Cube Mark One Run

[Lizzie]

Hi all

 

Hope everybody is managing to survive the winter months - not long until Spring now, at least the mornings have started to get lighter and the girls are heading off to bed a bit later.

 

We are going to buy an additional run for the chooks in early Spring, just to give them more room when we are not able to get them out in the garden. The new run will just be left as is, ie built onto an area of lawn which will turn I know into bare earth and scratching area.

 

My question is what to put down in their exisiting run which is rain/ wind weather protected on all sides and will continue to be their feeding area.

 

We have split the floor space up into a turf area as they love eating grass, (they didn't seem interested in lettuce), then another two sections with straw / sawdust which we put handfuls of corn / mealworms in each day to scratch around in. The straw / sawdust sits on top of paving slabs but gets damp especially when wet out so its changed pretty regularly.

It also sticks to my wellies when I go in to get their food pots at night which is a bit of a pain.

 

I just wondered what everybody else uses ? and how runs are set out as I really want to add as much interest in their runs for them as possible.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Best wishes

Liz

[legend21]

I have auboise in mine and it is great, I am getting a WIR built in the next week you should go onto the eglu cube and run section and see everyones WIR very informative

 

J

[The Dogmother]

Aubiose all the way!

[chelsea]

Another aubiose fan too, but will use Hemcore if desperate.

[emchook]

I used aubiose for the first time two weeks ago .and it is great stuff !

[Plum]

Easibed at present. Hemcore is good but got fluffly lately and used woodchip before.

[BocBoc]

We use bark chippings - rake it over every few days and replace it every couple of months

[Tutti Frutti]

I started with hardwood chips but it rained and got wet (despite having a roof and 3 sides covered) and it was a right pain to poo pick - ended up a smelly, sludgy, disgusting mess

 

I put Aubiose down for the girls at Christmas (their pressie!) and I love it! Poo picking is just like making truffles coated in white chocolate flakes - roll it up and there's another one ready for the compost Oh yes, it composts really quickly as well and, once we'd put tarps up on the 4th side, doesn't blow around as much as I thought it would (but there's a trail from the run to my back door and some gets up the stairs ). I paid £8.80 a bale at my local tack shop, used 1.5 bales and it's going great guns. Will need replacing in a couple of weeks - not sure whether to top it up with new and leave it a bit longer or rake it all out and start afresh

 

We use bark chippings

Hi BocBoc, apparently bark chips (not wood chips) aren't recommended by those in the know as they harbour spores (apparently?) - just quoting what I've learnt here!

 

Has anyone used rubber chips? I didn't like the look of the metal braiding still being visible

[BocBoc]

Oh - oops. I don't know what the difference is TBH. We researched it on here and got whatever was recommended - the instructions came with a diagram and "ingredients" which included log roll edging. It might be wood chip - it's whatever it said to use!!

 

We use the Omlet winter cover on the top of the run to keep most of the weather out at this time of year but the girls happily get wet / scratch round in mud whilst free ranging so I'm not overly fussed about the state their run gets in. We poo pick by the entrance daily and rake the rest every few days (prob once a week TBH). The chippings get replaced every couple of months

[Jac and Rory]

I have tyre (rubber) chippings but they are not staying!

 

I have a cube with 1m extension in a permanent position. The chippings are on bare earth. Chooks arrived early Nov in time for wettest Nov ever followed by frozen Dec/Jan. The first couple of nights I was very impressed as the chippings were very dry as I scrambled on hands and knees to get chooks into cube. But it wasn't long before chooks had dug up piles leaving a very uneven surface and areas of bare earth above the level of chippings. The chippings are the same colour as the earth (you can get them in other colours but only in large quantities from manufacturers as far as I can make out) and it soon became really difficult in these short dark days to tell what was churned up earth and what was chippings.

 

The idea is that you hose them down and all the poo etc drains down into the earth but it doesn't work when ground is otherwise saturated or frozen. When the ground was frozen I tried washing it down with watering cans full of hot water but it just ended up with the smell of cooking poo! After the thaw I took the pressure washer to it but it just ended up very squidgy under foot for several days.

 

If you cannot successfully hose down the chippings regularly and have the water drain away quickly and the area dry out then it just doesn't work. I'm convinced I need a slabbed area with the recommended Aubiose. I've not otherwise had any problems with the chippings.

 

Flyte so Fancy recommends tyre chippings for the area where you walk around the run but not the run itself - I think they are right.

[The Dogmother]

Tutti Frutti, I replace the Aubiose in the run evey 6 weeks, but it really depends on how many chooks you have, their size and how long they spend in the run.

 

A friend tried the rubber chippy things and sore like madly about them, apparently it's really hard to jetwash the poo off them and they ended up smelling so much. She went back to using Aubiose

[Lizzie]

Many thanks for all of the replies

Interestingly, the guy who is building my new additional run is Tony, Avaries4u

His work looks fantastic so can't wait for it to be done

 

Best wishes

Liz

[Tutti Frutti]

Tutti Frutti, I replace the Aubiose in the run evey 6 weeks, but it really depends on how many chooks you have, their size and how long they spend in the run.

 

Thank you

 

I have four girls, 2 ex-barn who STILL like to eat a lot (but are settling down now!). All four spend nearly all day in the WIR (bad chicken mummy) - probably FR for 30 mins to an hour each weekday and a few hours a day at weekends (if it's not raining/cold/snowy)! They FR whenever we're there to supervise (good chicken mummy!).

 

The Aubiose doesn't smell but is now a nice shade of brown! Hehe

[The Dogmother]

The good thing about it is that it never really smells.

 

Clear it out when it starts to look manky and pop it on the compost heap. Sprinkle the soil with a combo of garden lime and either Stalosan or BioDry powdered disinfectant, then pop more Aubiose down.