Disgusting chicken run

[GrandpaChainz]

Hi all.

I have a very small front yard and decided to dedicate half of it to three chickens. Their area is about 150 square feet. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so we get an intense amount of rain. Half of the chicken run is covered with a tarp, but the other half is not. The half that isn't is a disgusting, smelly, sopping, soggy, nasty place to be. It's the worst. No matter how much I turn the soil, how many different products I use on it, how many cedar shavings I put on it, it's still a swampy disgusting mess. For reasons I don't fully understand, that top couple inch layer of soil, maybe because it's mixed in with a bit of straw and organic matter, just holds onto water. If you step into it, the water and mud comes up over your feet.

I've considered tarping up the other half of their area but then I'm just the guy in the neighborhood with tarps over half his yard. I have one neighbor protesting the fact that I have chickens at all, even though they're legal, so I want to remain at least somewhat aesthetically acceptable.

I've also considered just shoveling off the top inch or two of muck, but then that begs the question: And do what with it? Then I just have a pile of nasty chicken muck instead of an evenly distributed layer of nasty chicken muck.

I've even thought about switching to the other side of the yard, but that would be a pain and I'm afraid I'd run the risk of having the entire yard be a nasty chicken disaster.

Has anyone else dealt with this kind of thing before? I'm close to scrapping the entire operation because I don't want to force animals to live in those conditions, but I wanted to see if anyone had some sage advice first.

 

[PirateGirl]

I'm sorry I don't have answers, as it's quite dry here, but maybe if you hop over to your state thread and jump to the last page someone who lives near you may have some advice. I know the PNW sees it's fair share of precipitation, so you can't be the only one that has issues.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/find-your-states-thread.270925/

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

I recently referred to my run and yard as “The Bog of Eternal Stench. (Labyrinth)” Not so much for the smell but the lovely sounds it makes as you attempt to slog through it.
I shoveled the coop shavings out into the run and the chickens spread them out pretty good. I’ve gotten more rain and snow since then and although the shavings are now wet and packed down they are holding the mud down.
I’ve added peat moss to the run in the soggier areas. (It does the cornstarch on water trick. Very neat.) Once the water dries up the peat moss gets mixed in.
Pine pellets for horse stalls can also be used. They swell up and then fall apart when they dry.
You may need to keep adding till you find what works.

 

[Hyroler]

gets some crushed concrete its called road base.spread it about 2 inches thick across yard.it will pack down into soil and give you solid ground then you can cover with woodchips or whatever you prefer.crush concrete is cheap and contains rocks,sand and small pieces of concrete it really works well for stiffening up muddy topsoil.

 

[dunnmom]

You may have some options. We ended up moving our coop and run to another part of our lot, because we unwittingly built it on a flood plane. Our run did the same that yours is doing. We had other options, such as covering our run, sandbagging (to keep water from running into it), digging a trench, or building up soil to elevate it, etc. Moving it, and filling it with construction sand was the easiest option for us. Regardless, if you have a lot of rain and humidity, the poop will stay wet longer and stink more.

 

[dunnmom]

I recently referred to my run and yard as “The Bog of Eternal Stench. (Labyrinth)” Not so much for the smell but the lovely sounds it makes as you attempt to slog through it.
I shoveled the coop shavings out into the run and the chickens spread them out pretty good. I’ve gotten more rain and snow since then and although the shavings are now wet and packed down they are holding the mud down.
I’ve added peat moss to the run in the soggier areas. (It does the cornstarch on water trick. Very neat.) Once the water dries up the peat moss gets mixed in.
Pine pellets for horse stalls can also be used. They swell up and then fall apart when they dry.
You may need to keep adding till you find what works.

Love the movie reference! Made me laugh to think of a muddy run as the bog, especially with the sound effects.

 

[Spartan22]

I had somewhat the same problem with you couple of years ago since we had so much rain for couple of years, half of my run was roofed covered and half wasn’t. I had the mistake of using straw that just disgustingly rotted and became cushiony muck with poo, since it absorbed all the rain that season trying to prevent the chicken getting sick drinking the disgusting muck water puddles.

I temporarily closed off that part of run and took off all the 6 inches of compacted muck straw and pineshavings, distributed it around the base of my property privet hedges and sprinkled them with granulated lime to neutralized the odor. I limed the closed off run and back filled it with construction sand and gravel, that improved the drainage then I fill it up with 3 inches of shavings. I’ve finished roofing the entire area with clear corrugated roof. Never had the same problem again, I make sure I replace the semi composted pine shavings every 6 months and use it around my hedges as mulch.

 

[Celie]

I live in SE Louisiana and we get a lot of rain here. What we found worked best for us is to raise the ground area, higher than the surrounding yard and build the run with a 2x12 bottom wall around the entire coup and run. Filled it with sand to the top of the boards and have no trouble with rain, the rain washes the sand and drains quickly. It works well in our very rainy area.

 

[4 ever Orpington]

Hi all.

I have a very small front yard and decided to dedicate half of it to three chickens. Their area is about 150 square feet. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so we get an intense amount of rain. Half of the chicken run is covered with a tarp, but the other half is not. The half that isn't is a disgusting, smelly, sopping, soggy, nasty place to be. It's the worst. No matter how much I turn the soil, how many different products I use on it, how many cedar shavings I put on it, it's still a swampy disgusting mess. For reasons I don't fully understand, that top couple inch layer of soil, maybe because it's mixed in with a bit of straw and organic matter, just holds onto water. If you step into it, the water and mud comes up over your feet.

I've considered tarping up the other half of their area but then I'm just the guy in the neighborhood with tarps over half his yard. I have one neighbor protesting the fact that I have chickens at all, even though they're legal, so I want to remain at least somewhat aesthetically acceptable.

I've also considered just shoveling off the top inch or two of muck, but then that begs the question: And do what with it? Then I just have a pile of nasty chicken muck instead of an evenly distributed layer of nasty chicken muck.

I've even thought about switching to the other side of the yard, but that would be a pain and I'm afraid I'd run the risk of having the entire yard be a nasty chicken disaster.

Has anyone else dealt with this kind of thing before? I'm close to scrapping the entire operation because I don't want to force animals to live in those conditions, but I wanted to see if anyone had some sage advice first.

 

[ClockRoach]

Shavings are a bad idea in such wet conditions. They'll soak up water and just hold into it. Sand is your best bet. It'll drain well and dry out much more quickly.

If you want to get serious about it, a layer of gravel covered by a layer of sand will give you the best drainage. You can dig out some of the soil you have now, but you also want this area to end up higher than the surroundings so that water doesn't pool.