[Brad26]

Hi i've recently moved my hens into a permanent run as quite frankly they were tearing my garden apart. The area is about 8 metres by 4 metres made with concrete posts and 6 foot fencing panels. There's no roof but i am planning on putting a clear tarpulin thats on order over part of it so that they can have a dry area on rainy days. I'm in the Ipswich, Suffolk area and we have had quite a bit of rain over recent weeks and this has turned the ground from just dry dirt to a bit of a quagmire. I've only been keeping chickens since last year and so i'm not sure what to put on the ground to keep things a bit fresher what to do with it when its down and how often it will need changing. I would appreciate any advice from some of the more experianced members on here could pass onto me.

Many thanks

Brad

[New shoot]

Hi Brad - this one comes up quite a lot and the concensus seems to be woodchip/bark chips, although lots keep chickens on slabs, gravel etc.......

I use bark chip and hose it down regularly.  I rake the whole lot out and change every 3 months. I use the old stuff as garden mulch. You need to keep on top of worming in a fixed run.  I worm every 6 months with Flubenvet and the whole of my run is roofed with clear plastic sheeting to prevent wild bird droppings falling in there.  I also find this keeps the litter fresher as I can hose down even in fairly wet weather without making a mudbath

[Ruby Red]

Ive just sorted my run out. Like yours it was like the Somme, so I sprinkled garden lime over the whole area while the hens were inside the coop. I tried to dig it in a bit then emptied 6 bags of big bark from BnQ.The lime helps to neutralize the pooey soil lol.

[Brad26]

Thanks for the advice guys. I've decided to get hold of some clear tarpulin to completely cover the run to keep it dry and will then cover the ground with a good thickness of wood chips.

[Casey76]

I've had a lot os success with aubuoise in a covered run (though it is only for my sabelpoots to it is a small run).

Once a week I rake it over, taking to the ince or so off to the compost heap, and put fresh down.

If I have to move the run, the rest can be dug back into the ground

[alisonwo]

I tried the bark but was not happy with it, when wet it gets slimmy and slippery and apparently gets nasty spores in it.  I raked it all out and spread it on the garden and replaced with pebbles.  I can hose these down ok and rake over well as often as I like without them breaking down.  Only problem we have is our soil is heavy clay and getting it to drain is a problem.   Could definitely do with covering as much of the run as I can to keep it drier, but the fruit trees cause a problem here.  Hubby is going to make some soil boxes for them to dust bathe in which they miss I know.

[peter rooster]

Hi

My run is all 80% roofed and flagged with straw on top of flags. It is easy to claen and gives good manure  garden. They love the gaps between the flags and peck up loose corn from them . Putting an earth box in soon and I am going to extend to two bare earth areas as soon as it warms up a bit.

peter rooster

[Rhiannon]

Ive just put 14-20mm gravel in my run  and left some places to scratch free and to dust bathe ...however its early days yet, i intend to hose down and use a good disinfectant  to keep it fresh...

[binghamd]

I mainly use leaves (beech) and after a few months they have done a great job of breaking it down and it can go into the garden. In the summer wood chippings. Never had problems with it getting slippers or slimey. Maybe its what I get, from  a tree surgeon.

[Dickie73]

we had the same problems  - started with grass (for week one which just got trashed) then had bare mud which got really wet, then put wood chips down which got covered in poop and wet and yuk and have now tried sand -  two bags of play sand which seems to be really effective. it needs raking over a bit as the birds trample it down but it appears to prevent the mud bath effect and the poo just sort of disappears into it. we're about 8 weeks in and it doesn't look like it'll need changing any time soon

[viettaclark]

My run is covered with a large tarpaulin and I use bark chippings on the earth very successfully.
I too suffered damage to the lawn when the run was on the grass but I let the girls out each afternoon to freerange and because they dig in the bark in the run they spend their time EATING the grass, not digging holes!