Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[featherhead007]

Personally, if one end is that wet, I would get some pallets, tear apart one or two to make the tops of the others solid, and put them in the wet corner/end so that the bedding doesn't get saturated. You want it to compost (so some moisture), but not to mold!

So, I would rake/hoe out - at least the wet end completely, and the dry end some (maybe 1/2, as you do want some 'starter' microbes for the deep litter method), put the pallets (with solid tops by adding extra boards in the spaces) down on the wet end, then top up all the bedding. You might have to trim a pallet so that they fit together inside the run based on the width.

New ramial chips are good - if they are really coarse, then a light coating of shavings on top.

Just my thoughts. Do what seems reasonable and practical to you - as what I am suggesting - on top of the roof now - is a lot of extra work. That said, long term it will probably make it easier on you and more comfortable for the chickens - with less extra shaving needed - in the future. I am constantly playing 'clean-up' in my uncovered run with all the rain we are having - and it is a LOT of work, and with the ducks and their wet evacuations, it just gets disgusting if I don't between them and the constant rain - especially in the area that I can't just willy-nilly add bedding due to the gate.

 

[lightm]

I'm a premium feather member now!!! I won the meat bird contest!

Congratulations!!

 

[RoyalChick]

Advice request - if anyone cares to opine I’d appreciate it:

Haul out and replace all the covered run floor litter material, or leave this and build it up even higher, to create a floor of litter - a forest floor essentially - deep enough and high enough to not get wet from below? Is that even possible to do, and is it safe for the chickens?

What’s in there now is wood (ramial) chips/ TSC large wood shavings, / collected leaves & twigs / chopped hemp / a little bit of rice hulls /whatnot added through the year.

Two corners of the covered run are getting consistently really wet. Only one corner is consistently dry. Partly due to the leaking roof I think, which I’m going to hopefully rectify (tarp underneath so that the leaks run off is DH-approved Plan A, Plan B is @bgmathteach’s idea to silicone seal all 240 screws, a difficult ladder-intensive but possibly effective solution).

I’m pretty sure a lot of the water is from the ground below not draining well. We’ve had a serious amount of rain here in the northeast exacerbating this situation. In winter any surface water flows on top of the frozen ground too. Today after a rainy spell I saw standing water just outside the run near one of the corners.

Last winter whenever the snow melted some, I would sometimes see the litter getting damp, and digging down some I could see water. I’d add more stuff on top to keep everyone dry, also because when it got cold again the wet stuff would freeze up hard.

My usual plan every year has been to hoe out the litter in the Fall, and replace a lot of it and add as the year goes on. It does make great mulch.

This summer one corner has been sprouting mushrooms, I think the ramial chips I used are old and perfect mushroom material, and this concerns me so I’ve been raking them out when I spot them. I don’t want to be growing mold! Basically the litter is composting before my eyes. This is what a forest floor does. Could I or should I build or not build on this?

Seems to me also it’s a good idea to not have chickens potentially scratching around in years and years of accumulated poop that for a large part of the run can’t really wash away and be exposed to good sunlight? Would poop-borne diseases be concentrating? This run goes from nice dry spots to the wet composted spots.

I have no problem with the time & labor of hoeing it out and putting the great mulch on the gardens and blueberries. I recall this is what @rural mouse did this year. It’s a big job but do-able over a few days, did it last year and the year before. I also can buy or haul as much replacement litter I need to make a pretty deep litter floor. I will look for newer ramial chips if I use them (more than a year old but not growing weeds already).

What would you all do?

I basically let stuff build up higher and higher and only dig it out when I actually need a bucket to put around a plant, feed the roses etc.
Most of mine is too dry so it doesn't compost it sort of degrades in a dry way. But I do have a couple of wet corners - I think they relate to the overflow pipe of a drywell and the slope feeds that water right into one corner.
In the wet corner I find everything rots down into nice compost.
I think it is important to try and use grading to keep outside water from coming in - put a berm around the area to direct water away - and to help it flow out again so it doesn't sit there.
If it really is a high water table (ie water coming up from below) then I think you may want to raise the area a bit. I see @bgmathteach suggests a pallet. You could even use a bunch of logs or something like that just to get the floor they walk on above the standing water.

 

[featherhead007]

Sea Raven? (Notice the name of the boat)!

 

[rural mouse]

Advice request - if anyone cares to opine I’d appreciate it:

Haul out and replace all the covered run floor litter material, or leave this and build it up even higher, to create a floor of litter - a forest floor essentially - deep enough and high enough to not get wet from below? Is that even possible to do, and is it safe for the chickens?

What’s in there now is wood (ramial) chips/ TSC large wood shavings, / collected leaves & twigs / chopped hemp / a little bit of rice hulls /whatnot added through the year.

Two corners of the covered run are getting consistently really wet. Only one corner is consistently dry. Partly due to the leaking roof I think, which I’m going to hopefully rectify (tarp underneath so that the leaks run off is DH-approved Plan A, Plan B is @bgmathteach’s idea to silicone seal all 240 screws, a difficult ladder-intensive but possibly effective solution).

I’m pretty sure a lot of the water is from the ground below not draining well. We’ve had a serious amount of rain here in the northeast exacerbating this situation. In winter any surface water flows on top of the frozen ground too. Today after a rainy spell I saw standing water just outside the run near one of the corners.

Last winter whenever the snow melted some, I would sometimes see the litter getting damp, and digging down some I could see water. I’d add more stuff on top to keep everyone dry, also because when it got cold again the wet stuff would freeze up hard.

