A Few Coop & Run Questions

[marbekschicks]

It has been raining alot here. Our new run has wet spots that stay wet and muddy and now stink. We can not move the run. We have bags of play sand, will that work? If not, what is best thing to do? I do have grit and oyster shell available for chickens if and when they need it.

"New" coop is sitting on 3 4x4's but can't really see under it, and I'm betting there's water laying under there too.

I plan to use the pine shavings for floor, which is plywood that is painted and sealed. I've read alot on deep litter method, and understand I need to find what works best. I live in a small town. How do I dispose of what I clean out of the coop? I do have a small garden, but can't use it in that right now. I have to be able to control smell and bugs and not exactly sure how to do it. I also don't know a thing about composting.

Any help and suggestions appreciated.

Thank you,
Marci in PA

 

[patandchickens]

Play sand will work if you have a bunch for free but there are other considerations that will help a lot as well -- see the "Fixing a Muddy Run" link in my .sig below.

To compost, either buy a spiffy plastic composter, or just make a pile o' coop-cleanings (either plain, or contained within pallets wired together into a square). Let them sit there til next year, watering as necessary to keep pile mildly damp throughout. Then you can use them on your garden if you want. If you clean your coop like most people do, however, your cleanings will contain too much shavings in relation to the amount of poo, and will compost slowly and poorly. It should be regarded probably as more of a mulch or organic-matter soil amendment, than a "compost" in the soil nutrition sense of the word.

Alternatively, advertise "Free Chicken Manure/Bedding, U-Pick" and you can probably find avid gardeners/composters in your area who will happily come and haul it away for you, at least some of the time

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[BigPeep]

I don't know that the sand is a permanent solution either. You might try digging a trench from one end of the run to the other, and installing a perforated tubing of some kind that will allow the water in and then transport it off site, and then cover that back up. The trench only needs to be about six inches deep.

You can set up a Rain Garden just outside the coop and have the drain tube empty into that. A Rain Garden is an area planted with water tolerant plants, such as various native plants that are found in nature growing at the margins of ponds and streams. They can tolerate dry conditions as well as being occasionally wet for varying periods of time.