What to put on the run floor and question re grass clippings?

[CuddyMum]

I'm ordering the Eglu Go Up soon! Wondered what people recommend for the run floor, eg bark chips, rubber chips, sand, gravel etc. The area where the run is going is soil. I presume the chickens will take care of the weeds that are sure to reappear soon. Also, do you put your grass clippings in with your birds? I'm a newbie, so any help appreciated! :)

[Pixel]

Mine do like a good scratch about in the grass clippings, I don't know what they think they are going to find!

[beakerandburette]

Our hens have gravel and mud (used to be grass) chickens aren't to fussy about floor coverings they will scrape away regardless of what you put down.
Yes for grass cuttings, my lot love scratching and munching beasties.

[CuddyMum]

As my run is going to be static, I'm going for hardwood chippings :)

[Yorky]

Interesting cuddymum, our chicks have a static run, soon to be extended and I was thinking of sand and gravel as the main floor covering as the soil it will sit on is very clay-ey and gets boggy quickly, which smells :(
At least 2/3 of the run will be covered, so drier, but wondered what teh advantage of hardwood chips is?
Thank you

[CuddyMum]

I thought about and and gravel too. I think I read about the wood chippings (as opposed to bark) on the internet.

[Ruhrpott]

I got a dumpy bag of hardwood chippings from our local tree surgeon. The run is on flags with the chippings on top and it works well.
I have two chickens here while their owner is on holiday and they are on the grass. Took them two days to turn it to a mud bath and I wouldn't like to leave the chickens like that longer than the two weeks they are here (and my Grass will never recover)

[Ruhrpott]

Mine looks like this

[frazzeled]

Ruhrpott - we are about to set up our eglu as you have ( another newbie chickens). How often do you change bark chips? Are the concrete slabs on a proper hard standing? Thank you!

[Ruhrpott]

I haven't changed the bark chippings yet. I got the chickens in March and the chippings are still fine. I make up a mixture of Virkon S in a watering can and sprinkle it over the chippings once a week to clean/sterilise them. Other than that they get washed in the rain (it rains a lot here). The flags are part of our terrace (which is large so we don't miss having that bit)

[Ruhrpott]

We have the Omlet rain cover for when it rains to keep the chippings a bit drier. The chickens are also silkies so can't get too wet.

[frazzeled]

Thank you! How much time do yours spend outside the eglu - your lawn looks very much intact! Sorry have jumped on this thread.

[Ruhrpott]

They spend all day in the eglu while I'm at work. I only let them out under supervision as we have foxes around. We also have half an acre of lawn with a third of it a small forest area so they have loads of space to scratch around and they seem to prefer under the trees to the lawn.

[Ruhrpott]

The two weeks I had my colleagues chickens here I kept them in an outdoor rabbit run on the grass with a cat basket in as a coop and a big waterproof cover over. They turned each patch I moved them to to mud bath within two days till in the end I put them right down the bottom of the garden next to the compost and left them in one spot to ruin the grass there. It's still a black mud patch now. They were about four times the size of my little bantam silkies though.

[Ruhrpott]

And we do have the run extension on the eglu so they have a bit more space since they spend a lot of time in the run. They seem happy enough and scratch and turn over the bark chippings constantly. They are also small bantam chickens rather than full size ones.

[frazzeled]

Thanks! Sounds exactly what we are planning - feel more confident now!