[boybrown]

HI folks,

we've been up and running now for two weeks and (touch wood) have four happy chooks and no Mr Fox yet!  Can I ask to anyone who has mobile coops, how often they rotate them and also how often they clean the ground of poo?  There are maybe three, possibly four places that I can fit the run (on the allotment grass) and coup so want to make sure that I protect the ground and also give the chooks a good base. I've seen that some people have mentioned 'hosing down' the ground to clear it, is that good practice?

Wer'e delighted to now be bought egg free as three of the girls have started laying mmmmm.!

 

[joyfull]

chicken poo is very good fertilizer (as an allotmenteer I'm sure you will have seen the pelleted form) and hosing down is fine. You could also pick it up if firm enough and pop it straight into your compost bin (I think it is too strong to be put straight onto plants). I would move your coop weekly then this way the ground can recover (and in that short space of time it shouldn't have been damaged too badly). If your girls get an illness though I would treat the ground that they were on rather than just hosing down.

[8doubles]

I had 3 chooks in a 2.4x2.4 run on grass and moved it weekly the grass was fine. Leave it longer and it gets threadbare.
I had room for 9 moves before i was back to square one.
I just pooh picked leaving soggy ones to dry out first, no hosing.

[hillfooter]

Moving more often is much better than allowing the grass to become denuded by leaving it longer.  To break a worm cycle it's reckoned that a 6 week rotation is required which most people with a small run like yours can't manage so you should make sure you worm regularly 3 or 4 times a year say 3 times during the warmer months end March to end Sept and once mid winter.
HF