Got myself in a predicament...

[chickenmomma16]

Hello my name is Jessica, and I am a victim of chicken math.

I just sold 5 (3 cockerels and 2 hens) and 4-5 more hens/pullets will be gone Friday. Then I have 3 more cockerels to find a home or freezer to go to. So my numbers will be going down to the correct number for my space

The biggest issue now is my run. We recently had a rain storm and it just pushed nasty poopy mud up through the wood chips I had laid down. It’s a nasty squishy and now slightly smelly mess. I over crowded myself, I know. How can I best fix this? Currently I have a covered run with about 4 inches of play wood chips about 3.5 years old. New stuff was added about a year ago.
I’m thinking my options are:
1: uncover the run and let the rain “rinse” the chips off (will that work?)
2: add more chips (I won’t have room with the bottom board to add anymore after this)
3: gut the run and replace the chips (can you imagine the weight? And what do I do with the chips?)

Its really wet out and I won’t be able to get a vehicle near the coop until probably April. So the gutting or adding chips will be exponentially more difficult.
Any other suggestions? Is there anything I can do?
Picture nice a fresh:

Now:

I gotta get my girls’ run situation better before I have health issues.

 

[azygous]

Unfortunately, there's no quick, easy fix. You can temporarily toss straw or dry leaves over the top of the mud, but to fix the problem, you have to fix the drainage.

To do that, you need to study where the water is coming from and how it's being prevented from going where it needs to go instead of being trapped in your run.

Creating drainage trenches around the outside of the run to divert the runoff, fixing the roof drainage so it doesn't end up inside the run, and creating a gravel substrate under your run bedding are all long term solutions. But I bet it wears you out just reading them, and all you feel like doing is taking a nap. I don't blame you.

Accept that you won't be able to do much while it's rainy season and until the run dries out. But now is a good time to get outside next time it rains and watch what the runoff is doing. This input into your brain by watching the flooding live while it happens will hopefully give you ideas and direction.

Or, as I suggested in a thread with the same problem a week ago, move.

 

[WthrLady]

Agree. For now add lighter materials not heavy wood chips for them to walk on and mulch themselves; straw, hay, pine shavings etc.

When you can address the draining issue by installing a trench or a simple french drain to redirect the flow.

If you cover your run that's less water to fall INTO the run and if you can direct that amount of water towards your downhill waterside that would be great.

IF you dig out the inside of the run to replace the subsoil to improve drainage, consider gravel with a layer of geocloth a little more gravel then your pine shavings.

Those larger chips take forever to breakdown and want to float rather than mulch. They do little to add to your deep mulch litter in the run and the larger pieces will always shift to the top as smaller pieces break off and settle down.

Good luck!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Is there anything in the litter except the chips? A deep litter type system needs a mix of materials in addition to chips, such as dried leaves, grass, garden trimmings, pine needles, etc.

Drainage is the other big thing. No matter how perfect your mix of litter materials, if the water has no place to drain off to, it'll just sit in the run. So I agree that you want to address drainage first and foremost. Then consider supplementing the litter with a more varied mix of materials.

Or, as I suggested in a thread with the same problem a week ago, move.

To be fair, flash flooding is quite different than what OP is having issues with . My lot is now as dry as can be (well, with the exception of 2 weeks of rain we have on the horizon... )

 

[bluemerle]

For right now, I'd recommend straw. It's cheap, easy to transport (break apart a bale & transport flakes with wheelbarrow or by hand, if necessary), easy to rake out the old and fluff back up the new. It's not maintenance-free but it'll get your chickens off the mud.

 

[MrFluffyandGirls]

when mine gets wet and muddy I flatten out cardboard boxes and layer over the top, buy a few blocks of fresh pine chips from tractor supply to spread all over the top and it's good as new until the next rain. The chickens turn the cardboard to shreds scratching around and it mixes well with the chips and every spring and fall I shovel it into low places on my property or can use as flower fertilizer.

 

[aart]

Definitely look at drainage issues.
I see a puddle outside run, is that seeping inside?
Any way to trench that puddle away from run?
If you could get run to drain out, taking cover off might help wash some muck away.

My chip pile is about 300 feet away from run, one wheel barrow full at a time works.

 

[chickenmomma16]

Sorry for not responding sooner! I didn’t get notifications I was replied to!

Unfortunately, there's no quick, easy fix. You can temporarily toss straw or dry leaves over the top of the mud, but to fix the problem, you have to fix the drainage.

To do that, you need to study where the water is coming from and how it's being prevented from going where it needs to go instead of being trapped in your run.

Creating drainage trenches around the outside of the run to divert the runoff, fixing the roof drainage so it doesn't end up inside the run, and creating a gravel substrate under your run bedding are all long term solutions. But I bet it wears you out just reading them, and all you feel like doing is taking a nap. I don't blame you.

