Hello again! First off, im on mobile so sorry for any weird formatting that may happen.
So this last winter was my first winter having chickens. I put down straw in their uncovered run so they had something dry to step on instead of constantly walking through snow.
I thought it would all decompose. I was wrong.
Today while i was out in the chicken run, I noticed some of the ground was still squishy. I previously had dismissed it because it had been raining lately.
But the past few days have been rather warm. So i got curious and took a shovel to it. It turns out i have a layer of dirt, then the straw, then more dirt.
The smell was horrible. Not horrible like the hippos at the zoo, but it definitely was unpleasant.
So now my question is, how do i solve this? Should i turn all the dirt so the straw is up? Should i try to aerate? Should i leave it be? Should i dig up the straw and bag it all? Should i just add more dirt on top??
I wanna eventually put like bagged mulch store sell in the garden area as the run floor, but will that do the same thing?
So this last winter was my first winter having chickens. I put down straw in their uncovered run so they had something dry to step on instead of constantly walking through snow.
I thought it would all decompose. I was wrong.
Today while i was out in the chicken run, I noticed some of the ground was still squishy. I previously had dismissed it because it had been raining lately.
But the past few days have been rather warm. So i got curious and took a shovel to it. It turns out i have a layer of dirt, then the straw, then more dirt.
The smell was horrible. Not horrible like the hippos at the zoo, but it definitely was unpleasant.
So now my question is, how do i solve this? Should i turn all the dirt so the straw is up? Should i try to aerate? Should i leave it be? Should i dig up the straw and bag it all? Should i just add more dirt on top??
I wanna eventually put like bagged mulch store sell in the garden area as the run floor, but will that do the same thing?