Morning, all

[Anonymous]

I haven't been around for months as my online business suddenly took off and all my PC time seems to have been taken up with that.
Anyway, I just wanted to as a question, if that's OK?

What are your feelings concerning pea gravel versus woodchip in the enclosure?

I had WC down, but then had it dug out and replaced with PG on the recommendation of a much more experienced chicken keeper. It was supposed to stay "cleaner" for longer and generally be a bit of a super hero type ground cover.
BUT
My gosh, it stinks now!
The poo just sits on the surface like poo patties and the whole place hums. I tried braking it up with the rake and nearly fainted!
I paid a fortune to do this 2 weeks ago, but am about to put the WC back as there was never any smell with that.

The major downside with the WC is that the place was just sooooo muddy when it rained. I have one particularly daft Pekin who thinks she's wearing wellies rather than feathers and just jumps in the puddles right up to her head. But with the PG, I haven't had any puddles, so she's gradually getting cleaner.

They don't seem to be scratching any more, either. With the WC the Warrens would dig holes big enough for the Pekins to almost disappear in, but there are no holes in the enclosure now.

What do you think? Shall I just cut my losses and go back to the PG?

Any advice gratefully received - sorry for waffling for so long.

Liz

 

[karlooben]

hello i have never tried pea gravel but i did have woodchip { or bark } down and yes it kept the smell down but it wasnt until i started to dig it out that i noticed all the mould underneath so i took the whole lot out now my girls just have bare soil but with slabs down in areas as dry walk ways from the mud also thier feed stations stand next to the slabs so the girls never stand and eat with muddy feet . i just grin an bare the mud when it does rain . have you disinfected the run with any thing virkon is good as well as stanlsofan f { think thats right spelling } also you can use jeyes fluid i do my run when the girls go to bed then that way it dries in before the girls get on it .

 

[Lucylou]

There was another post about something similar a while back. Can't remember exactly what was said for sure but think you have to careful using disinfectants with chooks as some are not good for them. I think Jeyes fluid was mentioned but not certain.

I have bare soil at the mo, only because the bark chippings have broken down & over the summer there wasn't a problem but since the rain has returned its getting muddy again :roll: Someone said that what is best is hard wood chippings. I'm having some trees lopped today & hoped I would get some for 'free' but although I've spread a load around the run (& it smells fabulous, pine cones were amongst it!) I don't think there's enough wood, too many leaves in it which will mulch down. Anyway we'll see, they're having fun scratching around it it anyway :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I don't want to disinfect the floor as the girls are eating off it. Mind you, they probably won't mind as they are cutrrently eating off poo!!

I stopped giving them cabbage, but the gravel is still covered in a poo cake which is nor ver appetising.

I don't know what to do for the best.