Sooo much pooping

[BocBoc]

I'm having the garden redesigned as it's a complete mess - now the house has been completely renovated, attention can now be turned to the outside. I'm going to have it redesigned around the chickens as it's their garden really - we only really use it for hanging our washing out and walking up to the wheelie bins!

 

At the moment our four chickens are in an Eglu (original) and have the run and run converter. This is set on a bed of wood chips which are layered over just the bare earth (was lawn til the chickens moved there!) We've bordered this area with rolled log edging. The chickens love to scratch these chips all over the place which has killed off the surrounding lawn and made a big pile of mulch. Daily garden tidying isn't an option for us......

 

Although we have two covers over the run (standard Omlet cover and the winter cover) at all times to protect from the rain - the wood chips get pretty mulched up and manky fairly quickly. With such a small run, it's impossible to poo-pick unless the poops are right by the run door. When the chips need changing we have to move the whole run, get rid of all the chips into sacks and take them to the tip, dig over the earth, stamp it down then lay new wood chips. This is quite pricey, time consuming and quite a pain to be honest!!

 

I've been researching other run flooring and wondered what method you Omlet-eers favour. I'm currently thinking of pond liner over the bare earth, covered by straw, wood chips or maybe rubber chips (but only in the run so it can't be kicked all over the place) and having the run bordered by patio slabs so they are easy to hose down. The plastic sheeting would need cleaning off more frequently but it would be less of a hassle and we could fit all of the rubbish into the wheelie bin each time.

 

In essence I want a neater chicken area that's easier to keep clean which is better for me....and much better for the girls.

 

What do you guys think?

 

Thanks!

[Jules.]

I have a WIR on a skirt of slabs with an earth middle.

If I was to do it all over again I'd slab the lot ( didn't have time at the time!)

[Angie]

I have the whole floor of WIR covered with paving slabs,i use wood chips as bedding.

When i change the bedding i put it in the recycle bin , treat the slabs with stalosan give a good scrub and rinse.

Put down new wood chips and treat with stalosan weekly giving it a good rake over......i poo pick most days.

(I decided on the paving after a mud bath was being created in the cube run, so on getting a WIR had the slabs laid.)

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I have a WIR now but when I had an Omlet run with converter I put down Easibed or Hemcore straight onto soil. I covered the run with corrugated plastic sheets and put plastic along the edges to keep the bedding in.

 

The bedding magically dries up the poop so I rarely poo picked. Every 6 weeks, I'd move the whole run to the side, dig up the top layer (which went to the compost bin or under established shrubs), put down Stalosan F and garden lime and then new bedding.

 

This worked really well for a couple of years . Here's a photo to give you an idea what I mean.

 

[Lewis]

If you can, I'd vote for slabs too

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Just to balance the argument , I'm quite happy with my run on slabs round the edge with soil/bedding in the middle . I like them being able to dig down for dustbathing especially in this rubbish weather . To be honest, the middle of the run stays bone dry and it's only the edges (on the slabs ) where there's any wetness.