[swedishchicken]

Hi,
After months of trial and error, it got better once the run was covered!
 I now use topsoil, which I just top up with bags I buy from B&Q, and can easily be dug over to keep it fresh An added bonus is that any leftover seed they dont eat, grows underneath the topsoil, and when I turn it over they munch the sprouting seeds

[orchardlady]

Grass...but at his time of year extremely short! I can't wait for it to start to grow again.

OL

[sheridan]

I have tried shingle and bark chips on top of our soil, but neither has beene asy to clean, and both smelt more than was pleasant before they should have. So now I just have......mud! Which i dig over every month or so, and add more mud and gravel to.  It is nigh on impossible to poo pick as I'm out all day, and the bark chips and shingle just got poo-ey. The mud is actually better!

[francais]

My run is built on a higher level in our garden, so we dug down about 3 - 4ft, filled this with hardcore, then a thick layer of small stone/gravel then this get topped with play bark, which still turns to mud! about 3 or 4 times a year we dig out back down to the stone layer and add fresh bark.

[evie2]

I've used play bark in the past, now we use Bliss and the big chooks also free range

[Abacus]

Everything in our garden gets shredded including branches and cuttings from the hedge and that goes into the chicks run. Every so often it gets raked up and recycled around the fruit bushes or into neighbours gardens.

I also get sacks of tree chipping from a local tree surgeon... the only downside to this is that I have to fill my sacks from his trailer myself He doesn't have to dump them himself so he is quite happy.

[hillfooter]

Everything in our garden gets shredded including branches and cuttings from the hedge and that goes into the chicks run. Every so often it gets raked up and recycled around the fruit bushes or into neighbours gardens.

I also get sacks of tree chipping from a local tree surgeon... the only downside to this is that I have to fill my sacks from his trailer myself He doesn't have to dump them himself so he is quite happy.

Just make sure there's nothing poisonous in it like yew and preferably compost it for a few months first.
HF

[Abacus]

Leaving it in a plastic chick feed sack speeds up the process quite a lot.

Yew is not a problem round here... the strangest tree remains I have come across is Monkey Puzzle...