What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[ewungelema]

What do you all have on the floor of your run??? My OH is creating a WIR over the next couple of days and I'm wondering (now that there is a roof over the girls heads) what to put down for them. I have seen mention of a type of horse bedding Aubiose (sp?), but where do you get it, how does it work, is it ideal?

Please could you post your top tips.....

[foreveryoung]

Hello, mine just have shingle on the floor and slabs on the upper level of the run, we had to put something that could work with draining, as we also had ducks.

[chick wiggle]

Yes, most people have horse bedding on the run floor, auboise or easybed, theres a few brands but basically all the same stuff.

Congrats on the WIR

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the WIR - you won't regret it .

 

I've used Easibed and Hemcore - both are fab. If you have a roof it stays lovely and dry and the poops just get absorbed. I scoop up the most obvious ones into a plastic flowerpot but otherwise just leave it. I clean it out every 2-3 months or so, sprinkling down Stalosan F (a powdered disinfectant) and garden lime (to keep the soil sweet).

 

I get mine from a local equine supplies store and it costs roughly £8 a bale. I use about half a bale at a time so it's quite reasonable cost-wise.

[atsw]

I use Abuiose on the floor of my run. This is yet another horse bedding (very like easibed). As ANH explained, it absorbs all the poo really well, and you just rake it out about four times a year. It composts down very well, and is extremely good on the garden the following year. If you don't do your own composting, anyone around you who is a keen gardener will be more than happy to take it away in bags for their own garden (people will pay good money for chicken manurer).

 

A Google search for Abuiose will throw up a list of suppliers. I pay around £9 for a 20Kg bale, which does my 15' x 6' run to a depth of a few inches.

 

 

Andrew

[ewungelema]

Thank you for all your suggestions! will contact local 'country stores' tomorrow to track down bedding. Am soooo excited about the new run. OH has been working all morning chipping throught the frozen ground to relocate two fruit trees in order to begin construction of WIR, and the 4 girls have been under his feet excitedly searching through the turned soil and opened compost heap for tasty morsels .Eglu ordered to come tomorrow and the super efficient chaps at HQ sent it early .... but I missed the delivery ............ hey ho 1 more sleep 'til it comes.