Single hen

[vetty82]

Hi,

 

We are considering putting our cube onto wood chips for the girls as we've lost most of the grass where the cube is situated.

 

Our garden is an OK size but with the kids swings/slides dont have a massive amount of room to move everything round too much so we figured a spot for the girls to stay in will be better.

 

Where do you get the wood chip from? And how much do you pay? I've had a little nosy round the internet, but don't really know what I'm looking for.

 

Adivce please?

 

Thanks

 

Vetty

x

[marshwiggle]

Hi, we have our coop and run on slabs with woodchip. We did make the mistake of assuming that playbark is the same as woodchip - it's not. The playbark stays very damp and mushy. We noticed the difference straight away when we changed to actual woodchip. I can recommend B&Q who were doing 4 bags of chip for about the £12 mark. It seems to go quite along way but obviously depends on the area and depth you want. Hope this helps.

[Falkor]

Hi

 

I did the woodchip thing in my Eglu run and I agree it is much better than bark but I had problems when it came to getting rid of it. Woodchip doesn`t compost very quickly and if I didn`t get inside the run and poo pick every day it did form big muddy pooy clumps so was having to throw it quite often.

 

With regular poo picking and a rake over each day I left two bags in there for about seven weeks before doing a full clean and new woodchip.

 

I got my Woodchip from B&Q.

 

I use Aubiose now and LOVE IT!

 

There is a woodchip thread going on in Eglus, Cubes and Runs : viewtopic.php?f=4&t=41384&view=unread#unread

Edited March 30, 2009 by Guest

[jill the potter]

Was just about to suggest the same. I started using it before Christmas and used about one and a half bags to give a two inch depth covering for a standard eglu run, so I suppose you would use twice that at least. When I renewed it I used the old stuff as a mulch around my fruit bushes! Fertiliser and weed suppresser all in one!!!!!

 

Just seen previous message. I don't have much trouble with 'pooy clumps' but my two don't spend too much time in the run.

[Kenilchick]

We framed an area with railway sleepers (£13 each) from the local builders merchant, then made a few phonecalls around our local tree surgeons asking for hardwood chips. I got a call back when they had some and paid £10 to have a big truckload dumped on my drive. Really, much more than I needed but I filled a bulk bag with the extra for topups. Seems to be holding up well. I move the eglu and run off the woodchips every 2-3 weeks to give it a good rake over. So far so good. Pretty new to chicken keeping so not sure if I should be investing in some Stalosan, which I see people mention on the forum.