Help stopping soil erosion.

[Toothpick]

Greetings everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve visited and posted so I hope you and your chicks are doing well.

I’m back with a question on stopping soil erosion in the run. I let my run get overrun..ha! So I got rid of the chickens and I’m redoing it. Going to make it better for the new chicks. But I need to stop the soil erosion.

You can see from the pics it’s pretty bad.

My thought is to build a retaining wall with bricks. Which should stop the soil wall from getting worse. But what about the ground in the run? Any ideas?
or simply build it up with yard waste?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Toothpick]

And here’s some before and after shots. So far anyway. I have to build the new fence and enclosure still.

 

[Acre4Me]

Erosion happens bc water is flowing through. Is this the case?

Or, did this happen bc chickens were penned in that area and scratched the heck out of it?

if the latter, then build up the area with yard waste -although wet leaves are slippery. You can put in a bunch of chipped wood that you can get from a tree company that removes trees. You could go with bark mulch, just make sure it’s natural and not dyed a color like red. Avoid cedar chips if possible.

since you are without chickens right now, you have a good chance to fix whatever needs fixing before the new batch arrives!

 

[Toothpick]

Erosion happens bc water is flowing through. Is this the case?

Or, did this happen bc chickens were penned in that area and scratched the heck out of it?

if the latter, then build up the area with yard waste -although wet leaves are slippery. You can put in a bunch of chipped wood that you can get from a tree company that removes trees. You could go with bark mulch, just make sure it’s natural and not dyed a color like red. Avoid cedar chips if possible.

since you are without chickens right now, you have a good chance to fix whatever needs fixing before the new batch arrives!

I’m mainly concerned about the wall getting worse.

But it happened because of water flow. The coop placement was a bad idea and I didn’t consider what would happen after the chickens pecked away all the grass. The water flows downhill right through the chicken run. So once the chicks pecked away all the grass then the rain just started washing the soil away.

So fixing the wall so it don’t get worse and the run is priority before I add new chickens.

 

[DobieLover]

I’m mainly concerned about the wall getting worse.

But it happened because of water flow. The coop placement was a bad idea and I didn’t consider what would happen after the chickens pecked away all the grass. The water flows downhill right through the chicken run. So once the chicks pecked away all the grass then the rain just started washing the soil away.

So fixing the wall so it don’t get worse and the run is priority before I add new chickens.

Can you have the coop moved to a better location? Water should never be running through the run.
Failing being able to move the coop you can install a wide deep French drain along the water flow path way and divert it around the run then build up the run with several truck loads of wood chips to get the level in there higher than the surrounding ground.
Will the new run have a solid roof?

 

[Toothpick]

Can you have the coop moved to a better location? Water should never be running through the run.
Failing being able to move the coop you can install a wide deep French drain along the water flow path way and divert it around the run then build up the run with several truck loads of wood chips to get the level in there higher than the surrounding ground.
Will the new run have a solid roof?

I CAN move it. But I would have to get someone out here with a flatbed to load it then move it to a new spot. It’s a 8x10 storage shed that I converted to a chicken coop. And the couple other locations I can move it are not ideal either. I’d rather not do that.

Building the French drain is an option. I hadn’t thought of that.

I can sort of see the water flow path that it’s made in the dirt. So a french drain should be easy enough. Since I know how the water flows.

 

[Acre4Me]

There is also the possibility that you can build UP the run with dirt, then chipped wood. You can use rocks/bricks/blocks to stabilize the dirt for when water runs past. I've seen this approach before on BYC. In one instance, the chicken keeper did this and then in the wet season, the run and coop were on a "peninsula" in the yard - there was still access via one area of high ground, and enough room to walk around the entire structure.

We have a "flat" yard, except it had lots of uneven areas, so water would flow and pool up in inconvenient places. So we brought in 102 tons of dirt (4 truckloads) and leveled out the back and side area around the barn, where we have the chicken coop/run and all the raised beds for the garden. We have also had to dig a trench, into which we will place 1-2 pipes underground, to allow water to be diverted away from the area. Its only a trench right now, but it helps a lot.

Good Luck.

 

[aart]

You can see from the pics it’s pretty bad.

Did you have any bedding in the run before?

 

[Toothpick]

Did you have any bedding in the run before?

Nope. I tried to throw the grass clipping in but they washed away.

The new run will be covered so that should help a little bit. But there is still runoff from the yard that makes it’s way through there.

 

[3KillerBs]

You need to first address the drainage problem through re-grading the area, digging water diversion ditches, and/or laying French Drain.

Then you need plenty of good, absorbent bedding -- wood chips would be the most stable but I believe that a mix of different materials and textures is, ultimately, the best. By plenty I'm talking a continual build up, beginning with raising the level to the level of the surrounding ground and then adding more in thin layers at intervals so that it ends up either remaining level no matter how much they chickens dig or how fast the composting reaction breaks it down or actually builds up above the level of the surrounding ground.