Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[Henny+penny]

Hello,I am new to the forum but have kept chickens for a few years. I currently have 6 in an Omlet cube with a large ,fixed ,walk in run.This has been fantastic as the girls are safe whilst I'm at work but they miss fresh grass and I have learnt the hard way regarding build up of worms etc in all the mud last year.A cover on the run,quarterly worming and ground disinfection has made it much more pleasant for all of us!

We have to move the run due to building a new house over the 2 years.I was considering getting a moveable run that attaches to the cube,with extensions,and only max of 4 hens.This would give them fresh grass and more flexibility where I site the cube.How often does it need to be moved to they don't wreck the grass? Am I really better sticking with my current run and re siting it? I thought a moveable run would possibly be more healthy.I would still let them free range part if the week when I am around.

What are other peoples experiences please?

[Cat tails]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

 

I have a Go Up run with three little bantams and they manage to wreck the grass in that run within a day if they are really bored. I gave up on grass in the run and only have it around the run (tiny garden, with tiny grass patch. You can't even call it a lawn...)

Also too much grass can give them all sorts of nasty things like sour crop.

 

I provide them with greens every day. In the morning they get some cut up endive or anything else green I can chuck into the garden easily. And when I'm off for work, I hang up some broccoli or cabbage or anything else that might last them a while.

[jimnpaula]

I would say go stationary with a solid floor with horse bedding on top.

 

I started off with a cube with run plus extension, and added another extension a bit later. The whole assembly was heavy to move around and even with our huge garden we would run out of patches of grass to move to.

The girls dug great big holes in the lawn which still sometimes catch us out, and the scalped grass patches regrew with weeds first. Also, when we couldn't move them for several weeks due to snow, the layer of 'chicken mud' in the run was

 

Having spotted our new neighbour lifting the paving slabs in his garden we aquired some and made the run stationary, and have since built a walk in run on the same surface. Lovely.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Welcome to the forum . I think re-siting your run would be the best bet. Having a movable run would soon become a chore, you'd have to move it very regularly if you wanted to save your grass - and I'm not sure that would even work, as Cat tails says, they can wreck a patch of grass in a day. I've found the poop collects on top of grass too and becomes a horrible squished, smelly mess .

 

Sounds like your existing set up is great, I'd stick with that and give them fresh greens to compensate (which is what I do, mine don't get on my lawn at all!)

[wez]

Yes, afraid I'm a bit of a convert to the stationery run too. We got our Cube and run a year ago and had been moving it each week throughout last year but eventually, you run out of clear space that's been unravaged and you start to see wear and tear on the grass and also in the wet weather its no fun lugging a run with added extensions.

 

We moved the whole lot onto concrete about a month ago with hardwood chips as flooring and I'm overjoyed (dramatic I know ) with the change of routine its given me. We moved it also as we had a rat problem with one getting in the run and digging out so we weren't going to give it a second chance! Now the girls happily scratch around the chippings looking for goodies, we let them out to free range but poo picking is easier as there's none trampled into wet grass to try and separate (yuk!) and with tarpaulin to cover the run they are relatively dry.

 

Not for everyone I know but once I knew it was staying put I treated the girls (alright, me too) to a further extension so they've now got just shy of 5m to mess about in during the day as I want them to have as much safe freedom as they can whilst we're out. So far, so good and as many peeps told me when I moved it, I wouldn't look back

 

[mullethunter]

I'm reading this with interest.

 

I had pretty much decided that when we move the girls will be getting a fixed run, but I hadn't totally decided on the run floor.

 

My options are either earth, or slabs and horse bedding. The run will be covered.

 

At the moment they are in an extended Go run on leaf litter / earth which has been fine so far and allows them to dust bath.

 

Do those of you who have runs on solid floors with horse bedding think it's interesting enough for the chooks?

[Chicken shack]

Moving the and 3mtr run was not practical. I purchased a metal framed WIR and covererd it in weld mesh. The cube train as I like to call it is attached to it. I also bought another door for the side to make access easier. The hole lot is coverered in tarpauline. The floor is dirt. They also have a dedicated FR area and I also let them FR in the rest of the garden when I can. It seams to work well. As for rats I remove the food each evening otherwise they would be in. if you go to my signature you can look a my flkr link.

[Eggasperated]

I have my house inside an electric fenced run, 50m of fencing, with a portable roofed area inside this enclosure. We move it 2 - 4 times a year depending on how many girls we have, and it is a huge faff to move and involves my daughters OH as well as us. If we didn't have a lot of land there is no way I would be doing this as it takes a full day with 3 of us and in the past has quite often involved escapees .

We do manage to keep the grass reasonable with this method and reseed any bare areas when the girls are moved but quite honestly I would stick to a fixed run if at all possible.

[Henny+penny]

Thank you all,that's been really helpful. The run is currently hard wood chips on soil,but slabs sound better.Think I will stick to my fixed run.