Torrential rain flooding run

[SuzzyJ]

Oh my....... I lost all five of my beautiful hens to Mr Fox, I had a home made hen house and the fox got in one way or another (I have no idea how) in the middle of the night well about 3am I think. left one of my hens half eaten in my garden and I found another in my neighbours garden, killed on friday night came back sunday night to dig up a hen he had buried, there was one in my garden and another in the neighbours. sooooo to get to the point I am going to get a cube and a walk in run (very secure) I have been looking at some of the pictures on here and have plenty of ideas...... thanks but I wanted to know what you all put down on the floor for them to peck about in I know I could use bark chippings but some of the pics I have looked at seem to have some grey stuff down?? what is this grey stuff??

 

Thanks for your help

[quickcluck]

I use hemcore/easybed, it composts down and lasts well. They scratch about in it and dig massive holes but they seem very happy with it!

[Falkor]

I think the grey stuff you have seen in the pics is Aubiose horse bedding!

 

I use it and I love it! My WIR is half slabbed and half bare earth all with Aubiose on top. My run is covered with corrugated plastic sheets to keep it dry The chicken poop kind us disapears into the Aubiose and it takes the moisture out of the poops so picking it is easy!

 

My run has been up since Mothering Sunday 22nd March and the Aubiose I put in then is still "good". I rake it all into a big heap in the middle of the run once a week, poo pick it, sprinkle stalosan F on the slabs and dig some into the earth and then let the chooks re-distribute it all!

 

My run is 3m x 3m and I used two thirds of a bale of Aubiose and got a covering of a couple of inches. I throw a couple of handfuls of fresh aubiose in every so often and also use it for the nestbox and poop trays....I am nearly at the end of the bale now. So i think that was £7.99 well spent

[atsw]

I use Aubiose too. Great stuff, works wonders and the chooks love it.

 

 

Andrew

[Ness3103]

can i just ask how many bags you used in your run? i've got 2 bags of hemcore and i'm not sure how much to use on the floor of the run, we're building it this weekend and it's going to be about 20ft by 6ft. eventually i want rubber chippings but trying to save a bit of money at the moment.

[quickcluck]

I think 2 should be fine

[atsw]

can i just ask how many bags you used in your run? i've got 2 bags of hemcore and i'm not sure how much to use on the floor of the run, we're building it this weekend and it's going to be about 20ft by 6ft. eventually i want rubber chippings but trying to save a bit of money at the moment.

My run is 15ft x 6ft and in the pictures I posted above I used just 1 bale/bag. You might just see there's none by the door. After those pictures were taken I added a bag of bark chippings in the door area to avoid the Aubiose being trodden around the garden. I quickly found out it sticks to wet shoes as you enter and exit the run to collect egg and re-fill the feeders.

 

 

The run's been up for a couple of months now. Still on the original Aubiose and Bark chips. Also, I'done little or no poo picking, the stuff just seems to vanish into the Aubiose .

 

To be honest, I'd have expected to be knee deep in poo by now based on what they used to leave behind in the old Omlet run .

 

Andrew

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Sorry to hear about your chickens, Suzzy . I'm sure your chickens will be safe and secure in a cube . I use Easibed in my run - it's brilliant .

[Ness3103]

thanx for the tip about wood chip by the door