What's the best ground cover for a run

[ADozenGirlz]

Good for you! Let us know how you like it!

 

[Uncle Mark]

I give them tomatoes oranges and other fruits how do you get the fruit not mixed in with Sand ?

 

[Uncle Mark]

The sand is working great so far, they like it and keeps the smell down. I added another section in the middle to
give them more room, now they have 8 x 4 run and a trumpet vine for some shade in the summer.

 

[Monica58]

I am new to all of this chicken stuff, but I can tell you that I bought 3 bags of play yard sand and spread it in the bottom of the chicken coop and it's much better now. The dirt was getting very nasty and I do find the sand filters the poop when I hose it out from time to time. The smell is much better too.

I'm thinking about adding gravel too.

Monica

 

[themkleclair]

Hi! I have been following your blog since our flock arrived! The
Girls have happily been outside for the last month. I did so much research on ground covering and decided to go with sand. It was working wonderfully until this week when we have had three days of rain. Our covered run is only 2' x 11' so it gets saturated quite fast, with no drying in sight. I've posted in other threads, but respect you blog and chicken knowledge I thought I'd reach out to you! I'll attach an image of our set. Up. Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. I'm somewhat handy, but probably couldn't build something too complicated. Thank you in advance!

 

[themkleclair]

 

[Monica58]

Uncle Mark,

I let my chickens run around most of the day and put them in the coop if I leave my house and definitely every evening. We have put things out near the chicken coop for them to eat, so we don't have issues with the sand. My husband threw food in there once and I removed it right away. We do have a good amount of land, so that is why this works for us.

Monica58

 

[busymom]

Do all of you let your chickens free range?
Ours are in the coop or run all day as we don't let them free range. I have been looking into redoing the run because it's just a muddy mess at this point. The ducks don't help that problem.

 

[ezicash]

I buy play sand (40 lbs) and place 1/2 bag in a large but shallow tote but everytime it rains my playsand somehow gets moist and i have to change it. Can I use screening sand since I have plenty left over from my shed flooring. This is for their dust bath. Their run is on grass and I move their run once a month to new grass. I keep tarp over half my run/coop for shad and protection from rain but my sand still get wet

 

[Monica58]

I let mine out every morning for a couple of hours. I keep the door closed so they can't have access to their food. Usually, when I want them to go back in, I call them and they come running. I head to the coop and open the door and they usually come running inside. It doesn't always happen this easy though. It may sound a bit harsh, but they don't like getting wet, so when I'm in a hurry to leave for work, I spray a stream of water toward them and they go running for the coop. We let them out in the late afternoon evenings too and they are usually ready to go back in when it's dusk.

It's fun to watch them go about all over.

Monica