Bumblefoot

[Crazy_Beautiful]

Second year battling this.
2 separate flocks.
Chicken keeping 5 years.

Last year we found some areas of loose wire the birds were stepping on and eating (yes eating the had it in their crop when we culled). I lowered roosting bars. And we stopped letting them free range as they were always in with the raspberries that have thorns.

This year I noticed one coop was much more affected than the other this coop had ducks. So I sold the ducks thinking the constant mud wasn’t helping. I removed some more wire the birds had uncovered.

My thought is and I’d love to hear others chime in as I do feel terrible this keeps happening and I’m trying to learn and get better.

I feel I’ve done so much much trying to eliminate what could be causing the injuries and that maybe is more a cleaning issue. I raked up my run yesterday and don’t think I’ve done that ever and my husband is going to rototil it this weekend. This is a very big run and I never thought of doing this as I figured the birds would just mix it all together and nature takes it course. We also are going to add in dirt to low lying places like where they dust bath and try and smooth out the big holes.
I’ve always used mulch in my covered run and I do rake that out maybe once a year but maybe it needs to be done more often. Inside the coop I clean it out every 1-2 months until December than I find it has to wait until March if we don’t have days where it isn’t so cold.

Context:
Coop 1 is 6x10 covered run is 20x6 and uncover portion is 70x40 12 birds in the winter
Coop 2 is 8x8 covered run is 8x8 and uncover run is 50x30 12 birds in the winter
More birds in the summer with grow outs

Anything else I can do?

 

[thecatumbrella]

I’ve always used mulch in my covered run and I do rake that out maybe once a year but maybe it needs to be done more often.

I have mulch in a 9x18 covered run, and it's cleaned at least twice a day. There's no opportunity for the poop to break down otherwise. Like you said, the birds do not turn it as much as you think they would.

Also, I've seen a lot of variation in how sharp mulch can be. We started with playground mulch, thinking it would be safer, but the pieces were like razor blades in your hands! Switched out to triple ground mulch, but even that has some sharp chunks that are a risk when they're jumping down from a perch.

I believe that birds that have already gotten bumblefoot are at higher risk of recurrence. The skin is just compromised at that point.

If this were my flock, I'd probably go nuclear on the runs. Dig them all out and comb the whole thing for wire, then top with a nice thick layer (6+ inches) of the softest undyed mulch you can find at a landscape company. It might even be worth considering a switch to sand, depending on how much water infiltration you get in your runs. Make sure any perches are below 24", maybe even lower if you have heavy-bodied birds.

Best of luck. I know bumblefoot can be difficult to resolve for a lot of folks.