.
I finally started putting wood chips on the run part so they could have a deep bedded winter run (originally got the idea from Harvey Ussery in his book...you can read about it here about 1/2 way down the page:
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Chickens+in+Greenhouse.html
I was thinking that if I can get them deep enough the worms and bugs may still be available if they scratch down deep enough. I am hoping if I keep building on it it will be warm enough to accomplish that. I had a tree service take out some trees and they left the wood chips here for me. After they had set for almost a year, they were full of redworms and other tasty things and the kiddos love digging through to get at those bugs.
I started bringing wheelbarrows full of the chips over to the run and dumping them in there. I'm going to continue to do that until I get a good build up.
Others are using leaves and twigs, etc.
from raking their yards or from wooded areas on their land to accomplish the same thing. We just found that it makes a better place than just barren, hard-packed dirt, and keeps the ground softer more like a forest floor underneith.
Using the leaves in there was an idea we got from one of the folks that have raised chickens for years that used to hang out here on BYC. I'm grateful for that idea!
It creates a much more healthy environment and mimics a forest floor when you don't have one. I only use this smaller run for when they can't get out to a larger area. When I can't use my electronet - like when there's deep snow on the ground - this is an alternative that I'm happy for them to have. Before doing that I was dreading winter and them being stuck for longer periods on packed earth.
Thanks to my "OT" friend that gave us the idea to use the leaves to revitalize packed earth runs!
!