Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Clucky the Great]

I have searched on the forum and lots of people do lots of different things depending on where they put it. People also have different views on the drainage and the use of membrane?

 

I am a complete newbie and am looking to create a permanent site for a cube and 4m run on what is currently lawn. Where should I start? Thanks

[gavclojak]

Haha it won't be lawn for long.

 

My cube is was on grass but when that was gone I covered in a huge layer of chipped wood from a gardener, I poop pick daily and sprinkle with ground sanitiser weekly. You will have to remove this every few months and replace after giving the ground a good dose of sanitiser

 

I know some preople use sand too

[Patricia W]

If you can choose a site that is well drained, that will help. And if the run is covered that will increase the options as well.

 

I have mine in a dedicated area of the garden now ( it only took me about 5 years to realise, that people, chickens and a nice garden do not go together!). It's behind trellis fencing which I'm planning to grow plants against. The chicken side of the trellis also has chicken wire to stop them popping through the holes.

 

In the chicken area, I have an Omlet WIR and cube, plus a separate cube and run, and an eglu. All the runs are covered but the surrounding area isn't. That is laid to a mixture of weeds (can't all it grass!) and woodchip. There is a paved area around each run, but the middle of the runs are all on bare earth. I use aubiose in all the runs, which stays dry because they are covered, and when I clean it out, (about every 2-3 months) I use ground sanitizing powder.

 

The chickens free range in their area, and although we know one at least can fly out, they choose not to. If that became a problem, I'd clip wings.

 

Some people prefer to slab the covered run area, but I decided not to. So far it works well- we've now seeded a new lawn and I'm actually looking forward to next summer!

[Sandychick]

The best option varies depending on the location. If you have clay soil or a badly drained area, then you will need a slab base or something like this http://www.newlandpoultry.com/CHICKEN-RUN-MUD-MANAGEMENT(1720020).htm. If you have well drained ground then it might be ok to just put wood chips straight on the ground. The other major factor for deciding on the base is whether you have foxes in the area. A fox dug under my eglu run (although well pegged down) and I lost all my hens. As I have soggy clay soil and a determined fox, I have really had no option but to slab both runs. I wasn't keen initially, but it's so easy to keep clean and beautifully mud free - I wouldn't want to change it. The hens are perfectly happy scratching about in the wood chip and Aubiose and it's nice for them to have a dry mud free area to go back to after free ranging.

[Clucky the Great]

Thanks so much for your replies. I decided to go with the weblink sandychick provided. Just got to wait till arrives on Wed to see how big it is and where it will go before commencing work. Will put pics up in due course