After four years of poop picking the soil level in the run has dropped considerably. Although the girls scratch in it all day they only move the soil about and don’t remove it from the run so it must just be me picking up three times a day that has removed all this soil.
The soil level in the run has dropped
When I dig the run I always add a bucket of soil from other parts of the run to this spot and I have added bags of sand in the past but these things have made little impression. Steve, my eldest son, thought this was a block of concrete. In fact it is rock hard soil where I have allowed it to be compacted as it provides a step down into the run. I dig over the rest of the run at least once a week.
A small bag of sand only costs two pounds but even a small bag is heavy. I decided to buy two bags today even though I knew it would be a drop in the ocean. Even so every little helps.
I have a plan to keep on buying one bag of sand at a time and adding it until eventually I can build the level back up. I would like to put sand in the whole of the run to help it to be less boggy but the run is so big that this would be an impossible task.
We put the sand in the run and waited to see what the girls made of it.
Topaz, Toffee and Emerald were the first to approach the sand
Speckles was quite brave
I left them to it and when I returned a little later the girls all ran to the patio to see if I was going to give them their pre bedtime corn.
All the girls on the patio
I felt like the pied piper as I was stepping backwards to try to get a photo while the girls were all moving towards me. It did give me a chance to get all the girls in shot though and I liked this photo. Butterscotch had just laid her egg so she was catching up on pecking at the apple.
A little later I threw their bedtime corn into the sand to encourage them onto it.
The girls scratching in the sand
The sand is getting spread around
Topaz has the sand to herself
After the other girls had tired of the sand Topaz continued to scratch in it. She was scratching in the sand until bedtime. At least this is a start to building up the soil level and I think the girls like the sand.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Sand certainly is a benefit in a run; I keep a cat litter tray with sand for dust-bathing, as my main run is open to the elements and can get very quagmirish in bad weather – of which we’ve had loads recently!
I am lucky that the top section of the run stays dry for dust bathing but the rest of the run does become a quagmire and does annoy me as it’s all covered. I think the top part benefits from being wide, having solid fence down one side and having tarpaulin rather than panels. It is a lot more difficult to keep rain out than I had imagined. I would love to put in loads of sand but it’s so heavy. I will just keep going one bag at a time.
I am amazed how brave speckles has got . It’s so nice to see her joining in and actually being first.
I am amazed too. She has become so much braver in every aspect apart from with the other girls but when you see how mean they are to her that’s not surprising. It’s a vicious circle because her nervousness around them makes them more inclined to chase her and then makes her more nervous. I would love to see her stand up to them but I don’t think that’s going to happen and yet anything new in the run and she is now first to investigate.