New to having chickens

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JanH

JanH

Hatching
5 Years
Mar 31, 2014
9
0
7
Hi,
I am new to raising chickens but am loving every minute of it. My husband, Gary, and I picked up 10 hens and 1 rooster last fall from a lady who had to move and needed to find a new home for her young chickens. We have a mixed batch of hens: 1 silkie (my love), 2 orloffs, 3 bantams, 2 Red hens and 1 black and 1 spotted b&W hen. They hatched 3 chicks in January of this year so we are now up to 14.
We live in Washington state and this year has been a truly rainy and cold winter. We have a large yard for the chickens but next to the coop is an area that has become muddy and it is really starting to smell pretty bad. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to eliminate this problem? I am getting ready to mix straw in with the mud to try and reduce the odor. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
 
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Glad to have you here. Good luck with your chickens and I hope you find everything you need to know! Don't forget to take a look at BYC's very useful learning center! To eliminate that problem, you could put small, smooth rocks on the mud. Is grass something that you could plant?
 
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Welcome to BYC!

Sand is a wonderful medium for coops, runs and keeping them dry. I use sand everywhere. It stays dry, keeps the flies away, no smells, soft on the foot pads and is easy to clean. You can also hose it down in the summer to keep the birds really cool.

Here is a link to sand and what it is all about...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/444759/got-sand-you-should

Good luck with your run and welcome to our flock!
 

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