Best way to keep run from turning into a muddy quagmire?

[tweetzone86]

OMG. Really? We have bunnies (that’s my husband’s thing) and feed them hay from a bale. The chickens LOVE to get into the bunny run when free ranging (if the bunnies aren’t in there) and scratch through it. Is that plot of soil toxic sndnot going to grow pasture/lawn down the road?

Depends. One of the reasons those herbicides are used on hay is because it doesn't affect grains/grasses. It only affects broad-leaf plants, which sadly includes garden vegetables and fruits. A friend used tainted hay as mulch in her garden by accident and had to move her entire plot. Now, she's got 67 acres and I've only got 1/4 acre so I can't just up and move my garden if it gets tainted, so I'm VERY careful about what I compost and bedding I use. If I don't know for certain if it's tainted, then it gets hauled to the dump and that gets old real fast...

Those herbicides also don't harm animals but it does survive their gi tract so can be present in their poop as well. That's what results in "killer compost" when the cattle and chickens and such that used tainted hay/straw for bedding or eating have their manure used in compost it taints it and can destroy vegetable plants.

Anyway, I wouldn't be concerned about your bunnies and chickens It will grow pasture, as long as it's grasses or hay/grains and not broadleaf (like clover). But I wouldn't compost it and put it in a vegetable garden because your plants most definitely would not like it at all...does that make sense?

Sorry, I wasn't trying to panic anyone Those herbicides aren't harmful to animals or pastures just to broadleaf plants

 

[micstrachan]

No worries. No panic here. Always learning.
So it’s the monocot vs. dicot thing, right? I remember learning about that WAY back when in college (I’m 14 years older than you )

My “pasture” is sort of a lawn/pasture hybrid (with LOTS of brown spots from the dog.) It is a mixture of grasses, plus flax, clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, field peas and lentils. I keep it mowed like a lawn, the flax didn’t really grow, and I have yet to identify any alfalfa. LOL I’m going to throw seed in sections for fun this year (it’s rustic here with no landscaping).

 

[tweetzone86]

I use white sugar sand in nest boxes and pea gravel on top of sand. As a treat we will throw old leaves collected and let them have a toss party.

Are the sides of your run sturdy enough to hold metal siding? Holes can be drilled to attach to what you have? I usually buy extremely large zip ties and use them. That will hold snow. Make sure your corners are either covered or wrapped to avoid head bumps or eye pokes to humans lol if not over your head. Also, take a look to see if you can relevel the area to move water away from it.

Get ready.. I had laparascopic hysterectomy and it took 8 weeks to even think about a chicken. It sucked. AND just start taking laxative now. You will thank me later! Good news was, after 3 weeks I still couldn’t do crap but felt some better but the pampering continued the rest of the time. The man here doesn’t like geese or chickens anymore but he knows how to take care of them! You will do good. You know why? God is looking after you and a prayer for speedy recovery and spoiling have been sent!

Maybe? It's a 6' wood picket fence with only about 1/2" gap between the 5.5" wide pickets and the posts are 4x4x8' buried 2' into the ground below frost line and set with concrete. It MIGHT hold it. That's a great idea Now just need to have the funds for the roofing...

I'm only 5 feet tall myself (hubby's 6 feet) so if I line it up with the 6 foot fence I won't have to worry about eye-line. Though where's a pool noodle this time of year...you can slice a pool noodle lengthwise to create a foam buffer on sharp edges and corners.

I can't take laxatives There's endo lesions on the bowel and who knows what else and between those and the pelvic floor muscle spasms/seizures, if I take a laxative I end up in the ER feeling like a tiger is shredding my insides. And yes that happened before...so laxatives are a major no-no for me I typically compensate for pain meds with grape juice because it doesn't hurt like no tomorrow. Plus, I'm allergic to morphine, tramadol, and hydrocodone so the only thing they can give me is dilaudid

Wow that's a long recovery! I don't know how bad it will be til they get in there. He's hoping to spare the ovaries so I don't go into instant menopause, but if need be they will go. Worst case scenario lesions are so bad I will need a resection as well as the lady organs removed, but if it means a cure for the suffering I've been dealing with for the past 6 years, then I'll gladly take the 8 weeks of misery! They're going to have me do physical therapy after surgery as well to help aid in recovery too.

Thank you so much The biggest stressor is whether or not insurance will pay for it because they rejected it first go and the dr's office is fighting tooth and nail to get it to happen because I desperately need it.

Hubby's more than willing to take on feeding, as I'm on lifting restriction right now, but their tote feeder holds 50lbs so he should only have to fill it once every couple weeks. Watering I can still do at least for now (2 gallon bucket dumped into hog feeder elevated on two cinder blocks because that's the cleanest method I could use that didn't flood the coop) but he'll take that on post-surgery and my girls (6 and 9) love to go out there and let them out of their coop into the run in the morning and they can help collect the eggs and I weigh each one and separate by size so I can sell the larger ones, and my 9 year old knows how to do that and record it on our wall calendar as well.

Hubby's taking a week off work when I have surgery, we'll take 2 weeks off homeschool or at least do lighter, and hubby will take over feeding and watering and the girls letting them out and egg collecting til I am able to do so myself Between the 4 of us we should be just fine

Now to just get insurance to get off their rears and approve the surgery...sigh. Stupid bureaucrats...

Thank you for your prayers They are MUCH appreciated

 

[MROO]

So do you layer all those things then? And where would one acquire rice hulls?

And yeah- endometriosis, adenomyosis and pelvic floor dysfunction. Woopee...but I am glad for the diagnosis because I was misdiagnosed with IBS 6 years ago and can finally get cured As long as insurance pays up anyway-they're balking at needing one at 32 and trying to get out of paying for it. It's in God's hands...and the office staff at the specialist's office who finally accurately diagnosed me.

