Solitary chicken - need advice

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

Having seen how much garden chooks can eat their way through in a week if you leave their coop and run in one place too long on this site (they have an eglu and new chooks): http://www.blagger.co.uk/

 

I have decided to do the bark chippings in the run thing.

 

Can anyone tell me the best way of doing this? Specifically:

Depth of chips

Regularity of cleaning out

Replacing a bit at a time or all at once

Chicken propensity to kick it all out

Anything else I haven't thought about

 

And what are the pros and cons of a plastic sheet base for the chips?

 

I am putting 40cm squared paving slabs round the edge of the coop and run, if that affects anything.

 

Thanks!

Anna

[Dinkychick]

I went with the chippings option.

Firstly the run was on a concrete base but i found that with the constant rain we were getting the chippings were not draining properly... so i cleared a border in my garden http://www.dinks-designs.com/whatsnew.htm?blogentryid=3763608 and put them there... they have cleared the grass pretty much now so i am using chippings once again. I go with about an inch thick as its easier for me to rake about. I hose them through when i think they smell and this seems to work for me [i have a very good sense of smell] but because of all the rain i havent needed to use the hose.

I have a wood frame round my run to keep the chippings in... when they were on concrete the chippings were about 4inches deep and the chucks could kick them out, but they dont tend to now.

 

Hope my waffeling helps

[Eggstatic!]

I have chippinga in my run, about an inch thick. I found that they kicked the chips out so i made an chipped area around the run enclosed with log rolls.

[HENthusiastic]

HI.

Ive got my girls on approx 2/3" of wood chip. I've never changed the wood chip and so far it seems okay. I was wondering myself when I would need to lime the soil and change the woodchip. Mine have a couple of boards around the bottom of the run to stop too much being kicked out. Their wood chip is straight on earth, but they have a roof, so it doesn't get too wet.

[cammy73]

Hi

I have wood chip on the floor on top of soil....it tends to disappear.... I end up adding more every 6 months or so....

 

Sharon x

[cam1]

Hi we have our run on top of slabs, that do drain fairly well thanks to the gaps made by the ants red and bite! the bark is about 1 inch thick. We have put a row of bricks around the eglu run skirt primarily to stop any foxes but it has helped keep the bark in not sure about how often to change have not needed to yet. We have a shower curtain over the run to stop the rain getting the chickens too wet. Cam

amber lee- velma

bovan goldline- mya

[RubyReckless]

We used scaffolding boards to make a frame, dug out 6 inches of our clay soil and filled it with gravel and sharp sand for drainage (waterlogging is a big problem here). Then lined the frame with weed blanket and put about 4 inches of wood chips (sourced very cheaply from the council parks dept) on it. We turnd them over quite regularly and after a year renew them and use the old ones as mulch around some garden shrubs.

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

Good tip, Ruby. Thanks! I hadn't thought to use them as mulch. Can you do that with shop-bought ones do you think or are they too 'treated'?

 

Do people find they have much poo smelling if they don't change their bark chipping every now and then?

[RubyReckless]

sure, don't see why not - that's what they are usual sold for, I think. But unless you have already bought the wood chips, do give the the council a call - we got two 1 tonne bags of wood chips for £15.