What is best for the run floor/ground area?

[coop-er]

I have a new coop and run. As expected, the chickens have eaten all of the grass in the run and it is now mostly dirt. I rake it out every other day and due to the tin roof and the location, it is staying remarkably dry. My original plan was to fill it with sand at some point (prob next year) but now I am wondering if that is even necessary. Is it OK to have a run floor that is just dry dirt? Or should I begin adding sand? Thanks for the help.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It's really a matter of personal preference - I've always done dirt runs, but there are just as many who are die-hard sand (or any number of other choices) fans.

 

[Katalina]

I have the same question. We just got our first four chicks three weeks ago and plan to have the coop and run in our yard. It is grass now but I'm sure it will be dirt when the chickens make it their home. We have a friend who uses gravel on the floor and we had planned that but then read about how hard it is to clean and that it can hurt their feet. Then I read about sand and now I am just confused about how clean that will be. Because we live in rural New England we can get a lot of snow so we are going to roof the run and I am hoping that will keep it fairly dry. So dirt? gravel? sand? other?

I would appreciate any thoughts. I just want to do what is best.

Katalina

 

[David1998]

Growing up, our small coop had dirt and some relatives' larger coops also had dirt. I think's it's a preference depending on how much smell you can tolerate and how nice you want it too look. That's assuming you haven't packed them in so much that it's not sanitary.