Wet Run, low area, need your thoughts for my idea.

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Put this top soil in the run to raise that.

Thank you for that advice! I will start building up the area of issue starting with top soil first and then add sand and clippings, mulch as I go.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Sounds like you have a good plan.
Mulch will be fine as long as it's not treated with anything.
Different sizes like that work well.

Perfect! Got a good plan now thanks to everyone here, much appreciated!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thank you so much for sending me your run pics, this visual helps out so much. I will take everyone's advice and try to divert the water the best I can while raising my deep method another 3-4 inches to keep the sogginess down as much as possible. If I cannot locate the wood chips, is there another alternative you would suggest, I know pine bark nuggets are out but natural mulch along with my grass clipping, leaves and sand.

I would think pine bark nuggets would be fine. Maybe not alone but in the mix with other things, to provide some chunkiness to help with drainage and aeration. Deep litter favors a mix of organic materials of different types of sizes.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Thank you for the clarification! Our run is covered, I forgot to mention that part. I've dug a small trench to keep the water from coming in under the frame, we will see how that helps. I look forward to try this type of method, all I've ever used is plain sand so it will be a trial and error for us to start.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Update:
Heavy rains last night and the run was still flooded.
But when I raked the top layer of the grass clippings it was dry on top so the waters didn't totally make it all the way up, and I've only raised the run floor by less than 2 inches.

The trench I dug I do believe helped some, but I'll need to make larger and tapered to move the majority of water away, the other area of water penetration was another low spot so still trying to come up with a solution for that part.

Should I be trying for a specific height of run material, I can probably get up to 9 or 10 inches at the most with my setup?

 

[aart]

Should I be trying for a specific height of run material, I can probably get up to 9 or 10 inches at the most with my setup?

Hard to say...as high as it needs to be to resist any incoming run off.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Understood. I'll keep adding to it, as they keep it turned up and with natural composting, I hope for a minimum of 4-6 so I can use for planting in the spring.

 

[aart]

The trench I dug I do believe helped some, but I'll need to make larger and tapered to move the majority of water away,

The best time to dig a trench is when it's pouring rain, then you can watch where/how the water flows.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Updated:
Well over the weekend the floods came in hard and fast, washed away a lot of our hard work, I know these flash floods don't happen to often but when they do good grief!

Wife and daughters were not pleased with the run at all, the girls did not want to muck around in all the mess either so we made a family decision to raise half of the run using decking boards and water proofing material to try and get as many years as possible with the lumber. So now the girls have a 3 tiered run to enjoy, the "dust bathing" area is a 4x4 section above the beach area which is now a 8x8 deck with 4 inches of construction sand, 4 inches above the remaining area of the run, which we can do the deep method as this part does not flood. The girls are enjoying the "beach" and the composting material in the other section of the run. We also installed a misting fan for the super hot days.

I don't believe our girls are spoiled at all, not at all.

Trial and error in chicken management

 

[KyCoop]

My run floor is 6 inches below grade on the slope side and is dry even in the monsoon rains we get sometimes. It took a lot of trial , error and hard work but you can make it happen.
I did a lot of digging in the rain. The best time was the first time when I was digging a trench through the run as the girls "helped" and drank the icky water creek we made.