Muddy run! Help please!

[lancasterflock]

We have a decent size backyard in the county. By no means do we have acres of property, but the girls sleep in the coop at night. They have a fenced in run, but they spend all day long free ranging the back yard. I have very happy girls. Once we get ahold of the mud problem all will be well

 

[lancasterflock]

Chicken girl I took notes. That's all stuff I have and is easy to come by. This is our families first go at chickens so we're learning. This site has helped so much! Very grateful to whomever started this website.

 

[Beekissed]

I'd avoid hay or straw in a wet and muddy run, if you can help it. Seems to do much better in the long run if the materials are varied in type and size instead of all one type and particle size. The added benefit is that the run then becomes a place for worms and bugs to feed off the manure and organic materials as they compost...which will also feed your flock. Good bacteria and fungi can grow in a composting run whereas nothing much good can grow in soils that are too compacted, barren and unable to absorb moisture....that's just a good petri dish for all things bad.

Give all that nitrogen something with which to bind and suddenly you have a habitat instead of just a run. By spring you could put down some grow frames and seed them and expect to have some good growth going on~more healthy food for the chickens.







Come summer you're going to notice less smells, less flies and more contented and busy chickens if you maintain a healthy, composting deep litter in their run. More healthy food choices, healthier microbial life in the soil, healthier chickens all the way around.

 

[Floof]

I had a similar issue with my run. Once the chickens ate all the grass, there wasn't anything to absorb the rain and it got stinky and muddy pretty fast. I bought a tarp for under $20 and tied that on to help keep most of the rain out and have been putting all our grass and other plant clippings in there. The plant clippings keep my chickens feet out of the mud and I haven't had the smelliness come back. My only regret is that I bought a blue tarp and it keeps my chicken run pretty dark. I noticed my pullets going to roost during the late afternoon and then just sitting there looking pretty confused because it wasn't actually night time. Someone advised me to buy a clear tarp or shower curtain but haven't been able to invest in one yet.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Our run isn't completely covered. Should we put some material across the top to keep the rain out? Our sand run is beginning to stink despite daily cleaning.

no cover needed. Toss all your produce scraps, yard debris and a Sunday Paper or 2 in the run. I put all new additions in a pile in the center and let the birds do the work. I haven't actually cleaned my run in, well ever I guess. I just scoop out what I need for garden boxes and flower pots as needed. The only time it smells at all is when I have a round of meat birds in there, and they always stink.

The key to a "clean smell free" run is just as stated before. Lots of material from many sources.

 

[the girls club]

I have 5 chickens. My grass in my run is long gone. The chickensd I now have. Have dug holes in my run and lay in them during when it's hot out. The run looks like a war zone hit it chicken style. With all the holes. We are going to revise the coop in the spring. I want to work on the run also. This may sound silly but do they sell pine needles? I recycle newspapers. I've read the threads that say put newspapers in the run. So do I just lay the papers flat on the ground? How deep do I put them?Won't the chickes feet slip on the wet paper?. How often if I do use the newspapers. Do I apply them?When thney break down. Won't that just be as muddy for the birds?Wouldn't you need to put meal worms or food down over the papers. So to start the chickens scratching the ground?As you can read by this post. I have never did this before. I'm willing to try this as the run looks bad. Thank you for your replies

 

[Beekissed]

I have 5 chickens. My grass in my run is long gone. The chickensd I now have. Have dug holes in my run and lay in them during when it's hot out. The run looks like a war zone hit it chicken style. With all the holes. We are going to revise the coop in the spring. I want to work on the run also. This may sound silly but do they sell pine needles? I recycle newspapers. I've read the threads that say put newspapers in the run. So do I just lay the papers flat on the ground? How deep do I put them?Won't the chickes feet slip on the wet paper?. How often if I do use the newspapers. Do I apply them?When thney break down. Won't that just be as muddy for the birds?Wouldn't you need to put meal worms or food down over the papers. So to start the chickens scratching the ground?As you can read by this post. I have never did this before. I'm willing to try this as the run looks bad. Thank you for your replies

I've never heard of placing newspapers in the run but I'd not do it. There are free materials most anywhere you look that would be ten times better than newspapers...leaves, twigs, bark, lawn rakings, etc.

They do sell pine shavings and that would help....build them deep, don't go skimpy with the material. Place something on the sides of the bottom of the run fencing to keep all these materials from being kicked out of the run.

