[stujem]

Hi all, my chicken run is so wet with all this rain we have been having in fact it's like a river at times. I woundering what would be the best thing for me to use as a floor to stop them walking in muddy and wet ground while they are in the run. They go out but I leave them in there run in the mornings until it gets light. Has anybody used small stones or something? because if you can use stones this would be grate as it will be easy to keep clean.

[reidi]

I always add wood chippings to my run from october till the begining of April.  I called my local council tree team and they told me where to collect them free.

thanks Andy

[Skywise]

Mine are on flagstones with a covering children's play bark - easy to keep clean, non smelly (once the smell of the bark has dissipated) and the girls love it because it gives them something to scratch around in.

[asd1]

Mine are on mud like yours, they have just over half of it covered to stop rain and I also Rake up leaves from the garden for them wich incedently helps with drainage 

[stujem]

I was told not to use woodchips because of mould problems which will harm the chickens. All there run is under cover but because of all the rain it blows in everywhere and because my house is in front of a field it is running under the shed and into there run which gets about 1-3" of water, so I was hoping that I could put some stones/chippings in there about 3" think, but don't know what would be ok. I had a quote to cement the run and would cost around £250.00. which is out of my reach at the moment.

[Lewjam]

Wood chippings are find - you should avoid bark chippings though

Lew

[Andrew4613]

What's the difference between wood and bark chippings? Looked on websites and most shops like wicks and B and Q sell bark chippings!

[min200]

Wood chippings are the whole tree chipped up!  I buy mine from a local tree surgeon at the grand cost of £20 a lorry load that lasts a couple of months in the winter. 

This is by far the cheapest and easiest way to keep the mess down in my opinion.  I then shovel it all on the allotment as fertileser which works a treat!

[Tigerwren]

I also use wood chippings and you can hose them down if they do start to pong.  Also as Min says, they do make great fertiliser for the garden once your girls are finished with them.  Mine seem to last about 4 weeks or so depending on how much the girls are in the run and then I shovel and rake!

[rufty]

WRT the  wood chipping -> scoop up and dump on allotment. Does this mean you still do poo picking, or just wait until enough has built up?
Just that I don't have chickens yet but am planning ahead to when I get the chance to get some and poo picking doesn't sound like fun but lots of people seem to talk about it. If i can combine wood chipping disposal with chicken run covering and vegtable patch fertiliser then I'm a happy man!

[min200]

"-poo picking" is normally just inside the coop not thew run.  I just let them poo away give it a rake every now and then and when its full of poo dig it out and dig into my allotment!

So good stuff all round!

[ehs284]

I put 20mm gravel down 2 years ago and it has been great. They do dig holes, but you can rake back and it is self washing in the rain areas, hosed in others. Wood chippings from B&Q were fine, but became expensive and they always managed to fill the water and food troughs with wood.