Crazy muddy run

[jjakaus]

It has been raining here almost a week, so the run is a mess and starting to smell. It is going to be slightly sunny today, so I have the sun cloth off to try and dry things up. It is mostly a dirt run, as the chickens have eaten everything. It had a nice layer of grass clippings, but they are mostly gone or really wet. I am going to rake up as much as I can. I have some sweet PDZ and diactameous earth to put down. I was wondering about a layer of bedding chips...will this make it better long enough for the sun to help or worse?

Thanks!!

 

[432bullet]

I just use leaves in our run, Price is right and the chickens love them. I use pine shavings in the coop.

 

[TXchickmum]

Pine shavings in a wet run make for a smelly mess. We put coastal hay down during rainy times and it seems to work really well. They scratch around and keep it turned over. After the rain clears, we rake it all out and add it to the compost. This has really kept my hens from having muddy feet in the run during periods of showers/rain.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Read this.

Pat’s Big Ol' Mud Page (fixing muddy runs):
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run

I have no idea what your unique run looks like or how it is situated. If you are in a low spot where water drains to it, you are probably just out of luck unless you do some major work.

There are two basic concepts. Keep water out to start with and get it to drain out when it does get in. Pat’s article has some great ideas to help with that.

Good luck!

 

[c2chicks]

I use sand in my uncovered run. There are a bunch of "we love sand threads" here on BYC. I have about 4-5" down--it drains well, cleans well, looks great and in the winter, I sweep it with a broom and they happily dig right through the frozen stuff looking for bugs!

 

[farmgirlroots]

Sand, absolutely! Try it and my guess is you will never go back! I live in rainy Oregon, and my cop is at the bottom of a slight hill. Within a week of putting the chickens in it during our rainy spring it smelled like a pig pen. We hauled in enough construction grade sand to make it 3" deep and it was like working a miracle! I use it in my coop now too because it is small enough to use a kitty litter scoop to clean up droppings. I also mix in Sweet PDZ.

 

[Angela Marie]

I'm new here but here is my two cents.....
.Sand is the best remedy for a muddy run! We live in southern MS and it rains a lot! We had some mason sand delivered, spread throughout the coop and runs, we love it! We still put a layer of shavings in the coop...just for personal preference I guess lol. The chickens seem to enjoy it too. IMO sand is the way to go. Cleans up nice and dries quickly.