After that, plan on looking for materials you can use in your run all year long to build a good "forest" floor in your run that will help keep the soils loose and absorbing moisture well and will digest any manure in the run. Any garden refuse, corn stalks and shucks and such, leaves, woody plant stems, etc. Seems to work best if it's not all the same material, being of different particle sizes and break down rates.

 

[Beekissed]

Oregon is a different story. It stays so wet that wood chips, leaves, pine needles, and hay, when added to the run will get so soggy the hens cannot turn it. Decomposition then goes anaerobic and OMG the stench. I just forked several loads into the big wheelbarrow for the garden. It was so wet and heavy I could hardly move it. I get the idea of the lightly moist earthy compost but we are talking Oregon in the rainy season.

As for recreating the forest environment, the forest does not have 10 well fed chickens pooping in a small area.

Now that the ice is melted I guess I'll start over with more organic litter.

Perhaps you could use your fork to good use to turn your manure into the mass? That's what I do in the coop. Turning the poop into the mass can bury the smell and send it where the insects and worms can get to it effectively. It just takes a few minutes of each day unless your run is a massive place, which most are not. A light flip of materials onto the surface until all poop is covered, sometimes it's just a flip of material from another place, sometimes it's just flipping the material in place, but the goal is to turn the top layer into the middle layers without disturbing the mass too much.

The material getting soggy is expected in rainy seasons....at least soggy material is better than mud. Try placing twigs, branches and larger items in the layers to allow for air pockets in the mass, which will speed composting and drainage. Skip the hay and other moist materials in your climate, particularly in the rainy seasons, and use dryer, smaller particles like wood chips, shavings, leaves, etc.

It's all about managing the mass. Or you could just keep dealing with mud. Some people in your climate convert to sand...that's always an option.

 

[aart]

My wife and I are new to chickens. We were given a small flock of 5 hens. My outside run is a 4x8 dog kennel with a plywood bottom bolted on that I inherited along with the rest of the materials, tiny coop, feeder, waterer, straw, etc.

We live in SW Wyoming where we have had lots of snow this winter. I finally covered the top of the run with a blue tarp to keep the snow and rain off. The straw was continually getting wet as we had an unusual February thaw. Any ideas on what would make a better base than straw on top of the plywood?

Come spring I plan to build a new coop with more room, roosting rods, poop platforms and actual nesting boxes.

Thanks

Welcome to BYC!

First, get rid of the plywood floor in the run......then read thru this thread and you'll find lots of options.
This is my favorite that I often share:
Here's a great description of contents and how to manage organic 'bedding' in a run or coop...and there's a great video of what it looks like.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1037998/muddy-run-help-please#post_16017992

ETA: Glad to hear you are going to build larger housing after seeing this:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1148145/was-given-these-hens-what-are-they#post_17936233
Would be interesting to see it without the snow...bet you think so to...haha!

 

[thefishguy77]

Hi all. Just building a new coop and run for my girls. We have 5-3year old girls and are planning on getting a dozen more. Maybe a rooster throwen in, not sure yet. We have a 20 acre lot but can't let the girls run free or we won't have any. Lots and lots of predators, cougar, bobcat, opossum, skunk, hawk, eagle, coyote, fox, raccoon, and that's just what I have seen. We live in the woods a few miles from White Pass Wa.

So I have built a 6x12 "barn" with. 4x6 clean area in the back for food and other storage. Going to do pine shavings in the coop with poop boards under the roost and 6 next boxes, yea I know they will only use 1-2 of them. Our outside run will be probably around 200 sqft shaded by trees. Currently they is some pasture grass and weeds on the floor but I don't give that 2 days once chickens are on it.

Our coop is going in the corner of our fenced in garden, septic drain field, we have to do 8ft fences to discourage the elk from just coming through. Going to do welded wire for a main fence and do at least 6ft of hardware cloth around the chicken run area with chicken wire for a top covering.
Really liking the build up of litter for the outside of the run. In the fall I can get truck loads of maple leaves from my neighbors lawn and have tons of hemlock, fir, alder trees on my place with more ferns and Oregon grape than I can count.

I am thinking I will use my small chipper to go through all the smaller branches I usually burn and chip them for the run and well as cut back the ferns before the new growth comes in. Any other ideas or suggestions are appreciated?

Edit: after the garden is harvested they will get to explore it for a few weeks to eat and poop in the beds.