Accept that you won't be able to do much while it's rainy season and until the run dries out. But now is a good time to get outside next time it rains and watch what the runoff is doing. This input into your brain by watching the flooding live while it happens will hopefully give you ideas and direction.

Or, as I suggested in a thread with the same problem a week ago, move.

This is a RENTAL, and we were allowed to build our chicken coop here (owners request) and our plan is to move. Eventually. It probably won’t be for a few more years unfortunately, this is a good place to be able to save for our own place and we are FINALLY in a financial spot to do just that. I’m not afraid of hard work and yes even in the rain and mud. The most of the dread comes with having a 2 year old daughter tagging along and managing to make everything take 10x longer. And what do I do with the material inside once taken out?
I know where the most of the water comes from. So one thing that complicates my situation is we live right on a creek/water run off. When we have our rain, the creek jumps the bank in the neighbors pasture and it runs right behind our coop. A ditch runs the length of the pasture and does help some to redirect the water back into the creek but obviously not enough. About 1x a year the creek overflows severely and the chicken run is at it’s mercy (the house and out buildings are okay). See below for photos if your curious to see our current water situation.
The roof to our coop was unfortunately angled the wrong way. My husband did most of the work while I was at work and the run was originally going to be on the other side but he changed some things without my authorization. Oops. I’ll see if we can add a gutter to it to this summer to redirect the water.

Agree. For now add lighter materials not heavy wood chips for them to walk on and mulch themselves; straw, hay, pine shavings etc.

When you can address the draining issue by installing a trench or a simple french drain to redirect the flow.

If you cover your run that's less water to fall INTO the run and if you can direct that amount of water towards your downhill waterside that would be great.

IF you dig out the inside of the run to replace the subsoil to improve drainage, consider gravel with a layer of geocloth a little more gravel then your pine shavings.

Those larger chips take forever to breakdown and want to float rather than mulch. They do little to add to your deep mulch litter in the run and the larger pieces will always shift to the top as smaller pieces break off and settle down.

Good luck!

I can add some pine shavings to hopefully help the poop/mud issue temporarily.

Is there anything in the litter except the chips? A deep litter type system needs a mix of materials in addition to chips, such as dried leaves, grass, garden trimmings, pine needles, etc.

Drainage is the other big thing. No matter how perfect your mix of litter materials, if the water has no place to drain off to, it'll just sit in the run. So I agree that you want to address drainage first and foremost. Then consider supplementing the litter with a more varied mix of materials.



To be fair, flash flooding is quite different than what OP is having issues with . My lot is now as dry as can be (well, with the exception of 2 weeks of rain we have on the horizon... )

Just dirt and roughly 2 yards or chips in the run. See my first reply about my drainage woes and what I’m up against.

For right now, I'd recommend straw. It's cheap, easy to transport (break apart a bale & transport flakes with wheelbarrow or by hand, if necessary), easy to rake out the old and fluff back up the new. It's not maintenance-free but it'll get your chickens off the mud.

So is straw or wood shavings better in my situation? I heard straw can stink. Definitely want to lessen the stink!

Definitely look at drainage issues.
I see a puddle outside run, is that seeping inside?
Any way to trench that puddle away from run?
If you could get run to drain out, taking cover off might help wash some muck away.

My chip pile is about 300 feet away from run, one wheel barrow full at a time works.

The outside puddle does not sweep into the run NORMALLY. There is enough chips that it keeps the water from pooling inside. See my first reply about what I’m up against with water. Also, here are some more photos of my run/coop taken today.

Creek runs the length of the property in the front

 

[azygous]

Seeing your long view photos, I see your problem. You're living on what was once a deep lake where Indians canoed and fished, and I bet you can find arrowheads like crazy up in the surrounding woods.

But that doesn't help your problem. During the rainy season, that meadow tries to revert back to being a lake. Other than elevating everything, I don't see any solution. Trenching only works if you have enough slope to get water moving away. In your situation, it appears that your place is where water wants to end up.

You could create dikes with sandbags, and use a sump pump to pump accumulated water out of the chicken area. But it would only resurface since the water table is only an inch deep.

Perhaps you would do better to be raising ducks than chickens.

I apologize for not being any help and for being a wise-ass.

 

[rosemarythyme]

To OP: Oof that is a tough situation then. It was alluded to earlier, but I just went through something similar (except mine isn't a yearly occurrence): https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/yay-flooding.1342945/ Our situation resolved itself within 48 hours due to excellent soil drainage.

Best you can probably do is try to add enough material to help elevate the run floor a little higher than the rest of the surrounding land, just to provide a usable surface during the yearly flood. If you have more wood chips, you might have to wheelbarrow it over a bit at a time. And this is a longshot, but do you happen to have any bagged dry leaves (like maybe for a compost pile)? That's an easy mix-in that should help a little with the stink.