Disgusting chicken run

[coralanna]

I own a landscaping and heavy equipment company. I`m an expert at grade and water run off. In the spring raise your run area up and slop it away from building. trench around the run, 4 inches deep will do and make sure water runs out of the run and into the small ditches you made and let the ditches run away from the run area. Make sure the high point is in the middle so water runs off both sides and then away from the building. This will keep you drier quicker and all that slop will run down your ditches. Using a clay base will keep area firm and water will run easier, toping clay with p gravel or a gravel won`t hert either. hope this helps.

Alan

 

[patandchickens]

Really, if you get water puddling there temporarily during a thaw, it is waaaay worthwhile to chip a drainage channel into the snow/ice too. You can do this with a shovel and some elbow grease (and possibly vocabulary); but if it is a sunny area, oftentimes you can find something dark-colored to lay onto the area you need to cut thru and let the sun melt a channel for you. (I use an old rusty mower blade to lay in the part of my horse pasture where my "commuting path" between house and barn creates an ice berm that backs up meltwater behind it... once you get a drainage channel started, IME meltwater enlarges it pretty good on its own, especially if it is poo-laden meltwater)

Pat

 

[Michigan Transplant]

Any suggestions as to what I can do with this back pen? They are digging every inch of it up and I thing they are half way to China. I have tried putting rocks in there and they move them from one side of the pen to the other and just keep digging. I don't know what to do except let them have one pen with MUD. HELP PLEASE !!!!

 

[kannna]

Why don't you all cover your runs or a section of the run? then the snow and rain won't get in. Mine is covered with a heavy duty tarp held and screwed down with 2x4s. I also have heavy clear plastice sheets that roll up and tie like tent sides that I let down when it snows and rains to keep the girls area dry. I got straw bales to hold the sides down during nor'easters, blizzards, strong gales, and such. Stapling it or tying it down didn't work. It's quite dry in there. We had some mud over the summer and this was our solution.

 

[Michigan Transplant]

I used the tarps but with the high winds we had they blew off and are shredded now. This is my second tarp in about 4 months. Any other suggestions? With the winds that blew through here the past few weeks it's a wonder that there is anything still standing. There are so many limbs out of the trees it will take me a week or so to get them all cut up and hauled away. I am open to any and all ideas.

 

[naturababe]

i am planning on some kind of cover for the run, at least part of it but i don't think a tarp would work. the snow brought down out netting that we use to keep hawks out so a tarp would definitely have come down. we need something more permanent but i think it will have to wait till spring. i have some left over roof material but i'd rather try to get something that will let light through.