4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[The good lifers]

Has anyone thought of keeping their eglu and run on decking, with either some bark/wood chips or similar?Obviously with some sort of shield to stop the chips flying everywhere?mainly for the winter whilst the grass is mud?

what would be the down side?

[Guest]

It has grooves in, so all the bits would go in the grooves....It gets VERY slippy! My eglu is on concrete at the house end of the garden and the chooks cross the decking to get to the grass. While it is wet and they have muddy feet they slip. Also, the floor of my run is very wet at the moment, deck would get soaked and stain, and would rot eventually....

[Sandychick]

It would probably be awful I have 3 decking tiles that I put in their run for them to stand on when the garden floods. It works well for this temporary purpose, but I cannot begin to describe how difficult they are to clean. The combination of poo + auboise on decking is impossible - it sets like cement and really stinks when you try to s"Ooops, word censored!"e it off. The decking gets damp and I would imagine it would rot quite quickly.

[The good lifers]

yes, I think it would rot, think I will get some slabs in that case!!so do you put the chippings over the slabs?? or around the edge?soo muddy at the moment!!I had to wash my chickens feet!!

[Guest]

I started off with bark chips, which are quite dirty to start with, and you cannot see the poo in amongst them. I recently found a place to buy some aubiose and now have than IN the run, and the chippings AROUND the outside, held in with a low border (on the concrete). You can see the poo in the aubiose and pick it out in lumps. I have it in the nest box and the poo tray too. When its been in the nest for a few days it goes down into the poo tray and gets gradually thrown away when I clean the poos out of there.

[craftyhunnypie]

Hi - I had one of my eglus on the decking for a while, with easibed in the run. I also bought a childs gazebo from Woolworths & put that over it to keep the run dry. It worked good. It was a temprary measure until the cube arrived & we got the cube area ready. Afterwards, we just jet washed the decking & you would never know anything had been there. The decking gets slippy anyway in the darker months! Best in Summer.

 

Emma.x

[The good lifers]

Thanks all- I never posted a new topic before, really nice that everyone helps you on this path to chickentopia!I think I saw they had easibed for sale in countrywide stores, my bark was working quite well untill today, it's mud covered already!! only put it down yesterday!

I think slabs might be a good idea with this bed stuff on top, they always go on the decking to jump in the flower pots, but I can see it would be better to keep all the bark off there! thank you!