Single hen

[YickerAL]

Hi

 

Just moved the run and Eglu onto Wood Chippings, and was planning on changing the chippings every couple of weeks. A couple of questions though and would really appreciate some help!

 

1. Is changng them fortnightly enough? Should it be weekly, or could we actually get away with monthly?

 

2. I read somewhere that there is a powder you can sprinkle onto the chippings to kill bacteria etc. I can't remember what it's called!

 

Thanks for your help folks!

 

Andy

[alih]

I rake the chippings over regularly but only actually replace them every four months or so! The stuff I think you are talking about is called Stalosan F which is a safe disinfectant. WHen I change the chippings I rake them all up, dig over the earth and sprinkle Stalosan, dig it all in again and put the new chips on top. Quite a big job, hence only a few times a year!

[finger lickin good]

Are they hardwood chippings or bark chippings. We orginally started with bark chippings but these never eally dried out and needed changing every month. We then changed to hardwood chippings which are much better and only need changing every 6 months. We rake them over every week, and sprinkle garden lime on them which gets rid of any smells. The girls are much happier now.

[Blackrocksrock]

As my girls only go in the run at night time and first thing in the morning and they freerange all the time otherwise I have never in 1 year changed the chippings as they have not needed it - there is a cover on the run so its dry and I have just put some diatom and stalosan sprinkled on it - the chippings came from my husbands chippeR (commercial) and they had been mulched for ages before I put them down to get them heated and dried out first. They could not be used straight from the machine - have to sit in a pile to steam away for ages first.

[PurpleTree]

I've had my girls since October and I've only changed the chippings once. I did it in January. I rake them over though and sprinkle down Stalosan F. I've recently bought some hardwood chippings from B&Q to do it again, as the last lot of bark chippings I bought don't seem to have lasted so well. I think because of the wet weather we had, although the run is covered, a lot of the rain blew in through the run door end, and the ground became very wet around the run. Couldn't face changing them more often, it took me ages and it was really hard work.