My usual plan every year has been to hoe out the litter in the Fall, and replace a lot of it and add as the year goes on. It does make great mulch.

This summer one corner has been sprouting mushrooms, I think the ramial chips I used are old and perfect mushroom material, and this concerns me so I’ve been raking them out when I spot them. I don’t want to be growing mold! Basically the litter is composting before my eyes. This is what a forest floor does. Could I or should I build or not build on this?

Seems to me also it’s a good idea to not have chickens potentially scratching around in years and years of accumulated poop that for a large part of the run can’t really wash away and be exposed to good sunlight? Would poop-borne diseases be concentrating? This run goes from nice dry spots to the wet composted spots.

I have no problem with the time & labor of hoeing it out and putting the great mulch on the gardens and blueberries. I recall this is what @rural mouse did this year. It’s a big job but do-able over a few days, did it last year and the year before. I also can buy or haul as much replacement litter I need to make a pretty deep litter floor. I will look for newer ramial chips if I use them (more than a year old but not growing weeds already).

What would you all do?

Personally.....rake/dig it out and replace. Compost the old stuff and lay it in the garden / around the berry bushes for the winter.

I suspect that lack of clean out is part of what makes avian flu so problematic for domestic fowl and not so much for migratory. They shift the ground they're on so there's time for it to get "clean". Obviously this is NOT an educated virologist guess on my part.

If you opt to clean it out and start the deep litter again, would it be possible to lay sand and possibly pavers (or the like) in the areas where water likes to accumulate? Something to assist with the drainage....maybe dig some sort of "drainage ditch" leading water away from the run?

I definitely like the idea of some sort of roof fix. Some sort of rain barrel/ bird waterer/ gutter system to help contain/ remove the wet from the ground.

Deep litter produces heat as it composts, helping warm the birds. It does need a bit of moisture to assist the process, but their poop is usually enough to provide that. Frozen litter halts the composting process which removes the heating benefits.



The garden I spread last year's litter on has done odd things this summer (and needs more compost: next spring). The green beans, corn, and zucchini did absolutely nothing. The summer squash has produced 4 (the first over a foot long and at least a handspan wide before I realized it was there). I just picked the other 3, and have several more blooms. The cherry tomato did nothing.....and just exploded. It's now blooming and branches into about a 3-3.5 foot diameter. I also discovered a SINGLE dill weed stem. Meanwhile, nothing from the cucumbers. I found borage and sage seeds. The sage did nothing and the borage exploded. I don't know what to do with it (or when), so am leaving the blooms for the last few migrating hummingbirds and the lingering bees. There's a slight chance of frost next week, so.....going to have to rig some sort of sheet to protect the tomato and the squash (not next to each other).

I HIGHLY recommend utilizing the compost inspite of the weirdness in my garden this year.

Potholder they're on is 8x8, and they're little compared to the 1st one.


Just had another thought: rake it into piles away from the wet zones. Add in the drainage stuff. Let the chickens spread it out again (they truly do NOT like heaps). When I add new layers to the coop, I dump it in the middle. The birds come pick through it, spreading and mixing it when they do.

 

[bgmathteach]

If you opt to clean it out and start the deep litter again, would it be possible to lay sand and possibly pavers (or the like) in the areas where water likes to accumulate? Something to assist with the drainage....maybe dig some sort of "drainage ditch" leading water away from the run?

Yes, 100% agree with this, and with @RoyalChick 's suggestion. My pallet idea was with the thought that it would be hard to effectively dig in then through/under the pen/pen wall to create an effective drainage ditch/french drain. But with the standing water at times, and the mushrooms, it sounds like it is just too wet and you will get (or already have) mold, and that can be dangerous to the chickens. If you are able to either get above the water (with pallets or logs), or drain it away, that would be/should be the goal, I think.

[Just an fyi: mushrooms are fungi, not mold, and as such are not necessarily bad - depends on the variety - but the moisture they need indicates that it is too wet, imho, in that area.]

 

[featherhead007]

We still have those stick tight poultry fleas. I found some behind Dakota’s ears.
Disgusting . I’m going to have to treat every single bird with Vaseline/Permethrin mixture, as they get very uncomfortable when they have fleas. (Egg production drops off too) I hate those things, those putrid bugs!

 

[featherhead007]

“Help, help. I have fleas. I’m sorry but I can’t help it when I’m out there in the yard.
Daddy won’t hold me safe, if I have those things on me! Oops here comes daddy, gotta go!”

 

[RoyalChick]

Yes, 100% agree with this, and with @RoyalChick 's suggestion. My pallet idea was with the thought that it would be hard to effectively dig in then through/under the pen/pen wall to create an effective drainage ditch/french drain. But with the standing water at times, and the mushrooms, it sounds like it is just too wet and you will get (or already have) mold, and that can be dangerous to the chickens. If you are able to either get above the water (with pallets or logs), or drain it away, that would be/should be the goal, I think.

[Just an fyi: mushrooms are fungi, not mold, and as such are not necessarily bad - depends on the variety - but the moisture they need indicates that it is too wet, imho, in that area.]

Finding a way to drain the standing water by digging a ditch (it doesn’t take much) and stopping new water coming in would be my first priorities.

 

[Ponypoor]

My name is Winnie, but everyone calls me Pooh.
I think I am very pretty. Don’t you agree?
View attachment 3634906

Yes and you are a sweetie pie too