too much hay?

[hleone]

can you put too much hay in your run?
we are new at this and bought a bale of hay, took the twine off and just threw all of it in. now it seems too much. the hens seem to walk threw it easily but i am worried about it being too deep and hard to keep dry and that mold might develop.
picture is before chickens entered.

 

[12 gauge]

you may want to take some of that out

 

[Mutt Farm]

Nice run! X2, I'd bag some up and save it for later.

 

[MeepBeep]

That will compact down to nothing in a few days, and the chickens will enjoy playing in it... Although you should be using straw instead of hay, straw is much less likely to mold...

 

[azotter]

Our chickens eat hay lol

 

[MeepBeep]

Our chickens eat hay lol

Yes, depending on the hay type they will eat it as well... If you get some real low grade dry 'cattle' grass hay they might pick at it but not eat too much, as it's just dried grass... On the other hand if you get a real nice 'moist' high grade alfalfa, clover or whatever horse hay mix they will gobble a lot of it up...

A nice compromise is to find someone that for whatever reason didn't harvest the actual wheat, but harvested the entire field seeds and all as straw... The chickens will love scratching through it removing all the wheat seeds... That was the primary base for my deep litter last year it was some real low grade straw, had weeds, corn stalks, seeds all sorts of stuff in it the chickens cleaned it for me leaving just the straw behind...

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I give my chickens hay all winter, and it's the mixed grasses, but I don't cover the whole run like that during the other seasons, it might become a mess quickly, sand or compost, grass clipping in a thin layer, or fallen leaves in the fall I would think would be better, a deep litter system works good in runs, stuff that breaks down easy, save the thick hay for winter, if you get cold enough.

 

[MeepBeep]

a deep litter system works good in runs, stuff that breaks down easy, save the thick hay for winter, if you get cold enough.

My deep litter started out last fall with a 50/50 mix of straw and wood chips about 18" deep, neither breaks down easily... It's almost a year later with no real maintenance beyond a turn over every 3-4 months and some random additions of more straw and wood chips over the year to keep it about 8" deep...

 

[PapaChaz]

I'd leave it alone, it'll pack down. They should keep it turned enough to keep it from molding. yeah they'll eat some of it, as long as it's not long pieces to mess up their crops, it won't hurt a thing. Few months, add some leaves on top of it, but personally, I wouldn't do anything with it but leave it and let them do their thing

 

[AmyLM]

I have that much inside the houses but not the run. Keep in mind that it compacts down. We have been doing the deep method for 2 years and love it. Our runs kept getting muddy and gross (its the northwest) so we put down large bark chips that we got from a landscaping supply comapny for $10 for a truck load (my trucks an F250 extended). Mud problem solved.