Chicken Run Flooring: Grass or Till Ground?

[hysop]

I’ve read the many different flooring options. My question is what would be best?

Tilling the ground so they have soft dirt to walk on or leave the grass their run.

I’m placing them in a new permanent area, haven’t decided where yet but there’s grass everywhere.

They will eventually be free ranging in the summer, but right now for most of spring I will be leaving them in their coops and runs.

Right now they’re in grass but I’m starting to see droppings everywhere and I can’t imagine that to be healthy. I’ve free ranged them majority of their life, it’s just recently I limited them to a run.

 

[jreardon1918]

I'll bet they will do a fine job tilling it for you. Dump yard waste and it can turn from grass to a nice deep litter. I think this is a nice environment.

 

[NewBoots]

Our run is currently grass and weeds but once the chickens have demolished those, we'll throw in a deep bed made up of wood chips, lawn clippings, used pine shavings from the coop, and misc trimmings from the yard and garden. Might even add a fork of unfinished compost from time to time.

 

[hysop]

Oh okay thank you both. I think I will start doing that. I’ll leave it as grass and once it starts looking flat and dead I’ll start adding random clippings and unfinished compost that is practically broken down.

I was just wondering because we were tilling our garden and the dirt was so soft compared to the hard ground with grass.

 

[aart]

Beware of grass clippings, if too long and/or tough they can impact the crop.
They can also go moldy unless spread out quickly.

Right now they’re in grass but I’m starting to see droppings everywhere and I can’t imagine that to be healthy.

Leave the grass, no need to till it.
You could dig up a few holes to speed up dust bath creation.

My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.

 

[0die]

grass? will it survive? My chickens destroyed every blade of grass in the run. 25x60. nothing but dirt for the last 4 years.

 

[hysop]

grass? will it survive? My chickens destroyed every blade of grass in the run. 25x60. nothing but dirt for the last 4 years.

No, it will eventually all turn to dirt. Right now my chickens have been in their run for 2 months and the grass is flat but still there. I’m moving them to a new area soon since their coops and runs are moveable.

 

[OlympicChick]

Yup, like everyone else, I just left my grass be, added fallen maple leaves, pine needles, whatever fallen fruit I could get my hands on and anything else compostable, and the chickens have turned it all into great deep litter.

 

[NewBoots]

Yup, like everyone else, I just left my grass be, added fallen maple leaves, pine needles, whatever fallen fruit I could get my hands on and anything else compostable, and the chickens have turned it all into great deep litter.

I can't wait till my chicks are big enough to do this. I even have a bucket on dry pine needles I've been saving for months!

 

[OlympicChick]

After having done it this way now for a couple of years, it's ridiculous how dead simple it is versus how much I completely overthought it before implementing it! It's just nature doing what it does over a longer period of time than most humans like (hence the desire for "hot" composting methods).