Finally, we have a chicken run! Except for adding some shade covering on the top at the back 1/3 of the run and making a few changes inside the coop, we’re finally ready to get some egg-laying-cluck-making-noises-fun-to-watch hens. Yay!
We’re going to use the deep litter system for the girls when they’re not free ranging (and tearing up my garden beds!). We’ll keep a layer of straw, dried grass clippings, sawdust and/or mulched leaves in the run and just add to the layer as needed so the hens don’t stand in their own mess. When the layer is about six inches deep we’ll scoop it out and put fresh bedding down. The litter we remove will “set” for six months or so to cure before being applied to the garden beds.
We simply don’t have enough room on our half acre homestead for a multiple bin composting system that gets eight hours of sun a day. But we desperately need compost to add to our garden beds since we garden so intensively. We garden year round which means the beds never get a chance to rest and that means we’re using expensive organic fertilizer to keep the beds productive. So the deep litter system in the chicken run is our answer to the problem. Although that may be the main reason we want chickens, I know we’re going to love hearing them clucking and watching them scratching along with all those typical hen antics. And the eggs? Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re going to enjoy the fresh eggs!