My small broody run (two by five) was a muddy mess until I started layering, this summer. I started with fine gravel, then a few bags of sand. Next came a thick layer of pine needles (free from a neighbor - YAY!) and now I just add leaves, compost and some of the cleaner pine shavings when I scoop out the coop box. We've had lots of rain in the last two weeks, and so far, so good!

As far as the "plumbing work" goes, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. It sounds like we share the same story ... been there, done that; I can commiserate! I promise, it gets better! The best advice I got was to be sure to give myself time to heal. Don't be ashamed to ask for help for the first couple of weeks - and yeas, weeks, not days. You'll feel much better, but don't push and you'll be through it more quickly.

It's not all bad, though. Once the surgery was over and I was feeling better, I realized that I can now wear white pants whenever I want! Khakis? No problem! You'll never have to sit out another swim party. And you can plan your vacation for whenever you want without having to count weeks. It's actually very freeing!

 

[MROO]

A

A tarp will work until snow starts falling. We're supposed to get a rain/snow mix starting November 8 and snow itself won't be far behind. But we get a 40 pound snow load (40 lbs/square foot) here and the tarp can't hold up to that weight without collapsing. So once snow starts we'll have to take it down to avoid a collapsed roof/wire roof.

A simple frame and a sheet of roofing (metal or PVC) works well, too. That's the plan for our run ... in all that spare time we always have ...

 

[tweetzone86]

No worries. No panic here. Always learning.
So it’s the monocot vs. dicot thing, right? I remember learning about that WAY back when in college (I’m 14 years older than you )

My “pasture” is sort of a lawn/pasture hybrid (with LOTS of brown spots from the dog.) It is a mixture of grasses, plus flax, clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, field peas and lentils. I keep it mowed like a lawn, the flax didn’t really grow, and I have yet to identify any alfalfa. LOL I’m going to throw seed in sections for fun this year (it’s rustic here with no landscaping).

Monocot vs dicot? I'm guessing you're talking about the herbicide method of action and half-life? Because you kind of lost me lol...I was pre-med major til I got sick, not agricultural chemistry Though I do enjoy learning still and continue to do so as I am able Plus, I have tons and tons of research I do for my historical novels as well

But the aminopyralid and clopyralid thing was the result of research and some very interesting agricultural extension research studies All I really know about them is that they are used on grasses and hays and grains to keep broadleaf weeds at bay, that they survive in the soil for up to 30 years, that garden veggies hate it with a vengeance and it will decimate a garden plot for decades, and that it survives animal tracts and the composting process.

So as far as your pasture goes, the grasses and grains should be fine, but your broadleaves and legumes won't grow where that hay and manure is IF it's tainted with the pyralids or other herbicides (unless said herbicide has a very short half-life). It may not be- I don't know if Timothy hay is tainted. Some probably is, but don't know if YOURS is.

That all depends on where it was sourced and if that farmer used it or if it got tainted at the processing plants after being mixed with hay that had been sprayed. I would love to see these powerful long-lasting herbicides banned, but until that happens just do your research on where your hay/straw/etc is sourced and see if they were exposed to herbicides

That's what I did with EZ Straw, and the manufacturer assured me ten ways to Sunday that it wasn't sprayed with herbicides so I feel comfortable using it in my coop and run and garden (also mulched my garden this year and tomatoes are especially vulnerable to herbicides and they did fine). It's just difficult to get when it's used to seed lawns by holding down seed so it doesn't blow away and winter in north Idaho isn't exactly lawn season

 

[micstrachan]

I’ll be thinking of you over the next several weeks. When is your surgery?

I love the idea of metal siding as a roof. Can you put it on an angle so the snow slides off? If it’s flat I fear eventually it might collapse under the weight of snow. Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who only VISITS the snow for fun.

 

[micstrachan]

Monocots are the grasses (notice how the veins run straight and parallel). Dicots have branched veins. “Cot” is short for cotyledon, the first leaves to appear upon germination. Actually, I was premed, too, but majored in human biology. Must have learned about monocots and dicots in biology. I ended up practicing molecular biology and never did go into medicine (which I think about occasionally and wonder what could have been.) Follow your dreams and see them through, if you can!

 

[MROO]

Maybe?

Wow that's a long recovery! I don't know how bad it will be til they get in there. He's hoping to spare the ovaries so I don't go into instant menopause, but if need be they will go. Worst case scenario lesions are so bad I will need a resection as well as the lady organs removed, but if it means a cure for the suffering I've been dealing with for the past 6 years, then I'll gladly take the 8 weeks of misery! They're going to have me do physical therapy after surgery as well to help aid in recovery too.

I had it all done at 42 - and they had to take everything. I had to go cold-turkey on the hormones because of B-cancer in the family, so I was really scared ... but it really wasn't so bad. It wasn't easy, but it saved me a lo of worries for further down the road!

And I totally agree with @Helloworld on the healing time. Eight weeks are a definite - no leeway, there. The first two-to three weeks are a "do nothing" time - and I do mean NOTHING. You won't want to, but even if you do, relax and let others "do" for you. You'll be grateful. later. After a few weeks, you'll likely wake up one morning and realize you don't hurt unless you "do this" or "do this" - so you'll be able to get out and do more - but tire easily. By eight weeks, you should be good to go! That's when the "pitiful act" will buy you more time ... and you can finally enjoy your time off!

 

[Helloworld]

I’ll be thinking of you over the next several weeks. When is your surgery?

I love the idea of metal siding as a roof. Can you put it on an angle so the snow slides off? If it’s flat I fear eventually it might collapse under the weight of snow. Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who only VISITS the snow for fun.

Try finding a small something to lift up one end. Also, I actually love the plastic sheets but not strong enough for snow. Helps let light in though.