Topic of the week - Chicken run management

[mstamme2u]

- How big should you make the run/how much space per chicken?
Our hen house is 6.5ft x 8ft, the run will be 9ft x 11ft. We have 13 hens.

- How do you predator proof the run?
Our hen house (coop) has 4 solid walls using all wood and is covered with a corrugated metal roof. All windows and vents are covered with 1/2" hardware cloth. The run will be all 1/2" hardware cloth with corrugated roofing and digging down 1ft along the front of hen house to put 1/2" hardware cloth to avoid any penetration into the run from underneath the Hen house. The Other 3sides of the run will have 1ft of the 1/2" hardware cloth extended on top of the ground to prevent any digging under the walls of the run.

- How do you manage droppings build-up and how often should you clean the run?
I installed a "poop board", which collects all the poop from when the hens are sleeping at night, every 1-2 days the poop is scraped off into a bucket to be added to the garden at a later time during the Spring. We use wood shavings on the floor, most poop gets worked in, so add a light layer every 2-3 weeks. Plan on cleaning it out and starting with fresh wood shavings in the Spring.

- What are the best flooring/bedding materials (if any)?
I chose wood shavings for the smell and absorbancy of any and all liquid (i.e. poop, water spillage, etc.)

 

[BBB Becky]

My run started off as huge for the 6 chickens I planned on getting, now it feels a little overcrowded with my 19. However they spend very little time in the run, I let them out into the garden. It's about 30 square meters (320 square feet) in all, but that includes 2 coops, a sick pen and an old rabbit hutch they use as shelter.

To fox proof it I spent 4 weeks preparing the run before the original hens arrived. I buried vertical flagstones along the sides of the run so it has 3 foot of solid concrete underneath. If foxy can bury deeper than that in 1 night respect to him. I then put coated wire 6 inches down the concrete on the outside of the concrete and nailed it to fence posts. I also lined the edges with heavy rocks but I think this may have been overkill. Cage wire is also over the top and I have trained blackberry brambles over the run so anything trying to climb over the run gets a lovely amount of thorns in their feet whilst the chickens get some lovely blackberries in the autumn and I get caught going to lock them up at night.

Build up is scraped off when the run starts to get slippy. Frankly it's a real pain as the run is built on heavy wet clay and this forces its way up through the stone chippings I put as a base which means it needs doing a lot, even though the hens spend a fraction of their time in the run. I'm considering planting a few chicken proof plants in there just to dry the ground out so I don't have to do it every ruddy month, twice a month in winter or they'll end up with trench foot.

Bedding material is just wood shavings (bulk from the local building supplier, he prepares them for us, massive 2 meter by 1 meter bag for 99p) I've given up with flooring material, it's just one more thing to scrape out. If I could find something that isn't concrete that I could hose off once a week with the coops I would consider, but I can't. Suggestions welcome.

 

[BBB Becky]

I just added six pullets (four months old) to my existing flock. They are in the same run but separated by plywood and fence. Should I deworm these new pullets? No sign of parasites though.

 

[Piton]

- How big should you make the run/how much space per chicken?
Our hen house is 6.5ft x 8ft, the run will be 9ft x 11ft. We have 13 hens.

- How do you predator proof the run?
Our hen house (coop) has 4 solid walls using all wood and is covered with a corrugated metal roof. All windows and vents are covered with 1/2" hardware cloth. The run will be all 1/2" hardware cloth with corrugated roofing and digging down 1ft along the front of hen house to put 1/2" hardware cloth to avoid any penetration into the run from underneath the Hen house. The Other 3sides of the run will have 1ft of the 1/2" hardware cloth extended on top of the ground to prevent any digging under the walls of the run.

- How do you manage droppings build-up and how often should you clean the run?
I installed a "poop board", which collects all the poop from when the hens are sleeping at night, every 1-2 days the poop is scraped off into a bucket to be added to the garden at a later time during the Spring. We use wood shavings on the floor, most poop gets worked in, so add a light layer every 2-3 weeks. Plan on cleaning it out and starting with fresh wood shavings in the Spring.

- What are the best flooring/bedding materials (if any)?
I chose wood shavings for the smell and absorbancy of any and all liquid (i.e. poop, water spillage, etc.)

I thought wood shavings could cause respiratory issues.

 

[cluckcluckhens]

In 2014 we built an outbuilding 10-20, half is the coop and other is for the riding mower. We have wooden floors down layered by two layers of plastic and then straw. We just changed out the plastic and straw a week ago and the girls did not ruin the wood flooring at all since it was protected by the plastic. We removed old boxes, and laying boards and swept and vacuumed out half of the palace (coop). We gave the girls two shorter laying boards and one higher laying board on the other side of their space since they were getting their laying boxes dirty. The run is longer and wider than the coop and we have 7 girls since we lost rooster and three girls a few years ago.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-coop-run.1469740/#post-24484256
Here is my run if anyone is interested.

I pick up loose droppings with a shovel, then when the bedding (hemp) is really dirty, I rake it all up and replace it with fresh hemp.
My run is only for my 8 chickens, they aren't large breeds of chicken.
I use a layer of hemp on the ground and a cover over the run to prevent mud.
It has flower pots along the outside of the run to stop predators digging under. It also has a lockable gate and roof.
I use hemp bedding since it's cheap and can be used for the coop and run. It can also be used for my tortoises, so I don't have to buy separate bedding. It's easy to scoop up poop from it and it's easy to just rake it up and change it.

 

[Show Sebright]

My show girls (and boy) don’t have a run. They get to come outside for about and hour every day. But don’t worry they had big coops and ate living a happy life. My egg laying girls live in a coop that is shaped similar to the tractor supply coop, but it is the size of 2 together. This coop’s run is decent sized boy I can’t get it bigger right now. The floor is a 1 tall pile of sand (for drainage). They come out 1-2 times a day to free range.

 

[ladyhand]

It has flower pots along the outside of the run to stop predators digging under. It also has a lockable gate and roof.

How does this prevent digging? I'm assuming that there spaces between the pots, or someone could knock them over? I'm not criticizing, I think it would be beautiful, I'm merely trying to figure it out. Maybe I'm picturing it wrong?

 

[PippinTheChicken]

How does this prevent digging? I'm assuming that there spaces between the pots, or someone could knock them over? I'm not criticizing, I think it would be beautiful, I'm merely trying to figure it out. Maybe I'm picturing it wrong?

if the predators wanted to dig they would have to go further from the coop.
the pots being there might discourage them.
there are spaces between them but they are very small gaps for a fox to fit through

 

[Aunt Tat]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-coop-run.1469740/#post-24484256
Here is my run if anyone is interested.

I pick up loose droppings with a shovel, then when the bedding (hemp) is really dirty, I rake it all up and replace it with fresh hemp.
My run is only for my 8 chickens, they aren't large breeds of chicken.
I use a layer of hemp on the ground and a cover over the run to prevent mud.
It has flower pots along the outside of the run to stop predators digging under. It also has a lockable gate and roof.
I use hemp bedding since it's cheap and can be used for the coop and run. It can also be used for my tortoises, so I don't have to buy separate bedding. It's easy to scoop up poop from it and it's easy to just rake it up and change it.

Where do you get "cheap" hemp bedding?

We have access to ground-up tree cuttings, etc so we were thinking of going with that. I'd like to have access to hemp because I want to try new things and give the Laidies some new environmental discoveries.