Mrs

[stripeybunny]

Hello,

I am new to chicken keeping. We haven't got any chickens yet but currently building a WIR, already got a cube. The WIR is an irregular shape and has a large tree in the middle of it. It will be about 13m2 in size. We have built a wooden frame and we now need to cover it with mesh and put a roof on (roof has to be built around the trunk of the tree). Hopefully this will work, it's taken months of planning/measuring/diagrams etc to try and get it right. Will post pictures when it's finished. We will start with 3 chickens and see how we get on (I'm hoping to get more at a later date but OH isn't convinced yet!)

I have been looking at this forum for a while gathering information but I have a question about bedding. We have loads of leaves in the garden at the moment. Could I use fallen leaves as a bedding in the run? I was thinking of using one of the horse bedding materials but it seems a shame not to use the leaves for something useful at this time of year.

[chicken bark]

Hello Stripeybunny

 

That sounds like a really interesting WIR! I'd love to see pictures when it is done and sounds a lovely big size too. (Did you mean 13m x 13m or 13sqm?)

 

I suppose if the leaves are dry then they would give the chickens something interesting to dig about in. But I'm not sure how long they would last as they wouldn't be very absorbent for soaking up all that chicken poo. I'd put the horse bedding down as you suggest and then you can always have a big box of leaves for them to play in.

[beach chick]

I'd be tempted to see how it goes with the leaves. they will definitely enjoy being them, but they may go very sludgy very quickly. in that case, you could just rake them up and add them to your compost heap, with the added bonus of all that chicken poo already mixed in!

the other thing is that if you are using horse bedding you need to keep it dry I think - just starting to use it myself, and have got to order tarpaflex for the run walls in the next day or so.

look forward to seeing your run pics - sounds very intriguing!

[Jools]

They'll love kicking around in the leaves, finding loads of bugs to eat and generally misbehaving, so yes do make use of them. And think of all that lovely compost you can make from them.

[Plum]

I throw leaves in for mine, it makes it more interesting and tasty. They'll rot down quicker afterwards

[Snowy]

I put in loads of leaves for mine - they love the bugs and it entertains them for ages scratching about in them. They quickly dry and disintegrate

[stripeybunny]

Thanks everyone, I think we will try using just leaves in the run to start with and see how we get on. We are working hard again today, hoping to get the run finished by tonight so we can get our chickens next weekend