The Best Ground Material for Your Chicken Run - Five Minute Chicken Tips! 

LOL same here, no matter how many water sources of water available it's off to the puddle. I am located in NY Hudson Valley and started using wood chips in the run & coop. Works great in the coop. As far as the run when we get several days of heavy rain will get puddles where the girls dig. Easy enough to add more chips & till every so often to keep it clean. Plus makes great material for the compost pile. Stay well, Joe Z

Wood chips are the best medium for chicken run, they absorbed water, keeps the ground cool, and chickens love to scratch at it. After a couple years you can rake it up and compost it for your garden. The best part is that wood chips are free.

We bought peat moss for our chickens to dust bathr but I didn’t realize it was great for areas where it got the most wet. Thanks for the advice!

Honestly ours is just kind of a mish mash of whatever we find in the yard

Would it be bad to just have natural grass growing there? I'll be placing my run over preexisting grass...is there any reason why I should remove it?

I think your chicken knowledge is superb! Great video, Thankyou! Subbed.

Ok i have a question if u dont mind, i have 2 chickens and both of them r losing feathers, stopped laying eggs, they r still eating good and they free range, but r losing weight and r skinny, their poop is small and dry and greenish brown, i have treated them with ivermectin a few times and they dont have lice or mites, helppp, wats wrong with them?

We have Pete Moss in our chicken, run and sand under a small chicken coop that we have and sand under the roost bars in the large chicken coop that we have❤️❤️❤️

I keep straw in the coop. I think the pine shaving smell to strong. In the run I keep untreated wood chips. It works great. No mud. Easier to keep it clean. I had some guys cutting trees dump a mountain of wood chips.. free and untreated

We have a coop run and the smell is so bad. Can't figure out why

Love this video, concise, informative, not profit seeking. 🥰

We're in Minnesota, we'll hit 90 next week ugh! So much for Spring

Peat moss is ideal for dust bathing, but does get muddy when it rains. It's also very environmentally damaging to harvest. Through experimentation, we've discovered wood chips to be the best ground material. It's local, improves the soil over time, prevents mud, encourages the birds to scratch around, etc.

Your chickens all look so healthy!

Hi from Ireland 🇮🇪..my Mrs has been wanting to get chickens since forever so going to clear abit in the garden for a run ...would you not need wire on the top to keep cats out and stop them attacking the chickens?

Yay! Another video! Great advice!! My chickens love drinking the water off of everything when I water too! I was worried about that.. but now I wont! Off topic : ) Your chicken area is looking beautiful.. especially with all the plants coming up..

New chicken mom here! How do you clean the poop out of this so it doesn’t start to smell? I have very close neighbours

Mine do that. If you spill water. They go nuts. But I purposely put mine in the shade for summer. I had some ground up wood but it's about gone. I'm gonna try some peat moss if I can find it. Don't like the poop everywhere when I feed them

Have you ever used pine pellets like are used in horse paddocks to absorb water?

Great videos!! I watched the one on bumblefoot too because suddenly 5/6 of our laying hens have it! They are the only ones of all our 20 that roost. Their roost is about 3’ and made from very old 2x4’s. I think it might be too high and full of slivers. We’ll sand it down today, lower it to 18” and treat all their feet. We keep them VERY clean, is there anything else you can think of that may have caused this? Thanks so much!

Love your setup! What are you growing in the grazing box?

Great information! Thank you.

Hello, How often do you clean your size chicken run?

Great advice, thank you!

😅😅😅my chicken's love when I make puddles too

Great tips.

Very helpful, thank you so much from Austin Tx.❤

I wouldn't use peat moss, please research it. I use pine pellets, otherwise large animal bedding. It breaks down and absorbs the moisture really well. Plus it's natural.

Your still pretty cool chicken momma 💯🐓🐓🐓🐧

This video was great! Short to the point and very informative!❤

I wet down sand to keep them cool. And yes, they will drink the little dirty puddles that are made in the process.😏

What about if the floor is stinky?

What about ashes from a fire pit?

I can’t find any peat moss in my area! I used to love using it in the garden but I can’t find it. Any suggestions?

My yard is covered in moss. I'm in the mountains in Washington State. My chickens scratch it up into piles.

Hi I have a 7.5 sm chiken run and I have 10 hens and I cockerel .I do let them out everyday for few hours put together. What can I do to make them active and less bored. What is maximum number is ideal for size of our run.

I’m a new chic magnet… I mean mamma 🤣 I have 6 chicks live in a tiny house with a tiny yard. I built A coop and run thats approximately 4x16 together 8’ is roofed with coop and a bit of run. The other 8 feet is inclosed but no roof. does it need to be roofed?

Can i use wood inside chicken flooring for flooring...eg pallets?

can you have the coop and run on grass?

I have a fairly large chicken run. I started with wood chips but they ended up everywhere. I do use peat moss for the chickens dirt bath, which they love. I started putting hay down and the chickens like sitting in it like a nest when it's dry and they like digging through it when it's wet looking for worms. And it breaks down over time and keeps the soil from drying out. On warmer days I've seen them scratch through the straw to the wet soil underneath to cool themselves. The only down side is sometimes the gals will try to eat a particularly long piece of hay and you'll see it hanging out of their beaks because they can't swallow it all. But the other gals will come up and grab it out of their mouths... removing it entirely from their system. That is my only concern but we've not had any issues.