Solitary chicken - need advice

[nin-chicken]

So sorry to bring up this topic again but hope you can advise me so that I can stop going round in circles!

I am planning to change the flooring in my run in the spring and have started investigating options (I never go into anything lightly!)

I am currently torn between hardwood chippings and aubiose. I know there are some massive aubiose fans on here but I have a couple of reservations. Firstly I'm worried that it will be costly as it will need changing so often (how often? I don't know...) but also my omlet run is covered on the roof but when it's really rainy it does get wet around the edges. My understanding is that aubiose needs to be kept totally dry? But I dont really want to cover all the sides of the run because I love watching and interacting with my girls!

On the other hand hardwood chips seem to be difficult to source and heavy to move when the time comes. Although they only need changing once a year?? But I've also heard that they are more 'fun'and interesting for the chickens to scratch around in.

So that's my dilemma. I would really appreciate some thoughts/advice/experiences!

Many thanks

[Patricia W]

I use aubiose in an Omlet WIR quite successfully. It takes one bale to provide a reasonable coverage and it lasts about 6-8 weeks. The top and one side are covered by tarps but some rain does get in at the edge. It doesn't seem to matter though.

[mollyripkim]

I use hardwood chips from flytes of fancy, put in ten bags at the beginning of summer in an extended omlet WIR. Have just had a good dig out of the bottom so the layer is thinner now but enough to get them through to spring, they love digging around in it and I use stalosan weekly. The run is covered.

Might not be a true indication of how long it lasts I work from home so they FR every day.

[nin-chicken]

Thank you so much for your replies and sorry for delayed response. I am still undecided about what to do but won't be changing anything til spring anyway. The third option is to put something on top of the sharp sand which they have at the moment (thus avoiding any back-breaking work shifting it!) but I don't know if this is a good idea or not...

Thanks again for the replies

Xxx