To cover or not, a small run for 2 hens with deep bedding

[SmiYa0126]

Thanks. I should have stated, my coup provides shelter over one end of the run, plus I added a section of polly to shelter the dust bath.

Do they free range at all?

 

[DaveMK]

Do they free range at all?

No. We're in a bird flu lockdown here in the UK at the moment.
All coops must be covered and no free ranging.
I plan on letting them out of their run for short periods when that is lifted.

 

[gtaus]

Thank you for that. This is what I’m after with my run too, despite it being very small, it should be enough compost for my tiny garden.

Chickens make great composting animals. They love to scratch and peck in my chicken run litter all day. Toss some chicken scratch in any area that you want more turning action to be done. My chickens turn out more compost, faster, than I ever got in my compost bins.

I love how Justin Rhodes and Edible Acres use their chicken systems, and hope one day to do something similar.

Yes, I got a lot of great ideas from their YouTube videos.

Justin Rhodes has gone through a number of evolutions in his chicken setups, so you have lots to choose from.

Edible Acres has a great composting in place system, but he is heavily invested in manually turning his chicken run compost. That would produce more compost in a faster amount of time. He has a commercial nursery to supply, so it probably makes sense for him. I am more of a dump the litter in the run, let the chickens scratch and peck in the compost, and harvest the compost in about 6 months. I have more compost ready to harvest than I can use, so I don't have to go out there and manually turn the compost or move it along the line, so to speak.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

I have a covered run and moisture still gets through the sides when it's snowing sideways or raining hard. Before it was covered it was just puddles, which I don't think is good for the health of the chickens and the only time runs stink is when they're wet. The woodchips compost down very fast with chicken poop from my observations over the last six months with a covered run.

 

[gtaus]

I have three chickens coops. Two are covered and one is not. If you don't have a covered run make sure there is plenty of drainage in that area. Otherwise you'll end up with soupy, poopy mess.

Adequate drainage is very important. I agree.

Honestly, I prefer the covered runs since I remove the shavings and put them in the recycle pile to be either burned or used for erosion control.

I put all my spent coop litter out into the chicken run composting system to compost. I just mix in lots of greens, like grass clippings, throughout the summer and the coop litter provides the brown carbon source to make excellent compost.

 

[gtaus]

One mistake I made was to feed the chickens cut branches/leaves from harvested chilli plants. The branches were too long, and seem to have caused matting.
I came to this conclusion after reading on another thread not to feed/introduce longer branches/sticks.

I have read the same advice. I have mowers with baggers, so I will just toss long stuff on the ground and let the mower chop up everything. Takes care of most of my concerns.

 

[DaveMK]

Chickens make great composting animals. They love to scratch and peck in my chicken run litter all day. Toss some chicken scratch in any area that you want more turning action to be done. My chickens turn out more compost, faster, than I ever got in my compost bins.



Yes, I got a lot of great ideas from their YouTube videos.

Justin Rhodes has gone through a number of evolutions in his chicken setups, so you have lots to choose from.

Edible Acres has a great composting in place system, but he is heavily invested in manually turning his chicken run compost. That would produce more compost in a faster amount of time. He has a commercial nursery to supply, so it probably makes sense for him. I am more of a dump the litter in the run, let the chickens scratch and peck in the compost, and harvest the compost in about 6 months. I have more compost ready to harvest than I can use, so I don't have to go out there and manually turn the compost or move it along the line, so to speak.

Yes I agree, Edible Acres does look to be more labour intensive. What you’ve described of yours sounds like the ideal balance.

 

[DaveMK]

I have read the same advice. I have mowers with baggers, so I will just toss long stuff on the ground and let the mower chop up everything. Takes care of most of my concerns.

Yes, I’ll probably go through and remove the longer branches I put in. Live and learn hey.

 

[DaveMK]

I have a covered run and moisture still gets through the sides when it's snowing sideways or raining hard. Before it was covered it was just puddles, which I don't think is good for the health of the chickens and the only time runs stink is when they're wet. The woodchips compost down very fast with chicken poop from my observations over the last six months with a covered run.

Thanks. The 6” of chips seems to stop any pooling. The fact that my run is so narrow probably helps, as there’s no space for a puddle to form.

 

[gtaus]

I would kind of disagree with some of this. I have a covered run and moisture still gets through the sides when it's snowing sideways or raining hard. Before it was covered it was just puddles, which I don't think is good for the health of the chickens and the only time runs stink is when they're wet.

Drainage is very important. Before I built my chicken run, I made sure there was no standing water or puddles in that area after a heavy run. So, my chicken run compost gets really wet in a heavy rain, but it drains through and dries out the next day. I almost never have to wet down my compost litter given our average rainfall.

The woodchips compost down very fast with chicken poop from my observations over the last six months with a covered run.

I don't know what time frame you are talking about for wood chips to compost. Where I live, it takes about 6 months for my wood chips to compost down when exposed to the weather outside. That is with lots of greens mixed in the chicken run.

Last year I started using paper shreds as deep bedding litter in the chicken coop. When I toss those spent paper shreds out into the chicken run composting system, they compost down in just over 2 months and are ready to be harvested. My run is uncovered.