Chicken Run Hardpan

For safety and security reasons, I have an enclosed run attached to my chicken coop for the times that I can't be outside to be available to tend to the hens in their various paddocks. This has led to a higher level of manure in one spot compared to the lightly fertilized paddocks.

I have observed today that there was a level of hardpan in the run right on the surface. I however forgot to take a picture but I did find one that is only a few months old that shows the sort of development of a wood/dirt layer.



I have decided to just start from a far corner and cultivate the hardpan with a sharp hoe to loosen up everything. It took some elbow grease but at least it is something that can be scratched easier for the girls.



I'm stuck between two approaches to go to from now. Should I just top off with fresh material (wood chip/shavings) or would it be advantageous to take the time and sift out the built up compost before putting in more chip?

I don't NEED any compost at the moment but perhaps having less volume in the run before adding new material would reduce issues?

Let me know your thoughts.

I would suggest adding more carbon (leaves, woodchips, etc) like you are thinking. My mom had a small pen and it was not just hard pan, but smelly as well. I started throwing buckets full of fall leaves over the fence... the chickens loved rooting through them for bugs and within a week or two, the smell was better, and the dirt did not look as hardpan as it had been. Of course then we got snow, so I was not able to leave it for more than a month... but it was headed in the right direction. I suspect it would be the same for you. I wouldn't even bother harvesting until you need it. Doing a sort of deep bedding system, but in the outside pen.

I dump lots of stuff in the chicken pen, including wood chips, and it all tends to form a mucky plaster layer over the surface. What I do to counteract this usually involves five minutes with a digging fork, and then the chickens do the rest. The number of worms that live directly underneath that hardpan is phenomenal and it's always a free-for-all when I break things up a little bit.

I often fill the wheelbarrow with some screened material from this exercise, and use that on garden beds or just layer it on the active compost piles. I also throw a bucket of biochar and some wood ash around on a regular basis.

Sort of what Phil says. I use a garden fork like a broad fork - dig in, lift just enough to crack the pan, move 4 inches, repeat. If it looks dry under the cracks, I tip their water bucket into the cracks, then I add fresh wood chips on the top to try and fall down the cracks a bit. I only do 3-4 square feet at a time each day until it's loosened up.

I find leaves are more prone to getting stinky if I don't do this often as they tend to pack down more than wood chips do.

I also have several composts which I let do the slow digestion method of minimal care. If the run is getting stinky, I definitely take a garbage can off the top - usually the area near the waterer is the biggest issue. One of my runs is on a slope, so I also toss the stuff that's slid down back up for the chickens to relocate down to the bottom again!

Where I live, disturbing the soil causes more erosion due to several factors.

If that were my chicken run I would add more layers of organic matter.  

Types of organic matter could be chicken bedding, wood chips, leaves and twigs, grass clippings, etc.

I bet the chickens would love those too.  That would give them things to scratch at and find more bugs, too.