Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: rosie14 on June 11, 2012, 22:08
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hi we probably have a 20x4 foot run to the side of our house which is partially covered at both ends and has a mud floor but the chooks come out most days but only with supervision these days!!!!! :blink:
Since our Orpington hatched 3 Pekin chicks 3 weeks ago we rehomed our 2nd hen (a bluebell) to my mum and dads big flock. I know the weather of late has been particularly wet and nasty but regardelss of this we'd like a better floor especially with feather footed friends hopefully staying - if they are hens I mean.
Ultimately a floor that is cheap and easier to maintain and wash down so we were thinking of paving 1/2 of it and leaving the mud floor as it is at the far end where their house is. Is that ok do you think? I think it is the best solution but am unsure.
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As long as they have an area to scratch around in and make dust baths some paving should be fine :)
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We have started to pave our run as it gets so swampy in weather like this.
We bought a childs sandpit as a dust bath and at the moment it has turned into a paddling pool :wacko:
We put straw over the slabs so they still do loads of scratching.
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We have slabs in the garden where the chooks come during the day. They love to sunbathe on them.
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Your pekins are going to need something like aubiose/easybed/shavings etc on the floor to protect their leg and foot feathers. If they remain on mud, you will have to do a foot check every day, and be prepared to wash feet etc, as mud balls hanging off the feathers can be very painful.
If you do slab an area, either leave one area slab free, or give the whole thing a deep covering of something the chickens can scratch in :)
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Our run is two thirds slabs which we cover with miscanthus or some times straw. Thw other third is soil which get a good dig over every now and then. They have made a lovely big pit? which I top up with sand and diatom roughly once a month.
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thanks for your replies, really helpful. With the slabs over 1/2 the run looking like the best idea how often do you change the covering or does it depend on what you use on top? Thanks all.
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Not sure if this is helpful as I am a novice chook keeper. We had a mud run which rapidly turned into a swamp. We made a temporary roof over half the run - which we are going to make permanent which solved the problem, we then put in in some sand which seemed to dry up all the mud even in the unroofed section. I regularly disinfect the sand/soil & my hausband fairly frequently digs over the ground - chooks get especially exicted after it has been dug. Occasionally we add some extra sand.
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Our run has paving tiles and we cover it with a thick layer of Easy Bed or something similar. The hens love scratching in it and make nice deep nests to sit in while resting. Dirt baths are taken when we let them out to free range under out supervision.
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Are you going to provide a roofed area to kep them dry, mine only go inside to roost or lay eggs.
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front and far end covered with the clear wriggly style plastic roofing leaving the middle (and majority) of the run exposed to the elements.