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Diamond egg gal

Advice for permanent base for run?

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We have a eglu classic with a 3m run for my three girls. However after a few weeks of just moving the run around the garden, we have decided to make a permanent base for the (purple eglu) and run to sit on. Now despite my advice to my OH he thinks I'm being nuts so would someone please be kind enough to let me know if I'm going OTT or not?

 

I'm thinking about putting concrete slabs down over the entire area and filling the top over with wood chips which we would replace as needed. My OH thinks that we should just edge the area and fill in the ground with wood chips as the chickens love to scratch into the earth. The girls are allowed to FR daily, but due to their extensive renovations to my OH garden :anxious: he has made me buy one of Omlets 21m fencing to keep their FR off his veggie patch. :shameonu:

 

Any advice you could give would be fab. Thanks

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We have a larger walk-in run, and a smaller run which is in theory movable. In both cases we've mounted the run on timbers, and topped it with hardwood chips. We thought about laying slabs but decided against it. But there are pros and cons with each.

 

Earth: Pro: Chickens can scratch and dig. Drainage into soil means that chippings last a long time.

Con: Not proof against foxes digging underneath the timbers (we've actually buried weldmesh below the runs, but that's a major job). When you do need to replace the chippings, it's a bit more of a task.

 

Slabs: Pro: Dead easy to sweep and sterilise. Top foxproofing - you don't even need a wire skirt. Cleaner in wet conditions (provided you lay the slabs properly so that they drain).

Con: Not such a natural environment for the chickens - no digging for worms. Woodchip layer will go sour more quickly and need replacement more often.

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I think Melbourne has summarised it all very clearly above!

 

A lot of people slab their run entirely, and it does make it easier to sweep/clean out, but you need quite a thick layer of aubiose, woodchip etc so the hens can scratch around. You'll also (ideally) have a solid bottom to the run, e.g. with kickboards, otherwise the aubiose etc will soon be kicked out through the mesh.

 

I decided against this for my WIR mainly on the grounds of cost and energy, it took me long enough to level the ground and lay slabs around the outside!

 

I have a ring of slabs on which the WIR stands, and just earth in the middle. Over time, this earth will become packed down very firmly, but you can dig it out and rake in a bit of garden lime every so often. In fact what I found is that the outer ring of slabs just disappeared under earth, aubiose etc and until a friend kindly dug it out for me recently, they couldn't be seen. If you follow this route, you do need to have good drainage - I have a gutter on my WIR roof, and it fills a small waterbutt. What I plan to do next is dig a bit of a trench around the outside of the slabs, as the run got very wet recently.

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Thanks for all your advice. I think we are going to go for edging in slabs with a wood chip base on the earth and see how that works out. Although OH did give me a look :notalk: when I said "well lets see how the edging goes because if we decide to expand and add a cube with a WIR….." (I think I have gone and caught morehenitus :lol: )

Anyway OH has just got back from Wickes with the slabs so hopefully it will be finished over the weekend.

 

Thanks again

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