[Angelina]

Hello,
I was hoping someone could give me advice on what to do with the chicken coop run's floor. It is very muddy as the grass has been scratched away and is extremely smelly, this has happened twice before and we had to scrape away the ground, although this has gone in the compost, i just wondered how else we could keep it clean and less smelly the girls do have access to the garden but stay in the covered run when its wet which is obviously most days at the moment.
We are about to move the chicken house and run and wanted to know whether we needed to put it on a hard standing area like concrete, i was thinking that with wood chippings we could at least hose it clean reguarly!
Any ideas would be appreciated.

[poultrygeist]

Hi Angelina.

How big is your run and how many hens do you have in it ?

First thing is to put a roof on if you can. The smell is due to the wet ground fermenting. If you can keep it (mostly) dry, it shouldn't smell.
We've put down a load of straw which keeps them busy rummaging and mops up any residual mud.

If you put them on hard standing, you'll need to put in some soft litter such as bark chippings, horse bedding, etc but these would be better with a roof over them.

Rob

[Angelina]

the run is about 3m x 1.5m and does have a proper roof that covers it as my husband built it to incorporate the house as well and we only have three ex bats.

[poultrygeist]

You'd find it improves a bit if you could give them a bit more space too. Ours have about 3sq metres ish a piece and still make a mess !

Putting softwood bark chippings or straw down would make a difference if you can lay them thickly enough.

In order to sweeten the soil a bit, you can dig it over, sprinkle some garden lime on top and lightly fork it in, but you may need to keep them off it for a few days. This neutralises the soil and stops it becoming so rancid.

Rob

[ScottBarton]

I thought about this alot when planning my coop. I have around the same size run area which for starters is covered with a slight sloping roof. I then put a layer of around 2" builders sand followed by some cheap paving slabs. Some of them i broke up and sort of 'crazy paved' but did not use any cement so that any mouisture would drain into the sand/soil beneath. I then covered the whole lot with about 2" of bark chippings. You can get a 100ltr bag from B&Q for under £5 and find it lasts for around 5 or 6 coverings. I clean the nestbox/coop out once a week and the run area every other week.
I also spread some Stalosan F in the coop to combat any potential smell. And i quote "Environment - Ammonia (The only effective remedy), Hydrogen Sulphide (The bad smells disappear), Moisture (Dry out the stable floor).
"

Here is a link with some more info. I bought mine from here.
http://www.regencypoultry.com/disinfectant/stalosan_F.htm
Works a treat!

[Angelina]

thanks, i think we'll go with the concrete floor, but we'll definitely get some of the Stalosan F. Do you put it on top of the bark or underneath?
   

[ScottBarton]

I just give it a good sprinke all over the top. The chickens soon turn it all over anway from the scratching. It also kills any fly eggs and larvae that may be deposited. I am guessing that would be more so in the summer months. (Only had my birds for a month)

[blossom1044]

We've got our run on concrete with plenty of Easibed and playbark woodchip.  We used to have them on grass like you and had the same problem, so we moved the run.  also by putting it on the concrete we get less things trying to dig under it!

The disadvantage is that you have to clean out the bedding regularly.  We do ours every 3 to 4 weeks depending on the weather.  We top it up in between and use Salosan for the smell.

We tried straw & shavings, but it would turn into lumps on the chooks feet.  Though our chooks enjoyed their feet being bathed!  Very laid back about being in a bucket of luke warm water!

good luck.