Ground cover for coop

[teriz1091]

Hello! City chicken owner here.
Our flock of 5 hens lives in a shed/pen makeshift coop that the previous tenants had built. The shed’s roughly 6x8’, with the south side open. The shed sits probably 4’ from the privacy fence along the south side of it, so they enclosed this as the outdoor area with chicken wire.

The downside to this is that the privacy fence blocks the sunlight from hitting their outdoor space. They get some sun coming in the shed, but the pen area does not dry currently. (The shed is dry, so they are not in constant moisture). Is there something I can put down to help with the nasty muck in the pen? I don’t like them walking around in wet mud.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Deep litter is best in a run. It's near impossible to grow anything in a run because chickens will dig it up.

 

[paintedChix]

To just get them up off the wet right now - pallets or hay or straw

To make a good run flooring for the future that birds & you will be happy with - DLM. There are many threads here on BYC that talk about DLM, better than myself.

Wood chips or mulch are a great way to start. Then put in leaves, lawn trimmings (no pesticides or herbicides), shredded paper/cardboard/bills (remove the plastic windows first), hay, straw, veggie/fruit scraps, garden trimmings etc. The main thing to understand and realize is that you need to have materials that are different sizes... This allows it to compost down - preventing overly wet, anaerobic slime that smells bad.

Some examples of our DLM over the years. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of any of our coops with wood chips/mulch in them. Didn't think to take any while putting them in/down...

DLM

 

[aart]

Is there a drainage issue(water puddling), or just absolutely never any sun hitting the area??
Any chance of moving their pen where there is some sun?

I have at least half a day sun.
My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are the best base material, IMO.

 

[teriz1091]

Is there a drainage issue(water puddling), or just absolutely never any sun hitting the area??
Any chance of moving their pen where there is some sun?

I have at least half a day sun.
My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are the best base material, IMO.

No puddling, the fence just blocks all the sun. Granted, we didn’t have them last summer, so maybe it gets more sun & dries out in the summertime?