I live in southern Indiana, and I'm going to be setting up my first coop and run and getting my first chickens. Here in Indiana, (1) we have a lot of clay in the soil, and (2) we have predators coming at our chickens from 360 degrees. That means 360-degree hardware cloth around the chickens' "close" enclosure -- their coop, ramp, and just a decent area for 10 chickens. That will be the secure area, of course shut inside the coop at night. Apart from that, they'll be in a chicken tractor in my garden most good days, or they'll also have an extended and sheltered chicken run with no flooring but chips.
So we clear the secure area, level it, build or buy the coop and enclosure, make sure we have hardware cloth under all and a respectable dig skirt as well. But then . . . now what? I'm thinking we will need to put down a layer of small gravel on top of the hardware cloth, because I don't want drainage water puddling there over the clay soil, nor do I want the chickens digging down to the hardware cloth and hurting their feet. Then, what, the wood chips on top of the gravel? I realize that a decent period of using the deep litter method will render this question moot, but I want my hens to have happy feet and good drainage from the start.
So we clear the secure area, level it, build or buy the coop and enclosure, make sure we have hardware cloth under all and a respectable dig skirt as well. But then . . . now what? I'm thinking we will need to put down a layer of small gravel on top of the hardware cloth, because I don't want drainage water puddling there over the clay soil, nor do I want the chickens digging down to the hardware cloth and hurting their feet. Then, what, the wood chips on top of the gravel? I realize that a decent period of using the deep litter method will render this question moot, but I want my hens to have happy feet and good drainage from the start.
