What kind of substrate?

[RhondaWW]

Hello all. We are close to finished with hen house and chicken run construction and would love some advice on what the best substrate is for both. I have read that straw is best and other sites suggest sand.
We are currently using pine shavings in the temporay chick hutch. Do we need to put anything down on the chicken run? The run is under the shade of a giant Chestnut tree and is sparsely grassed with some dry dirt patches. My chicks are bantam cochins so I don't want their feet feathers to get mucky when its wet out.
Love to hear from you experts out there.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello all. We are close to finished with hen house and chicken run construction and would love some advice on what the best substrate is for both. I have read that straw is best and other sites suggest sand.
We are currently using pine shavings in the temporay chick hutch. Do we need to put anything down on the chicken run? The run is under the shade of a giant Chestnut tree and is sparsely grassed with some dry dirt patches. My chicks are bantam cochins so I don't want their feet feathers to get mucky when its wet out.
Love to hear from you experts out there.

I like wood chips in the run. The chickens like to dig through them and dust bathe in them and they are a good medium for composting the poop.

I get them for free from a local Town Highway Department. They collect curbside branches, shred them and offer them to residents for free.

I used to use pine shavings in the coop but switched to hemp for this year. I only clean the coop bedding out once a year. I use poop boards that are cleaned each morning.

 

[RhondaWW]

Wood chips sounds like a great idea, especially if you get it for free! Thanks for the idea and for the pics!

 

[3KillerBs]

Look up the Deep Litter Method for your run.

The short form is that you set up a cold composting system using a mix of "brown" materials -- wood chips, wood shavings, pine straw, straw, fall leaves, or whatever else comes to hand -- to absorb and react with the chicken poop. You can seed in the compost bacteria by including some partially composted leaves/pine straw raked out of a tree line (you want the moist layer underneath). If you don't have that the ground contact will do the job, just a little slower at first.

Just keep layering it in as needed until it either gets inconveniently high or you want compost for the garden. I had one too many chickens for my in-town setup and never had any odor problem that a few inches of pine straw couldn't solve.

 

[RhondaWW]

Right! I remember reading about this method too! Thanks for the clear description of how to layer and what specifically to use. I love this site and all of you experts! Appreciate you taking the time to help.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm not a chicken expert, but I do have a lot of experience with cold composting methods.

 

[K0k0shka]

I do cold composting, too, but even easier since I haven't been able to find a good source of wood chips or other bulk material in my area. What I do instead is I use yard waste from my yard. I saved up leaves from last fall, in bags in a dry area, and spread them over the run this spring, along with the raked up material from the big spring clean-up of the yard (all the dead grass, twigs, etc.) I have a whole mound of yard waste material that I pull from as needed. Also, whenever I mow the lawn I throw all the collected grass clippings in the run as well. Any weeds I pull from the garden, hedge trimmings, etc. The chickens enjoy eating the grass clippings and the leaves from the trimmed shrubbery. They scratch everything around really well. It looks like a forest floor and doesn't smell. I was thinking I might still need to find wood chips at some point, but now I'm starting to doubt it, as yard waste has been working out so well. It’s free and easy, and there's an unlimited supply of it!

This is what it looks like:

And this is what it looks like on mow day:

 

[RhondaWW]

This looks very easy and aesthetically pleasing! Love it! Thanks again for sharing and especially for the pictures!

 

[RhondaWW]

I do cold composting, too, but even easier since I haven't been able to find a good source of wood chips or other bulk material in my area. What I do instead is I use yard waste from my yard. I saved up leaves from last fall, in bags in a dry area, and spread them over the run this spring, along with the raked up material from the big spring clean-up of the yard (all the dead grass, twigs, etc.) I have a whole mound of yard waste material that I pull from as needed. Also, whenever I mow the lawn I throw all the collected grass clippings in the run as well. Any weeds I pull from the garden, hedge trimmings, etc. The chickens enjoy eating the grass clippings and the leaves from the trimmed shrubbery. They scratch everything around really well. It looks like a forest floor and doesn't smell. I was thinking I might still need to find wood chips at some point, but now I'm starting to doubt it, as yard waste has been working out so well. It’s free and easy, and there's an unlimited supply of it!

This is what it looks like:
View attachment 2225766

And this is what it looks like on mow day:
View attachment 2225779

Question: is your run covered?

 

[K0k0shka]

Question: is your run covered?

Yes.