Best material to make walkway up a slippery hill?

[NellaBean]

My property is on a hill. All of my coops/pens are built on hills. My big "rooster pen" has a hutch at the top and then the pen slopes down to where the gate is. I have slipped and fallen SO MANY times going down this hill. Hill plus chicken poop plus moisture equals me on my butt.

What would be the best way to make a safe "path" up and down the hill? Sand? Gravel? Pavers? Landscape timbers as steps?

 

[secuono]

Wood or pavers is what I would go with.

 

[jen5680]

I think playground mulch, or any type of heavy mulch works great!

 

[Tdub4chiks]

Wow, I feel for you. How about shoes with cleats..lol

I think steps would be best, with gravel on each one. Good Luck to you.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

gravel floats away, so does mulch. I have found that hay is the best, but if you want something permanent I would get cement pavers and make a nice path and just hose it when it gets dirty.

 

[patandchickens]

The ideal situation would be to revet in landscape ties (or similar) to make a series of broad steps, so the area you are stepping on is FLAT not slopey. It's not difficult, just requires a bit of digging; in some cases you may need to secure them more deeply e.g. by rebar or cut-off t-posts or that sort of thing, it depends on the slope and the soil and the size of whatever material you're using.

Another option would be to move the gate (or put in a second one) up against the barn, so you're walking up the grassy better-traction part of the hill and then just *across* the pen to the coop.

GOod luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[OkChickens]

I would use cement pavers like a foot or so wide from the top to the bottom in the center.

-Nate

 

[Asahi]

Be careful of railroad tie stairs. They are very slippery when wet. You might want to score them or glue some of that gritty stair tread stuff on them.

 

[crazyhen]

If you use cement pavers they will heave and thaw and then slope with the hill, I used cement blocks and they are terrible. I put salt on the ground where I will walk and that helps but you can not do that in a pen. Straw seems to hold up for awhile and is less slick. Or hay. I feel for you all my coops are down, down , down from my home on the hillside. My hillside is clay. I had my dh build a railing I could hold on to with gloves to steady me . Maybe a similar structure in the pen would help. ??? They will roost on it some but gloves keep the poo to a minimum. What we do for our hens.!!! Be careful. I am. Gloria Jean

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

When I was carrying my firstborn on a pillow walking down one of our hills, I fell. Fortunately he wasn't hurt- the pillow cushioned him, and I was able to hang onto him.

Well, after that, I installed flagstone stepping stones (they just look like grey rock, don't know what kind) from Home Depot on that hill! I had already installed some on another hill with great success.

All I did was dig a horizontal place to put it, cut into the hillside. They do tend to sink into the soil after a few years. I use my weed-eater to clear the grass around it.

I am happy with my stepping stones, and it has been about 10 years ago since the first project install. I haven't had to reinstall them.