Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[pat gearing]

We have a very small garden and keep 2 hens in an eglu with extra length run and have been moving them every three days during the summer. We are finding now that the grass does not have time to rejuvenate and need advice on what to use with winter coming. Would pea shingle be suitable, does one use paving underneath?. We keep a large dust bath in the run and this is often changed. They love to scratch the grass and we do not know whether to leave a certain amount for them. Have heard that wood bark is not suitable. Any advice please?

[jlo]

Hi Pat

 

I am a bit of a newbie myself but have read various threads on this forum where people suggest different things.

 

bedding link

 

Have a look at this one for some ideas and I am sure that others will be along to assist soon.

[Sandychick]

I think to save your grass it would be a good idea to keep them in one place! Auboise (horse bedding) works very well on the ground. They enjoy scratching about in it and it absorbs poo and smells nice I use this but it does need to be kept dry with a cover on the run. It goes a bit yuck when it's wet as it absorbs everything.

 

It is easy to keep clean with a bit of poo picking and only needs to be changed about once a month. A bale of Auboise lasts months for an eglu run.

 

[Redwing]

I think you are right that wood bark is not ideal as it can harbour mould I believe. Lots of people do use bark with no problems though and I think you get varying degrees of quality which may effect the useability of it.

 

Wood chip is ok though, I use hardwood chips from B&Q (4 bags does a standard run with converter nicely) I covered the top of the woodchip with Aubiose which although it got trodden in quickly it all works well and I am delighted with it. The wood chips would also work well on their own though.

 

A run cover helps!

 

One other thing I did was to use some small square weldmesh all the way under the Eglu and run to stop vermin burrowing in, this also stops the woodchip mixing with the mud underneath, I was worried it may damage the girls feet but they seem fine even when they dig down to it (I did go to great lengths to get the mesh completely flat against the ground though!)

 

TBH I was going to use slabs as a base as I think they would be ideal but my car was only 4 days old when I did my set up and I wanted to keep it clean by not filling it with slabs!

 

I think at least one forum member uses gravel in their run with no problems.

 

Sandychick - your run looks immaculate!

[sandyhas3chucks]

You could try the plastic runner stuff for carpets too. burn some drainage holes in it. mine were happy on it. grass got sunlight. need to keep taking it out to wash/mop mind and air the grass but if you are still moving it it shouldn't be too bad. cost £5 a small roll I think. certainly give you time to think about other options too whilst saving your grass, they still get to peck apound the edges too which is nice.

[Hen Watch]

In winter I do exactly the same as Sandychick. Auboise, shower curtain run cover, change auboise once a month. Re-seed the winter run area come spring and it bounces back for the summer when you can move them around again.

[pat gearing]

Thankyou all for your replies, we now know what to do to make the girls' happy for the winter.

[cluckingmad]

just adding my two penneth! We had the same problem and now use aubiose which is fab. we couldn't find a clear shower curtain so my OH used clear polythene from hoembase (the type you use for polytunnels) and attached in over the run with two bungee cords (also from homebase).

 

works a treat