What's your favorite flooring for a run?

[ninanonna]

So I need help picking the best surface for a run. We currently have gravel, but we don't like the way it cleans (more appropriately, how it doesn't clean). What's your favorite material?

 

[Bosque]

I am in the desert where it doesnt rain as much as it does in Portland, but here is what I do.
In my urban run, I first dusted the soil with DE, then a layer of horse pellet animal bedding, then pine chips over that. It worked out really well for me. The DE keeps the mites away, the animal bedding absorbs anything wet and smelly and the wood chips makes it easy to rake out the poops.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

I'm up in Olympia where I get as much or more rain than you in Portland and am really liking the wood chips in my run.

My run is a former horse paddock that started out clay topped with 8-10" of pea gravel. When the rain hit, the water soaked clay ate up the pea gravel with the horses walking on it so I put down 1" stall mats it the worst areas and spread lots and lots of FREE wood chips I got delivered for FREE from tree trimming company that chipped them.

The chickens are constantly scratching in the chips that spreads and buries the poo so it dries out.

I have a portion of my run covered and plan to cover the rest so it stays dry in the rainy months.

 

[Anny]

sand is nice.

 

[kassy68]

OK.. no questions SAND! I was born up by Seattle, and lived in Vancounver / Portland area. I would not use wood chips because of the rain. I just put sand in mine because we needed fill dirt in it anyway. Its wonderful, been done about a mth and when it rains there are no puddles and dries very quickly, also if you want to clean it up you get a rake when its dry and rake it... this is not beach sand, this is more of a fill sand

 

[ninanonna]

I've read a lot of people are worried about flies. Are they a threat or just a nuisance? Flies have greatly increased in our yard since I've been letting my flock free range. But there's not much I can do about where and when they poo when they're roaming.

 

[hearthnsoul]

I just love plain dirt floors, Raked it and left it just to see and somehow it manages to stay nice even with the messy ducks.
We just started an addition on the half built coop,..my poor husband,..for the goats and I opted to do a a quasi loft for the goats to sleep on, but I am leaving the floors dirt,..unlike the wood flooring in the coop. When I realized how wonderful the dirt floor stood up to the ducks muck in the run I thought it's a no brainer for the goat barn.

 

[Junkybird]

I love the sand that we have in ours. We got 4 tons of river sand delivered to our house. We filled the coop and half of the run that used to be muddy. Now I don't have a wet coop, the smell is gone and it rakes nicely. I just hope that I don't have to keep adding sand every year! Also, I have yet to do it, but have been told to scoop out the poop with a kitty scooper. Still looking for a HUGE one to use for the job.

Sand rocks.

 

[chookchick]

Hi I am also from Olympia (HI sweet cheeks!) and it really does rain a lot here--more than in Seattle or Portland

I have another vote for wood chip. Free. Easy to move. Hens love to scratch in it. Never smells. Even the uncovered parts of my run do NOT get wet and soggy, they are just fine.
Just rake it out every few months and put in some fresh stuff--boy do the hens love it if it has sat around a bit with worms, etc.....
I throw sand in once in a while so they have some grit.

 

[The Gotfeather]

Hi ninanonna, I do apologise because this could just be a confusion between Australian and American terms. In Australia a run is where the chickens spend most of their day foraging, this is a great opportunity for free food and great beneficial excercise for them if it is a grassed/overgrown area simailar to that which can be seen behind the coop in kassy68's pics. I try to design a run so that it is mobile and can be moved once there is little or no grass remaining. This area can then be used as a potential vegetable garden bed.

However there are many limitations as to what we all have available for our feathered friends. My approach would be to look at what their natural environment was and to mimic that to the best of my ability.