Mud Mud Mud

[Folly's place]

Shavings come in bags from farm supply stores, as horse bedding. Call around for best price in your area. Don't use any colored mulch, or cocoa shells, or anything else that's toxic. I think that the shavings, with some other stuff added, works best. Mary

 

[TalkALittle]

It was very early spring when I started my deep litter. I used leaves from the previous autumn that I had to dig out from the compost pile under the snow. They were wet. I combined them with a bag of shavings. The really dry shavings balanced out the moisture in the leaves perfectly. When you've experienced horribly wet conditions the knee jerk reaction is to completely avoid anything wet. For deep litter to work best there needs to be some moisture in the litter. The different textures of the leaves, woodchips, shavings, pine needles, dried grass, etc. creates air gaps in the litter. A lofty, air filled litter that your birds can easily scratch through will dry on the top layers. Some moisture will be trapped in the lower layers and some will seep up from below. That is good and needed. If you find it is remaining too wet, just go deeper and with more varied textures.

 

[KelliR]

Oh, I know where to buy shavings....I use pine shavings or pellets...pellets would be good in this case as they are super absorbent...I would never use anything treated like colored mulch....Lowes has Cyprus mulch right now...just wondering how it would do.....with my magnolia leaves, pine shavings etc mixed.

 

[yellowchicks]

Deep litter is definitely the answer for a fix. Don't worry too much about what to buy as bedding. Look around your yard for leaves, grass clippings and any yard waste.

I have two runs, both use DL, but in different ways. The run that is attached to the coop is covered, its bedding is from the pine shaving clear out from the coop from time to time. I like to keep the bedding in the covered run drier so the chickens don't get muddy feet onto the eggs and stay clean. I never need to clean the chicken poop in the run, chickens just scratched the poop into a powder form, which I scoop out each spring to the compost bin. From time to time, I would spray the dust off and moisten the bedding as needed.

There is another much larger run area adjacent to the coop behind our shed that is not covered. This area is probably the lowest part of the neighborhood. It consistently pond with several inches of water every time there is a heavy rain, but it does infiltrate into the ground in a day or so. It was a wasted space but ideal to let the chicken roam there. So we put grass clippings (make sure there is no chemical) and mulched leaves there to create a rich based. Then I mixed a year worth of "aged" chicken poop from the compost bins into the bedding. The leaves (as carbon) neutralizes the poop.

 

[KelliR]

Got it! That makes perfect sense....poor things are so sad and muddy. I let them out for a few hours a day to roam the yard, but the yard is wet too and the rain has been relentless. I think tonight they may get a good feet cleaning before bed!

 

[Bnemi]

We use corrugated plastic drain tile here in Ohio buried in the soil 2ft down. We are getting a lot of rain too.

 

[donrae]

This year has been simply horrible for mud. And it's only December......

You've had some excellent advice. The only thing I'll add is to toss scratch or sunflower seeds or whatever you like in the run every day or so. Scratching for food is a natural behavior we often deprive the birds of, with our nice contained feeders. They'll get the natural behavior, the good exercise for their leg muscles, and as a side benefit they'll turn that litter over for you and help keep it from getting quite so compacted.

 

[TalkALittle]

We use corrugated plastic drain tile here in Ohio buried in the soil 2ft down. We are getting a lot of rain too.

Haha! My water table is so high that if I dig 2 feet down I hit water. That's why my run became so saturated when I had sand. It is a covered run and wasn't getting wet from rain. It was getting wet from water seeping in from the ground around it.

 

[donrae]

Haha! My water table is so high that if I dig 2 feet down I hit water. That's why my run became so saturated when I had sand. It is a covered run and wasn't getting wet from rain. It was getting wet from water seeping in from the ground around it.

This is me, too! We try to dig post holes and the posts are literally floating/bobbing in the hole. My next place will have some slope to it and be a touch higher overall. things you don't necessarily think of when you're looking at property for the first time.

 

[KelliR]

Thank you SO much for your advice.....I decided a long time ago to opt out of the deep litter method inside the coop. I only have three birds right now and I use a poop board that I built with a lip around it under their roost. It has Sweet PDZ granuals in it kind of like kitty litter that I scoop every other day. Coop stays so much cleaner. The run on the other hand has been the challenge.....sand, top soil...no matter what it ends in a mucky, sticky mess when we have rain. So here is what I have done so far.......

Layer 1: Dead tomato plants (dried up stalks
Layer 2: Magnolia leaves (not mulched) including Magnolia grenades....(southern for the seed pods)
Layer 3: Twig, sticks, random yard items
Layer 4: Oak leaves....tons of them

I have PLENTY of all of this stuff so there will be no issue keeping it filled in. When I walked in I could feel a nice cushiony , springy floor which is what it sounds like I want? I'd LOVE to finish it off with some nice clean pine.....the bigger pieces....I have to say...I threw in some weeds and they are in there going to town.....no muddy feet! The only thing is that the leaves and such are damp from the rain...the front that blew in dried it up some but I am assuming it was ok to go ahead and use them slightly damp. Anything has to be better than the mud wrestling pit they were in!