Cube Mark One Run

[Alis girls]

not complaining but has anyone else got a run whose contents are rock hard. Decided to clean run out and put fresh hemp stuff down - it was like trying to dig for oil. The girls had trodden it well down - I then cleaned out roosting bars and the poultry demolition gang like to go in the square which is left and chuck bark about - the noise sounds like 3 elephants charging about. Was grubby and frozen when finished but very satisfied with my labours

[green]

Sounds familiar. I need to change the hemp bedding in the run soon and I know it's going to take me ages as the chooks have trodden the hemp down and it looks more like soil than hemp! I think it's the wet weather, eventhough the top of the run is covered some moisture will get in through the sides when it's really hammering down.

 

How often do you change the bedding?

[Alis girls]

Well its my first winter as a chook mum but was about 5 weeks ago - it looked awful brown and compact - in summer more often but you can poo pick as the poo is visible.

[green]

And it's done... Had to be really before it gets freezing. It took me over an hour to get all the caked hemp out of the run. Last time I cleaned it I just raked the hemp out in few mins while Hubby was holding the run at an angle. This time I was on my own and had to use a bit more muscle to shovel it out. I was really struggling to get to the middle bit and kept poking it from both ends of the run, but managed to get it all out in the end. Phew!

 

It's quite hard to poo pick since the poo seems to vanish in the bedding, but I'll defo try to do a bit of raking and replace at least some of the bedding more often, because it's horrible when the hemp gets really compacted and the chooks haven't got anything to scratch in. The main thing is that I've got happy chooks again, they're doing their dance and flicking the hemp everywhere.