Mrs

[emchook]

Please help me !

I am drooling over all the beautiful Runs that I have seen posted. And I have priced up a 12ft*6ft WIR .

 

I am having a bit of a heart attack over the price ..and am wondering if it would be false economy to put this straight onto the grass/soil.

 

Or should I just bite the bullet and go for a concrete base .. or would slabs around the sides for it to sit on to be ok.

 

 

 

Please help!

 

oh and we have loads of foxes in the area .. and the chickens seem to want to tunnel out of the current eglu run.

[Doodledootoo]

Em, I'd buy enough slaps to sit it on. If the run sits in the middle of each slab, so that there is half a slab sticking out all the way around, it will act like the skirt on an Omlet run - the fox won't be able to dig down and the hens won't be able to tunnel out.

 

I think putting a run directly on the earth might encourage the wood to rot from the ground up.

 

Re-claimed slabs are dirt cheap and easy to lay on a bed of sand.

 

The soil left in the middle will be good for the hens to scratch around in.

[Doodledootoo]

PS - you're not Ruth's friend by any chance are you?

[chelsea]

If I had to build mine from scratch again I would definitely do a concrete base. We built ours on a brick surround but left the inside compacted earth, however we do regret this now because in torrential rain the wet seeps up through the run and therefore makes the aubiose bedding wet. We will concrete when the weather improves, it saves money in the long run (bedding lasts longer) and less wiffy in the summer.

[emchook]

hi Doodledootoo

Well... I know a Ruth .. but she is in Townsville now

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I would definitely put slabs round the edge. It works really well on mine and they still have soil to dig about in.

 

I got my slabs for nothing on Freecycle but did pay someone to lay the path properly.

[Redwing]

You could put it down on the ground but I would suggest two things

 

Screw the frame down to a thick bit of sacrifical wood which can be replaced if it gets damp which will make the run last longer (pressure treated wood is a must really)

 

attach a length of mesh to the base (bottom of the sacrifical wood) as a skirt similar to the Eglu run, make attach it to the half width point so its half in half out of the run, it will stop the chickens digging too close to the edge inside and keep foxy outside

 

Using slabs to keep foxy out isnt a perfect solution unless your run is all slabbed, apparently the fox looks for the edge of something then digs, he can find the edge of slabs but finds it a lot harder to find the edge of mesh especially when the grass grows through it, thats why the Omlet skirt is so sucessful

[Jools]

The nature of a WIR is that it's static, so purely from a cleaning / hygiene point of view slabs or concrete would be better. They can easily be hosed or pressure washed clean and disinfected each time you do a substrate change to avoid any build up of pests and diseases.

[Olly]

Slabs round the edge for me - I would have considered slabs over the whole area but the work was just too much for me, and I like the idea that they've got some earth in the middle. They've been on earth ever since I got them, either on the lawn or then in a woodchip bed.

 

I think some sort of base is essential for safety (fox prevention) and to stop the run rotting.

I bought my slabs from the DIY store, they were only about £1.30 each so it wasn't a huge outlay. If you're spending a few hundred quid on a run, it's worth another £30-odd to give it a base.

[Margaret]

Wish I had gone for a solid base, only concreated around the edge and have a hugh problem with rats tunneling upto a foot to get in the run even though I remove all food at night

So Oh is going to move run to a new area on a solid base, hate to think how much hard work its going to be, and more cost, but will then use old area for veg.

Always plan thats the problem I am very impulsive and dont like to wait so has cost a fortune from the original idea of 2 girlies in an eglu

BUT worh every penny, even though we cant now have a new bathroom.

 

+WIR

Lavender

Mable

Posh Marjorie

Violet

[Doodledootoo]

Not the same Ruth!

 

Hello anyway!

[emchook]

Margaret that is quite funny ! I am the same...very impulsive .. I just dont want to wait to have a concrete base put down. ...

 

For 30 pound chickens this is all getting very expensive !

This might sound weird but I have been counting my eggs and keeping a list of what has been spent and so far my eggs cost 62p each.

If I build the run it will take them to £1.69 or even more ! EACH